HUGE

As I write this review a full 12 hours after the credits rolled on The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings, I am still smiling. I smiled when the movie started in level-headed anticipation, and throughout the approximate three hours, my smile turned into an open jaw, floored, in fact, for most of the film until the end when I proverbially picked up the bottom of my face off the floor and readjusted it to the all-too-deserving smile.

Yes, I could have started this review without a description of parts of my anatomy, using descriptive words and phrases for the movie like AMAZING, WONDERFUL, THRILLING, GRANDIOSE ENTERTAINMENT AS IT SHOULD BE, THE WAY MOVIES ARE SUPPOSED TO BE DONE, TOO GOOD EVEN FOR OSCAR, or something like that. And they would all be exact and true, and it would take all my will power to keep myself from typing “PERFECT” and being okay with it. This movie is ALMOST perfect, but put in the decade of Gladiator, I would say that a raise is in order. The characters, from the mischievous hobbits to the tall magical elves were played exactly on the screen. Ian McKellan should win an award for his outstanding performance as Gandalf. He lit the screen in all of his scenes. I laughed when he laughed and I winced when he went crashing into a wall and, well, lets just say there were tears. The landscape, the set design, both real and CGI, was awe-inspiring. I could watch the entire film with the volume off and still marvel at the beauty created for this production. The story, despite its length, moves quickly…too quickly…by the end of the movie I was muttering “don’t fade to black don’t fade to black,” and I was ready for the next two movies—all six hours worth.

Fellowship of the Ring makes me feel like a kid. It’s rare in life that you truly get to marvel at anything. Reality often turns into routine, and breaks from that routine are rarely marvel-worthy. Film should be a major device that brings forth awe from the audience, and, frankly, lately it hasn’t been. With all the new technology available, and the increasing popularity of Hollywood, one would think that the creators of films would do all they cam to make the most of what they can do. I loved The Phantom Menace. Gladiator was enjoyable. X-Men was a wonderful surprise and a damn good movie. Harry Potter was a nice ride, a good time. They all pale miserably in comparison to Rings.

Perhaps with this film, the bar has been raised. Maybe the next to parts will be as good as or better than the first. Hopefully filmmakers will realize this and strive to give us the beauty and majesty that they now obviously can. Another scenario is that nothing for many years will achieve this level of cinematic wonderment; that such a thing of beauty by its definition places it in an ivory tower alone to be watched and admired. Look at the original Star Wars trilogy. In the two decades following before Menace, was there another movie that embraced these capabilities like Star Wars did? There were many good fantasy and sci-fi films, but none that achieved that bar. Even Menace fell short. But with a more humanitarian amount of hype, Rings has launched past the bar to join those rare moments in film when you remember not only your enjoyment of watching, but also where you were, who you were with, and what you did that day. A cinematic classic of the best kind.

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Movie of the Year: The Lord of the Rings— The Fellowship of the Ring
by Christian De Matteo

HUGE

I went to Lord of the Rings, a diehard fan of the books and prepared to be disappointed, though I was still looking forward to it. The previews looked good, but I knew not to get my hopes too far up. Well, I spent the majority of the movie with tears of absolute joy (literally) in my eyes. I never ever imagined to see these childhood heroes of mine depicted so perfectly, so brilliantly and so truthfully on the big screen. I'd been disappointed by the cartoons from years back and assumed that no director in his right mind would attempt the potentially damning task that would be bringing the classic books to the screen, not when the backlash at failure could be so perilous.

Well, Peter Jackson is either insane or the most confident man on the planet because bring them to the screen he did, almost as though just putting a projector light behind each page of the book. Clocking in at a healthy three hours, there are, of course some scenes missing that Tolkien fans will note, but nothing that takes away from the movie. They had to cut out some scenes so that it wouldn't have been a six hour movie... though I would have been just fine with that as well.

And the casting, good lord have mercy, the casting. Absolute brilliance. One must wonder if the Good Lord in his infinite wisdom put Ian McKellan on this planet just so he could eventually play the great Gandalf the Grey. And then to cast the Devil himself, Viggo Mortenson, from The Prophecy as Aragorn... for me the movie was going to live and die on the acting for these two parts of two of my all time favorite literary characters... and it lived. Adding Sean Astin as Samwise, Elijah Wood as Frodo, Ian Holm as Bilbo, Cate "I can play any part in the world" Blanchett as Galadriel, Jonathon Rhys-Davis (Indy's pal Sallah) as Gimli (another favorite character of mine, and the plethora of other astoundingly cast actors that I could go on for days about, the movie was filled out with all the right players.

With a deep script. Gandalf's speech about Pity sparing Gollum, is a wonderful commentary for our current vengeance minded world, as well as Aragorn's about honor. The film lives as an intensely real depiction of good, evil and all the gray areas in between that can be even more dangerous than the black and white. It is a film about purity and corruption, about love and hate and all without entertaining a single cliche, only abject truth.

Should children see this? 11 and up, Yes. Will it frighten them? Yes, the evil will. But this is no glorification or fun play with evil. The film will teach children to fear and fight evil in a way that all children should learn. Should adults see this? Yes. For the same reason.

I could rave on and on and on all day about this movie that made me happier than a movie has made me in the deepest sense in a long time. I loved "The Man Who Wasn't There," loved "Vanilla Sky", loved "Moulin Rouge", loved "Bandits, and loved "Sexy Beast" but I'll be damned if I could wholeheartedly support any of these great films over Peter Jackson's astounding "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring." The movie, in fact, could make me rethink my movie ranking for the last five to ten years.

This is what filmmaking is about and this how to do it.

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DVD -- There is no better DVD for no better movie than the Lord of the Rings Extended Editions. Each with almost an hour of added footage and 2 extra discs of special features, you can't afford to miss it.

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The Rumor Mill & Trivia Section: IMdb

The Rumor Mill &
Trivia Section: IMdb