Must-See May Day #9: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)

One of the things I've always been curious about is the hatred that is given to the Hobbit series of films. I saw all 3 of them in theatres and, though they weren't mindblowing, I consider to be pretty good films. At worst, a 6, at best, an 8. My theory was, and still is, that the Lord of the Rings films were so amazing and ground-breaking that the Hobbit movies, being not quite as impressive, were seen as garbage by comparison. I'll have to re-watch the Hobbit movies at some point to test that theory, for having just seen The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) it seems rather likely, as this was an amazing movie. Starring Elijah Wood as Frodo Baggins, Ian McKellen as Gandalf the Grey, Sean Astin as Samwise Gamgee, Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn II Elessar, Billy Boyd as Peregrin "Pippin" Took, Dominic Monaghan as Meriadoc "Merry" Brandybuck, John Rhys-Davies as Gimli, Orlando Bloom as Legolas Greenleaf, Sean Bean as Boromir, Ian Holm as Bilbo Baggins, Liv Tyler as Arwen Undomiel, Cate Blanchett as Galadriel, Christopher Lee as Saruman the White, Hugo Weaving as Elrond and Andy Serkis as Gollum.

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)

The scale of this movie is by far the most impressive thing about it. This is a beautiful movie. The sweeping shots of New Zealand make the land of Middle Earth look stunning. I've always wanted to visit New Zealand, and this just sealed it for me. Even more impressive are the variety of locations on display here. We get valleys, snow-capped mountains, subterranean caves, desolate wastelands, and they all look remarkable. But, even better, and the thing that really surprised me, is the soundtrack. Holy crap, the soundtrack. This might just be my favourite score of the month so far. Every track was just so grand and adventurous, or deep and melancholy to suit the mood. It made the whole thing feel like such a grand adventure, which really it was, but goddamn, did this enhance everything in the best way possible. This is another one for the catalogue, and I hope the remaining films have such similar soundtracks, as this was like honey on the ears.

Elijah Wood as Frodo Baggins

This is a big cast, almost infuriatingly so. One of the things I was worried about going into this was all the names I'd have to learn. And, yeah, it was difficult. For the longest time I thought that Peregrin and Pippin were two different people, not just different names for the same person. The location names are all just a jumble in my head as well. Thankfully, the remainder of the cast are all so distinct and unique that it's very easy to remember their names and their stories. The acting is solid across the board. Elijah Wood does great as the wide-eyed hobbit off on an adventure, but he also does well in the darker moments in which Frodo is questioning everything. Ian McKellan is expectedly fantastic, as is Christopher Lee. Sean Bean was another one that delivered a predictably strong performance, along with Cate Blanchett and Hugo Weaving. This is just an A-list cast across the board, but the big surprise for me was Sean Astin as Samwise. I'd seen Astin in Stranger Things before now, but his performance here really got to me. His loyalty to Frodo and the Fellowship was so great to watch, and I'm interested to see what they do with him moving forward.

Sean Astin as Samwise Gamgee

The lore of this world is a fascinating one, and while I usually despise an opening montage set to narration, it is absolutely necessary here. If the entire story is set around this ring, it's important to establish how dangerous it is, and they succeed at this amazingly well. They do a fantastic job of showing us how the ring affects each and every person it comes into contact with, and the hushed whispers getting louder and louder the longer the camera holds on the ring is a fantastic touch. It's also impressive that while this opening movie covered so many differing locales, I can't help but feel that we've barely scratched the surface of Middle Earth so far. This movie does a great job of showing us the bigger picture, and getting across that Middle Earth is more than what we're seeing, hinting at just how important the outcome of this quest is. It's really subtle, but very effective.

The One Ring

Alright, block your ears, because this isn't a perfect movie and I do have a few criticisms. The first is that you can tell this film was made in the early 2000s, by which I mean some of the CGI effects are very noticeable and don't look nearly as impressive as they may have a decade ago. This might seem unfair, but I'm holding this film to the same standards as the movies I've already reviewed, and the fact is that the CGI in films like Terminator 2 and Aliens at times look more impressive than some of the effects in this film. The 90s and early 2000s were notorious for horrible CGI, and I can only hope that things improve as we move forward. The only other real problem I have is that we never really see time passing. I believe it was said that it was a 4 day trek through the Mines of Moria (correct me if I'm wrong) but it doesn't feel like a 4 day journey. Instead it feels like, at most, an afternoon. The film could have done a better job of showing us how long the Fellowship were on their journey, since this quest of what I'm sure must have been over a week feels as though it lasted just a couple of days, which isn't quite as epic as the film would have wanted it to be.

Ian McKellan as Gandalf the Grey

But overall, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) was a fantastic introduction to Middle Earth and a wonderful story in and of itself. I'm very much looking forward to the rest of the series now, and I can't wait to find out how this story continues. 9/10.

Tomorrow: it's a New Moon.