benperkins
12-19-2001, 1:52pm
15 years ago I saw a Cartoon of a book called Lord Of The Rings, 8 years ago I actually read the book, an hour ago I saw the live action movie! Was it worth the Waite? Read on to find out.
The Story
If you are unfamiliar with the story its that long ago in a land called Middle Earth, A Evil Demi God called Sauron
forged a ring of power with which he seeked to rule Middle Earth. Long story short he was defeated by Prince Isildur who took the ring, which he then lost while trying to swim a river. It ended up in the possession of a Hobbit named Smeagol, who became a horrible smiley creature named Gollum, he lost the ring and it was found by another Hobbit by the Name of Bilbo Baggins, who in turn gives it to his nephew Frodo Baggins, who finding out that the ring belongs to Sauron sets out to destroy it.
The story sticks closely to the book, with a few alterations like a character change here and there, and some new scenes, but all this makes the film better. In fact I wasn’t disappointed that ANYTHING was taken out!
Actors
Most of the cast was spot on! Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Viggo Mortensen and Chrisopther Lee where excellent in their roles. Wood played a very convincing Frodo, who you really felt for on his quest to destroy the ring. Mortensen is the only actor who managed to make me LIKE Aragon (The cartoon one was poor) and he gave a believable performance to boot. Mckellen must get a supporting actor award for Gandelf, giving the best performance of the movie! Lee was just evil as Suraman the fallen wizard, and his scenes with Mckellen was unbelievable!
I was surprised with Sean Bean as Boromir. Bean is like me from Sheffield and I've never liked his acting (Even in Goldeneye) but this movie changed my entire option about him, Boromir in the Book, Cartoon and BBC radio play was a very uninteresting Character who I basically never liked, but Beans performance gave him a new edge. If you see the movie you'll know why I cried at the end.
Also Merry and Pipin where funny, I really enjoyed the time that they where on screen.
I enjoyed most of the other performances apart from The guy who plays an King of Elves in the Lothorian scenes, he was quite wooden.
And watch out for the Nazgul, they where scary and Sauron himself was amazing. Okay they weren’t changeling parts but they had great screen presence
Visual Effects
Star Wars eat your hart out! Man they are amazing!!!
The opening scene along has Thousands of Warriors charging over a large battlefield, was like watching a documentary of a real battle, not a visual effect. It was *That* believable.
The completely computer generated Characters made Jar Jar Binks look as if he was made on a pocket Calculator! The Cave Troll in the mines of Moria looked as if it was a life like puppet. Another CG Monster was the Balrog. I was looking forward to seeing it and it lived up to the Hype, but it wasn’t better than the hype like I wanted it to lol. I was also impressed with the Squid like Watcher in The water.
But It was Gollum that blew me away. That was Computer animation wasn’t it? I mean I thought it was a real actor!!! :shocked:
Complaints
Not many, I guess I was a little disappointed that a since from the Trailer was completely cut, The Special effects during the Mirror scene where a little crappy and Lurtz a Character invented for the film with not one but two action figures ended up being the movies Darth Maul, i.e. hyped up then only in the move for less than 10 minuets (and the Movies nearly 3 hours long!)
Overall
Well I guess Tomb Raider drops to number 2 in my favourite movie list. This Movie rocked the planet!!!! I have to thank the director Peter Jackson for giving me 2 hours 55 minuets of pure adventure, that didn’t just live up to the hype but was better than anything that the marketing department of New Line could say about it! I believed it would be a great movie, but I NEVER expected it to be this good!
Just bring on Christmas 2002 and The Two Towers is all I have to say!
The Story
If you are unfamiliar with the story its that long ago in a land called Middle Earth, A Evil Demi God called Sauron
forged a ring of power with which he seeked to rule Middle Earth. Long story short he was defeated by Prince Isildur who took the ring, which he then lost while trying to swim a river. It ended up in the possession of a Hobbit named Smeagol, who became a horrible smiley creature named Gollum, he lost the ring and it was found by another Hobbit by the Name of Bilbo Baggins, who in turn gives it to his nephew Frodo Baggins, who finding out that the ring belongs to Sauron sets out to destroy it.
The story sticks closely to the book, with a few alterations like a character change here and there, and some new scenes, but all this makes the film better. In fact I wasn’t disappointed that ANYTHING was taken out!
Actors
Most of the cast was spot on! Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Viggo Mortensen and Chrisopther Lee where excellent in their roles. Wood played a very convincing Frodo, who you really felt for on his quest to destroy the ring. Mortensen is the only actor who managed to make me LIKE Aragon (The cartoon one was poor) and he gave a believable performance to boot. Mckellen must get a supporting actor award for Gandelf, giving the best performance of the movie! Lee was just evil as Suraman the fallen wizard, and his scenes with Mckellen was unbelievable!
I was surprised with Sean Bean as Boromir. Bean is like me from Sheffield and I've never liked his acting (Even in Goldeneye) but this movie changed my entire option about him, Boromir in the Book, Cartoon and BBC radio play was a very uninteresting Character who I basically never liked, but Beans performance gave him a new edge. If you see the movie you'll know why I cried at the end.
Also Merry and Pipin where funny, I really enjoyed the time that they where on screen.
I enjoyed most of the other performances apart from The guy who plays an King of Elves in the Lothorian scenes, he was quite wooden.
And watch out for the Nazgul, they where scary and Sauron himself was amazing. Okay they weren’t changeling parts but they had great screen presence
Visual Effects
Star Wars eat your hart out! Man they are amazing!!!
The opening scene along has Thousands of Warriors charging over a large battlefield, was like watching a documentary of a real battle, not a visual effect. It was *That* believable.
The completely computer generated Characters made Jar Jar Binks look as if he was made on a pocket Calculator! The Cave Troll in the mines of Moria looked as if it was a life like puppet. Another CG Monster was the Balrog. I was looking forward to seeing it and it lived up to the Hype, but it wasn’t better than the hype like I wanted it to lol. I was also impressed with the Squid like Watcher in The water.
But It was Gollum that blew me away. That was Computer animation wasn’t it? I mean I thought it was a real actor!!! :shocked:
Complaints
Not many, I guess I was a little disappointed that a since from the Trailer was completely cut, The Special effects during the Mirror scene where a little crappy and Lurtz a Character invented for the film with not one but two action figures ended up being the movies Darth Maul, i.e. hyped up then only in the move for less than 10 minuets (and the Movies nearly 3 hours long!)
Overall
Well I guess Tomb Raider drops to number 2 in my favourite movie list. This Movie rocked the planet!!!! I have to thank the director Peter Jackson for giving me 2 hours 55 minuets of pure adventure, that didn’t just live up to the hype but was better than anything that the marketing department of New Line could say about it! I believed it would be a great movie, but I NEVER expected it to be this good!
Just bring on Christmas 2002 and The Two Towers is all I have to say!