05/13/09 - The Lord of the Rings

The Lord of the Rings: Extended Edition (2003, 682 min)

This was something that I'd been wanting to do for a while now. With some time off and not much really to do, I decided now was a good time. All in all, this lasted around 12 hours.

Since the movies form one larger movie, I'll just put the whole plot here and not repeat it each time. The premise is that there is One Ring that is bound with the evil Lord Sauron. Destroying it in the fires of Mt. Doom, where it was forged, is the only way to destroy it and thus rid the world of this evil. The group set out to do this task is: the Hobbits Frodo Baggins (Elijah Wood), Sam Gamgee (Sean Astin), Peregrin "Pippin" Took (Billy Boyd), and Meriadoc "Merry" Brandybuck (Dominic Monaghan); the wizard Gandalf (Ian McKellan); the elf Legolas (Orlando Bloom); the dwarf Gimli (John Rhys-Davies); and men Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen) and Boromir (Sean Bean). Other prominent roles are: Arwen (Liv Tyler), the elf in love with Aragorn, Saruman (Christopher Lee), another prominent wizard and serving as Gandalf's opposite, and Bilbo Baggins (Ian Holm), Frodo's uncle who leaves the Shire and gives Frodo the ring for safekeeping. Hugo Weaving and Cate Blanchett play elves Elrond and Galadriel whose roles are prominent, but of less import to the main story.

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001, 208 min)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120737/

In the first installment of this trilogy we get the forming of this company that sets out to destroy the ring. However, at the end of the movie, Boromir has died and the fellowship has been scattered and broken. Frodo and Sam are going to Mordor and Mt. Doom alone, Pippin and Merry have been captured by Saruman's evil orcs, and Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli are hunting them down. Gandalf has been lost as well.

The best part about this movie is the iconic shots it contains. The evil Nazgûl, men destroyed and corrupted by their own rings and serving for Sauron, on horseback in this movie are tremendously scary - even scarier than they are later on their flying beasts. Perhaps this is because on a horse they are so much closer to the screen and feature more prominently. Regardless, these Ringwraiths serve as formidable foes in this movie. The orcs themselves seem mindless and stupid, yet nonetheless menacing, especially Saruman's creation Lurtz, a leader of the orcs and the one who brings down Boromir. The Balrog that takes out Gandalf is also quite terrifying with his monstrously huge nature and fire-whip (along with the fact that the thing takes out Gandalf, who, up to that point was the coolest character).

The character development for the first movie is okay. This is Boromir's shining movie so a lot of the development is spent making him be human (i.e. corrupted by the ring). He dies valiantly and somewhat redeems his selfish actions. Aragorn, shown to be the leader of Gondor (in exile) has some qualms with his bloodline's serving the Ring and being unable to destroy it. Though this is somewhat explored in this movie, it is not really touched in the later two. This is disappointing and this could've expanded Aragorn's character more.

Legolas proves to be probably the coolest non-Gandalf character and elves in general show themselves as essentially perfect. First, Legolas is a master archer but also proficient with daggers. His keen eyesight allows him to pick up on things that others won't. Subtle things like him standing on three foot deep snow instead of sinking in like the rest of the fellowship also makes him out to be cool. But the scenes that really highlight this are the action scenes where Legolas probably takes out as many people as everyone else combined. At one point he shoots down about seven orcs in the span of what seems like five seconds.

The ending of The Fellowship of the Ring is also the best ending of any of the movies. Focusing on Aragorn as he remarks how the fellowship has been destroyed and how little hope remains, he turns to Gimli and Legolas and says "Let's hunt some orc." While kind of corny, the line is still a booster to the negative tone of the last thirty minutes or so where everything has gone haywire fast. It leaves one with a sense of optimism for the other movies as you feel that all of these characters are down but not out.

Overall, I gave this film a 9/10. It's a great first installment with amazing imagery and great characters. Everything seems appropriately done and nothing seems out of place.

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002, 223 min)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0167261/

We pick up exactly where we left off in The Fellowship of the Ring. In this installment, Frodo and Sam continue towards Mt. Doom while also encountering Gollum (Andy Serkis) who they persuade to act as their guide. Captured by the men of Gondor, led by Faramir (David Wenham), Boromir's brother, the group must convince him to let them continue on their journey. The Two Towers themselves are those of Saruman and that of Sauron, each massing their own army of orcs which they will unleash on Rohan and Gondor respectively. Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli chase and eventually track down Merry and Pippin along with meeting up with Gandalf. Merry and Pippin befriend the Ent Treebeard (voiced by John Rhys-Davies) and they eventually attack Saruman's stronghold at Isengard. Aragorn and the others meet up with the people of Rohan led by King Théoden (Bernard Hill) who must flee to Helm's Deep to withstand a massive battle against 10,000 orcs. Gandalf recruits Théoden's nephew Éomer (Karl Urban) to help in this battle. Théoden's niece Éomer (Miranda Otto) proves herself a worthy warrior.

This movie is the worst of the series without a doubt. However, compared to almost any other movie, it's great. The problem is that it's the bridge between the great first and third movies. The scenery, imagery, landscape and all that remains great while the acting remains on par with what was seen in the first movie. Newcomers, like the people of Rohan and Gondor carry themselves in their roles well. I particularly liked Miranda Otto's performance as Éomer as she did a very convincing job as being torn between serving in the defense of Helm's Deep while also being in charge of the women and children along with her obvious love of Aragorn (who leads her on and is pretty much a total jerk to her).

Gandalf returns and continues to be one of the most amazing people in Middle Earth. Arriving at the nick of time to help his comrades at Helm's Deep, his force delivers the massive orc army the crushing blow. The Ents contribute to this and I feel that the Ents are portrayed very real to the books and in a overall great manner.

The main problems I have with this movie is that not much happens. While the synopsis part I've typed up seems massive, it's really just a bunch of people moving along and not as many meaningful scenes as there were in The Fellowship of the Ring. The ending itself is pretty good, but it doesn't have the emotional impact that the endings of the first or third movies have. I feel, however, that this is just the curse of being the second movie in the series.

Overall, I gave this film an 8/10. It's great, there's no doubt about it. It's just not as good as the first or the third. For not much happening in the movie, director Peter Jackson still manages to show a lot on screen and provide some good character development.

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003, 251 min)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0167260

We finally finish up this epic saga in this installment. Again, we pick up immediately where we left off in The Two Towers. Saruman is killed along with his assistant Gríma Wormtongue (Brad Dourif) who had been manipulating Théoden in The Two Towers. Following the discovery that Sauron will be attacking Minas Tirith in Gondor, Gandalf and Pippin head there where they eventually alert the others in Rohan to bring an army and prepare for war. Frodo, Sam and Gollum continue on their quest with Gollum growing increasingly manipulative and Frodo beginning to be swayed by the Ring and even banishing Sam due to this induced change in character. Aragorn, gaining the ancient sword Andúril of his bloodline that long ago cut off Sauron's hand, goes to enlist the Army of the Dead with Gimli and Legolas. The ancient Army, owing a debt for their betrayal of Gondor, are persuaded to fight on Aragorn's side so that they become free. Taking out part of Sauron's surprise attack they then join with Aragorn and the people of Rohan in the epic Battle of Pelennor Fields. The orcs and Sauron's army are eventually destroyed with Éowyn killing the Witch-king, the leader of the Nazgûl. Meanwhile, Gollum has led Frodo and Sam to the giant spider Shelob in hopes that she will kill them. Sam kills the spider but not before Frodo is poisoned and taken by orcs. Sam, having taken the Ring for fear that Frodo has died, goes to look for him and finds him and they continue on to Mt. Doom. Aragorn and his entire army have amassed outside the Black Gates to distract Sauron from Frodo who eventually arrives at Mt. Doom but is unable to overcome his own desires and throw the Ring into the fire. After a struggle with Gollum the Ring is somewhat accidentally thrown into the fire and Sauron's army is vanquished. The Eagles fly to rescue Frodo and Sam and we are treated to the various endings of the Hobbits.

As you can see from the "summary" above, lots happens in this movie. Battle after battle and important scene after important scene are shown for a whopping four-plus hours. It's truly a grandiose movie.

The acting itself is fine as before. No one really stands out. There's so much going on that no real development is given to one character that we haven't seen before. Frodo proves to be entirely to weak to throw the Ring in while Sam proves to be much more resilient than possibly ever imagined. In my opinion, Sam gets nowhere near the amount of credit he deserves for all the trouble he goes through and everything he puts up with concerning Gollum and Frodo.

Aragorn is, in my opinion, a somewhat disappointing figure. He never truly displays mastery leadership. Sure, there's moments where he leads his people, but he leads an Army of the Dead who are already dead and impossible to stop. Further still, he never has a jaw-droppingly awesome moment like Legolas (who takes out a mûmakil, one of the gigantic elephant-like creatures, all by himself in just about the most amazing way possible). While Aragorn does display mastery of a great deal of weapons, just about the coolest thing he does is take on all the Nazgûl way back in The Fellowship of the Ring. And I think the exploring of his fear of becoming the King is not fully explored (but heavily foreshadowed in The Fellowship of the Ring). And finally, he's a total jerk to Éowyn who clearly loves him. True, giving up Arwen (who gave up her immortality to be with him) would be a bigger jerk move, but he could at least tell this to Éowyn instead of leading her on like he does. Fortunately for her she finds Faramir who seems like a cool guy.

While I've focused on some negatives above, the movie is truly greater than the sum of its parts. It's gigantic in scale and just about everything else, but all these scenes are necessary. No time during the movie do you want it to speed along or anything (except possibly at the beginning while everything is setting up). Peter Jackson does a great job at flowing and meshing everything together.

Overall, I gave this film a 9/10. It's amazing, but not perfect. Jackson sums up the whole of the movie and provides an overall amazing conclusion to the entire series. Some little quirks and complaints spring up here and there, but they don't detract enough to make this movie one of the best ever, and probably the best fantasy movie ever.

The Lord of the Rings
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120737/
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0167261/
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0167260/

So what's my whole conclusion and thoughts on the movie as a whole after watching these Extended Editions back-to-back-to-back?

Well, for one, I think I've spoiled myself now. I don't know how else one can watch the series after doing this. It was an amazing experience and really was one long movie. I can't say how different it is watching the Extended Editions in one sitting to watching the theatrical cuts in one sitting, but if you have the longer versions, why not watch them?

Next, I haven't read the books in what seems like forever (I think around seven years) so I can't really compare them to the source material. Overall, they seemed to do a pretty good job at bringing Tolkien's world of Middle Earth to life.

Peter Jackson is clearly going to go down as a master of this "genre" whatever it may be defined as (however, one may argue that The Lord of the Rings - as a whole - doesn't really have much competition). The imagery and landscape and entire visual experience is almost surreal. The special effects are top-notch and many times don't even look fake, but like we are actually seeing these creatures sitting there with the actors.

One great thing, too, about the trilogy is that every actor seemed perfect for his role. I can't think of another trilogy where I could say that, but I honestly feel that it would be impossible to envision anyone else cast as one of the main characters. This is even more phenomenal because I had no idea who half of these people were before they starred in this series (Viggo Mortensen, for one, who pulls off an amazing Aragorn).

To watch these movies in one sitting is truly an experience. I recommend it to anyone that per chance finds this blog to at least attempt to do this in your lifetime (unless, of course, you hate The Lord of the Rings or something like that, but who in the world would that be?). I never thought sitting down for about twelve hours and watching three movies would ever be so enjoyable.