The Fellowship of the Ring : Get Ready to Ride out East

Peter Jackson's adaptation of the mighty Fellowship of the Ring was absolutely minded blowing to me, someone who had not (at the time of original viewing) read the book. I was astounded by the events on screen and after the first twenty minutes, I was in love with the movie. Not once did the storytelling get slow or boring to me, and not once did I know what would happen next. I was affixed to the edge of my seat - not once did I get up to go to the toilet during the long, 3 hour film (even though I really had to after the flooding of the Ford, he he).

Upon reading the book afterwards, I was a little disappointed however. Tom Bombadil was left out, a fun character on the pages of the book and how Merry and Pippin came to join Frodo and Sam had changed - for the worse, in my opinion. The film also made very short work of hugely important scenes like the Council of Elrond and summed up about five thousand years of history in the two-minute prologue.

But after further thought, I realized that these things were necessary improvements from book to screen. None of Jackson's changes were terribly awful or deviations from Tolkien's vision, rather the essence of what was going on remained perfectly. Even changes like Arwen coming to Frodo's rescue at the Ford of Bruinen was, in its way, fitting. I cannot applaud Jackson enough for his expert storytelling/adaptive abilities. Score: 10/10

Dialogue

Since most of the dialogue in the movie was actually Tolkien's, I can't give the writing crew all of the credit in this department. However, Jackson, Boyens and Walsh deserve all the kudos in the world for bringing the book's lines to the screen appropriately, boldly and with excellent choices of what and what not to keep.

The more original lines were also terrific. Barely once in the movie did I feel that someone said something out of character or irrelevant or non-fitting. I loved that the writing team put some humor in, from a lot of Gimli's lines and Merry & Pippin's cleaning dishes at the start to Frodo and Sam's dialogue in the Green Dragon early in the Extended Edition version (I will speak more about the EE later). The injection of added romance into the movie between Aragorn and Arwen was a little irritating, but at no point did it get tedious or feel out of place. Score: 9/10

Characters & Acting

The cast in Fellowship... was, for the lack of a more applicable word, perfect. Wood's Frodo was not the world's best acting, but he always looked the part and his chemistry with the other actors, namely the hobbits, was terrific to watch. McKellen's Gandalf was absolute perfection to watch and nowhere on Earth could a better, more fatherly/funny/wise Gandalf be found (I know that Christopher Lee had Tolkien's blessing to play Gandalf, but Tolkien never saw McKellen's).

Mortensen played the perfect semi-brooding, unsure but driven movie version of Aragorn and Rhys-Davies, I must say, really got Gimli's accent, voice and personality down. Astin, playing the ever-loyal Sam was yet another standout. Others like Bloom's Legolas and Tyler's Arwen were good, but not absolutely spectacular as those previously mentioned.
The much more minor characters in the film are also brilliantly casted, such as Blanchett's amazingly beautiful, glowing Galadriel and Weaving's wise, benevolent Elrond. Even those unlikable characters: Lee's Saruman and Lawrence Makoare's Lurtz (another made-up but perfectly fitting character) were played to the T. Score: 8/10 (points lost for good but unspectacular acting by some)

Visuals

Just wow. Really, holy crap. WETA Design was absolutely spectacular in their work on Fellowship... making the awful but brilliant Orc and Uruk prosthetics, phenomenal Gondorian armor and their amazing arsenal of weaponry, each sword being different in look and "personality". Richard Taylor (head of WETA), although a boring and tedious person to listen to in interviews, is an absolute genius in his field. Set design was another huge plus in the movie, with forced perspective sets like Gandalf's cart, Bag End, Moria and Elrond's council balcony area looking great.

WETA Digital was also brilliant (and also headed by Taylor), making great effects shots like Sauron's annihilation in the prologue, the Ring's lettering effects, Gandalf's "reveal" in Bag End and the slight outline of the Ring's invisibility kicking in.
I can't commend Jackson & Co. enough for bringing in John Howe and Alan Lee, whose Tolkien art is near perfection in my eyes. Their leadership of the entire design team is clear and tangible throughout the movie.

It is absolutely clear how much work went into the visuals of Fellowship..., mainly by the WETA team and I cannot imagine what the movie would be like without it. Score: 10/10

Audio & Soundtrack

Although there are some noticeable audio flaws in the movie, on the whole it is excellent. The digital hisses on Nazgul voices and sound effects of everything from Balrog whips to Ring invisibility is nothing short of impressive.

The soundtrack, however, is the big hoo-hah of the movie's audio. Wow, holy crap, huzzah the soundtrack is GREAT! The wonderful, epic Rings theme is just absolutely perfect. The sad, melodic "Breaking of the Fellowship" track is beautiful. The flute-filled, happy, serene "Concerning Hobbits" is about the most fitting music for any movie environment I've ever heard and the "Amon Hen" drums and trumpets bring to my mind visions of countless Uruk fighters thundering along the banks of the mighty Anduin. Shore is as deserving an Oscar winner as any I've ever seen. Score: 9/10

The Extended Edition

For the ...Rings movies, this section is a must. About a year after the cinematic release of the movies, Extended Editions (EEs) were released on both video and DVD boxed sets of 4 discs. The Fellowship... one was no different; indeed being my personal favorite.

The scenes cut from the cinematic version were necessary, I will admit this. However, I would have liked to see a bit more in the EE version of Fellowship.... I could've done with a small nod to Bombadil and the Barrow-Wights in this version, even if it's just a feathered hat seen bobbing through the woods by the hobbits, which run away at its sight (as originally planned). Again, parts like the meeting of Wood Elves by Frodo and Sam on their way to Bree are nice to see, but ultimately not as important as other things left out.

An extended Council of Elrond scene, if only by a few minutes of exposition, would have been nice as the only ones to buy an EE of the movies would surely be interested in that kind of stuff. The inclusion of Galadriel's elvish ring Nenya was nice but that, I believe should have been in the cinematic release anyway.

The special features on this disk I found, at the time I first watched it, to be incredibly interesting. I loved seeing the actors out of character, just being themselves and talking about this amazing time they had with one another and the audio commentary by the actors was an absolute delight to watch, with the four Hobbits' banter and anecdotes being the highlight. Even the EE's decorated box and interactive menu were awesome. The only thing I did not enjoy about this was that it split the movie onto two separate discs so one couldn't watch it all the way through. Score: 8/10

Final score (average): 9/10

Well done Jackson & Team, well done indeed.