[Brian Kopp DPM]

Excellent movie, just saw it. DO NOT take your young children. My wife took out my 5 yr old son and 7 yr old daughter after a short while (they went next door to Monsters inc). My 9 yr old stayed, but if I had it to do over, I'm not sure I would have taken him either.

The movie captures the reality of Tolkien's book quite well, but some small sacrifices had to be made to translate to theater. The evil things are very dark, very evil, very frightening.

Otherwise, I cannot recommend it highly enough!!!

[Brian Kopp DPM]

I rarely go to movies these days. I NEVER see a movie at the theater more than once.

I will definitely see this movie again, maybe several times, while it is in the theaters.

I just read The Fellowship of the Ring again, and I then read it to my 9 year old son. We were both really looking forward to this film.

The evil things, as I said above, are quite frightening (PG-13 rating). This is not a film for children under ten (my mistake, Mikey is nine and it was just too violent.)

That said, I'm awestruck at how faithful to Tolkien's book this film was.

Go see it. It is a treat, especially if you are a Tolkien fan. Don't take young kids though.

[holman]

It was too long (3 hours) and probably a hit with the gay community. The men were effeminate and prettier than the girls.

great special effects but I'd hit the matinee. You come stumbling out thinking you would not sit through that again.

Starship Trooper was a lot better.

[lowbridge]

"The Fellowship Of The Ring": review by Darth Sidious

[DoctorMichael]

Good find! Enjoyed reading this-type Bump.

[patent]

Bump. I am looking forward to this one. The comparison to starship troopers? LOL. Starship was a B movie, modern style. Attack of the killer tomatoes with alien bugs. To say that movie was better either betrays an addiction to bug guts being splattered, or is damning with faint praise.

[Snuffington]

I'm curious why you ever thought it was a good idea to take your young children to this movie in the first place? I'd been watching reviews for the past couple of weeks, and it was made very clear that this was not at all a movie for children. PG-13 was pushing it. My own experience seeing the movie confirmed this.

I'm not asking to put you on the defensive. I'm genuinely curious. In the theatre where I saw the movie there were others who brought children who looked as young as 7. I was leary of their judgement when I saw that, and my reservation was confirmed several times throughout the film (One little girl somewhere behind me took up an annoying nervous chatter with her parents that lasted virtually the entire film. Of course the parents never got a clue that she was frightened and ought to take her out of a movie not geared toward little girls.).

[Samwise]

Hope you got to see it. Hubby took care of the kid so I could go.

Review ping.

[Chi-townChief]

The movie was great and pretty much how you would visualize the book (Hobbiton, Isengard, Rivendell, Moria, Lothlorien, etc.) The only thing that I felt was missing was Aragorn's rhyme ("All that is gold does not glitter, he who wanders is not lost")at Bree. Also, I would have liked the ending to have stayed a little closer to the book's (the contrast of Aragorn's mourning of Boromir and of the failure of the fellowship with Frodo's and Sam's successful escape.) Great movie, nonetheless!!

[tank_sherman]

I agree with everything you said. Perfectly fabulous movie FOR GROWN-UPS and MATURE kids. The bad guys are monsters and way, way too scary for little kids or very sensitive older kids. I agree -- don't take a kid under 10! I think it would be ok to let them watch the video on a normal sized TV, but those horrible orcs, trolls, balrogs and particularly the nazguls on the big screen are enough to guarantee lots of nightmares. Video games with monsters in them are one thing, but the treatment in LOTR is very realistic.

Otherwise, this is truly a movie to see multiple times. Probably will go back tomorrow. I have no idea how much was spent on this film, but I guarantee -- every dollar was well-spent. New Zealand's tourism bureau should be hugging itself. The exteriors are perfectly glorious!!!

I give this film an A+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++! After all the dreck Hollywood has been putting out for years, finally a real MOVIE in the grand tradition that is true to the source material.

[ecurbh]

ping

[Mudboy Slim]

"If someone dislikes it," poet and literary critic W. H. Auden once declared of Tolkien’s epic saga,
"I shall never trust their literary judgment about anything again."

Yep...MUD

[Deb]

This is a lovely and thoughtful review. He makes one error, though. The elven poetry was included, it was set to music and sung in the soundtrack over various sequences.

[Sonny M]

This movie is of the devil, the devil I yell ya, the devil.

I am just joking, please do not flame me.

[Arkinsaw]

I think its a movie that captures the flavor of the novels for those who have experienced it. I'm not surprised that many of those who have not read the novels just don't get it. But I don't care that they don't get iy so its a wash.

I thought they did a good job with the the things they cut and the things they changed for the most part. The changes for Arwen helped the movie IMO, the loss of Tom Bombadil was just cutting a side story and had to be done. The only change I didn't care for was Aragorn "letting Frodo go". Didn't see the point in that change.

Casting was very good. I expected a little more Sam Gamgeeness out of the guy who played him though. The rest were exceptional. Would have liked to have seen more of the interplay between Legolas and Gimli (maybe in movie two).

The Balrog scene was fantastic. I appreciated that when Gandalf faced off with the Balrog he crossed his sword and staff as if warding him off with a cross. Perhaps a nod to Tolkien's Christian foundation for the books.

As for the "gay" thing. Well, its a sad state of affairs when deep friendship between males is so scary. Tolkien also used the words "queer" and "gay" in his books from time to time. When you filter things through your own paradigm things can get twisted can't they. Nuff said.

Overall, if you like the books this is a fine adaptation and you should be thankful that some money-grubbing butcher didn't get hold of it. If you've never read the books its a pretty good flick but perhaps too long for you.

My 7 and 10 year olds enjoyed it very much. The younger has read The Hobbit and the older one has read all of them. They are very aware that the cave troll did not exist, that the orcs don't exist, that the fights were not real, that they were watching actors, and that the Balrog was some super duper computer graphics.

[holman]

Kids don't benefit from this movie, only adults can separate story line from in-your-face tech.

It's one thing to read (or have read) a fairytale whilst tucked in one's bed so the young noggin can quietly digest - at his/her own speed - some of the scary parts. It is entirely another to have graphic and anatomically correct demons ten stories tall coming at you with no apparent defense and with no control over the onslaught.

Indeed, the only compelling factor here is that the adult is so entralled with abstractness of the plot that he/she wants to "make" a kid under 10 absorb the same abstraction while fighting the visuals at the same time.

Kids should read the book. Big kids can go see the movie.

[maestro]

Already done by Wagner and Hitler.
Whose absolutes??
:-(

[Marie Antoinette]

We took our 8 & 10 year old boys on Friday. The oldest was fine, although he ate too much popcorn and got sick later. The 8yo said, "You should have taken us to an earlier show so it wouldn't be so DARK out and so close to bedtime after the movie".

I would say 10 is the absolute BOTTOM age-wise. They are interested to find out what happens next, but the younger boy isn't sure he wants to see the next one. But he swears up and down that "The Mummy" was scarier.

Must be the big screen thing that was so freaky to him. We almost never go to movies (and no outside TV signal coming in either)!

I loved the movie, having never read the trilogy. I *didn't* like the dizzying fight scenes, they almost made me ill. But I'm prone to motion sickness, and any other sickness since I'm pregnant :-)

[HairOfTheDog]

Indexing to Tolkien list

[Cvengr]

Just saw it on VHS. Firmly recommend watching this one in the theater. There seems to have been a tremendous mismatch in quality between some incredible computer graphics mixed with amateurish television styled editing.

Also be prepared for reading considerable number of subtitles. Just curious, did the theater version include a number of audience laugh tracks?