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Not a whole heck of a lot in December... other than the obvious.
I'll give you my two cents worth. Mini review of The Lord of the Rings:
The Fellowship of the Ring, as I'm sure you'll get other extended reviews from
other contributors :).
"THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING"
Having been a fan for years of the series, my heart's been pumping ever
since I've heard about these films being made. What's more, I'd heard it
was being made by Peter "Dead Alive" Jackson. This was both a good
thing and a bad thing. On the one hand, I had yet to see a movie from him I
didn't like. On the other.... they were all extremely gory "B" movies (
Well... except for The Frighteners and Heavenly Creatures .) But as I kept
up on production news, the "B" movie fears were quickly washed away
with delight. Delight at the casting, delight at the effects in progress... I
could not wait!
I've had the misfortune of having read the books in the same year the
movie came out. This is the same problem I experienced with Harry Potter.
Don't get me wrong, I think that EVERYONE should read the book before
seeing any movies based on the book. That way your own imagination is
untainted by the director's vision. However, the dark side to that is that
you can see all the little liberties the director decided to take.
If you know your Lord of the Rings well ( or even "fairly" well... like me)
you'll notice some shocking changes. Changes like Arwen's over
involvement in rescuing Frodo from the Ringwraiths, for example. Like
Saruman's over involvement in the business of Mordor. And some weird
changes that don't make sense at all ... like saying that the Uruk-Hai are
bred from Orcs and Goblins ( Instead of Orcs and Human Stock... Because
anyone who really knows their Tolkien knows that Goblin is just a
derived elvish word for ORC ).
HOWEVER, every movie is based on a screenplay which is based on a
book, right? And as far as the imagery goes... This was Middle Earth. The
movie was beautiful to watch and let me tell you, I was transported to Middle
Earth as I never have been before. The casting was excellent ( even for
Arwen, despite the fact that she got more than 30 seconds of screen time)
and believable. And what things were rewritten, I found were made up by
what wasn't. The point and spirit of the story was still there.
So despite it's few failings when it comes to Tolkien lore, this film did
not over disappoint and was the best movie I've seen all year! It's true
that the 3 hour running time flew by... didn't feel like 3 hours at all.
It's also true that I plan to see it in theaters again before long.
P.S. Wait till you see the opening battle against Sauron!! Wow!
Stephane Morrell
Laurier CIM Group
MCSE,CCA
-Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, because you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup.
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