You don’t need to read my review to know that this was a phenomenal film. So let me just give you my thoughts on it.
First off, the movie experience got better each time I saw it, the third time being the best. I now realize how terrible the sound problems were the first two times I saw it. Whole sections of dialogue were incomprehensible and I thought the Ringwraiths were just hissing when they were saying things like “Surrender the halfling, She-Elf.” The third time, Gandalf’s fireworks actually flew past and exploded “behind” me.
On the other hand, the third time around I was also able to look at the film from a visual effects point of view. The first two times, I didn’t see any special effects; I assumed it was all real. The third time, my 3D artist eye starting picking out the blue screen work. This isn’t a critique of the film; it’s just a habit I wish I could turn off at will.
When the film first began, I really couldn’t mentally accept that I was really watching The Fellowship of the Ring. My eyes rejected everything for the first 20 minutes and I felt a strange disappointment. I was expecting something else, but I couldn’t say what. I guess I expected to be weeping with joy at that point, but somehow I was not.
I still can’t quite like the prologue entirely. It was necessary, accurate and well done, but something about the soft focus and desaturated colors rubbed me the wrong way. That is the only section of the film I felt uncomfortable with. From that moment on, I could hardly believe my eyes.
The Shire was transplanted directly out of classic Alan Lee paintings. It could not have been more perfect. Bilbo’s door and his house were so astonishingly like the images I had come to accept. When I saw Gandalf examine the map on Bilbo’s table that was slavishly duplicated from the inside cover of The Hobbit, I knew that the rest of the movie would be saturated with exquisite detail. I began to think “We have no right to see this. We don’t deserve a film this good.”
All of my initial fears were swept away one by one:
1. We would see Sauron onscreen and he would have a more prominent role, along the lines of Darth Vader in Star Wars. Wrong. Jackson wisely built up Saruman as a more tangible villain and allowed Sauron to remain the “great lidless eye, wreathed in flame” that we all know and love. I had previously had visions of a dark, black robed sorcerer commanding his forces from Mordor.
2. Saruman would gengineer the Uruk-hai in a really cheesy Dr. Frankenstein kind of way. I had been led to believe that we’d see “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”-style incubation pods.
3. Arwen would suck. Liv Tyler carried this role with such a maturity and dignity that I forgave any story changes for the sake of a more “believable” romance sub-plot.
4. The forced perspective in-camera tricks and the blue screen would be painfully obvious. When Gandalf confronts Bilbo before he takes off and the scene with the fellowship entering Dwarrowdelf (”I think we can risk a little more light.”) were the only scenes where I noticed any kind of trickery. Otherwise I just assumed all of the actors were really that tall. Scratch that, I just believed in Hobbits and Dwarves.
Casting-wise, I thought it was perfect. Ian McKellan and Elijah Wood simply vanished into their characters. Strangely enough, the one actor I didn’t believe in was Elrond. It was still Hugo Weaving to me. Whenever he does an American accent, he comes off sounding very clipped and precise, just like he did in The Matrix. His distinctive speech pattern was enough to make me doubt.
What else can I say… In no particular order or cohesion:
The whole Gandalf and Saruman thing. Brilliant! I’m so glad that we actually see their interactions, Gandalf’s imprisonment and his escape on the eagle. That is when I first shed tears: seeing him riding that eagle over the mountains.
The mines of Moria sequence. Better than most entire films. Could the Balin’s Tomb scene have been more perfect? I don’t think so. When Gandalf is reading the book I felt like some kind of incantation had been recited that translated the text of the novel directly on to the screen. For me, that small moment was so perfect that I forsook anything I had imagined before and replaced it with what I saw on film.
This was the first time I ever cared about Boromir. He had always been a Judas character, especially in Bakshi’s film. I just knew he was bad from the beginning and he never did anything to make me sympathize with him. But the Boromir of Jackson’s film is complex. He is filled with desire to see Gondor returned to its former glory. This Boromir taught the hobbits to fight with swords. This Boromir was human.
A scene that really moved me and made me consider something I had never thought of before was the one between Bilbo and Frodo, before the fellowship sets off from Rivendell. Bilbo makes a snatch at the ring and breaks down in tears. Suddenly I was aware of the awesome guilt and burden Bilbo must have felt. To have uncovered an artifact that would inevitably end the world for good or evil (best case scenario: the Elves abandon Middle-Earth) and to have treated it like a trinket for so many years. To know that he was sending his most beloved Frodo to certain death because he was now too old for the task. It broke my heart to see him weep. That was great storytelling and directing: a scene so layered and complex translated simply into an old man crying.
As the beginning of a trilogy, there were a lot of introductions and not a lot of character development. I didn’t have a problem with that. That is for the Two Towers to tackle. It really wouldn’t have made any sense to show the growing friendship between Gimli and Legolas in the first film. What good would it have done? We’re not supposed to care about them as much as we are Gandalf, Frodo and Sam. Think about it: in the next movie there is going to be a very tight focus on Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli as they pursue the Uruk-hai. Plenty of opportunity for exposition there when Jackson will need to fill up a lot of time.
Speaking of which, I was outraged that the film ended. I was ready to go straight in to the Two Towers. It’s only a year from now, but I can hardly stand it. Thankfully, Jackson has promised a pants-wetting DVD of The Fellowship of the Ring (in August, I think) that will have a lot of deleted scenes and other goodies.
I guess that’s all I have to say about it. I loved the film in a way I loved the original Star Wars trilogy. I feel like I have been spoiled, that no other film will measure up to the wonder I felt for those three hours.