Sure, I like movies. But there are so many that I haven’t watched. Due to the linearity of time and the sheer number of films out there, I haven’t watched some shockers. Shawshank for example, Reservoir Dogs and E.T amongst many. I hadn’t watched Lord Of The Rings either. This wasn’t out of protest or an attempt to be hipster. It wasn’t that I thought I wouldn’t like them. I just never really had any interest, mainly because it would involve investing 9 hours and 20 minutes. What would it take to watch all three in a week? Well, maybe some global pandemic. Sigh, here we are. It was time to leave the shire and adventure into middle earth. Be warned, the journey was dangerous and there will be spoilers ahead.
I’ll take you through the plot, as much as I understood it (I haven’t read the books). So, after some war the big eye Souron made a ring which could make him super powerful and is a bit addictive to whoever wears it. It’s basically Crystal Meth (Apparently. I’ve never used Crystal Meth, but I did watch Breaking Bad). Anyway, Bilbo Baggins has been looking after it. He’s a hobbit. Him and Dumbledore get Frodo to go and destroy the ring which won’t affect him because he’s nice? Anyway, him, Sam, Merry, Pippin and Dumbledore go on an adventure, trying not to get killed by some knights.
Soon they pick up Aragon, who was probably scarier in Green Book than LOTR. They also get Legolas, Gimli and Boromir, who was so forgettable I had to google who he was. Boromir, more like Bore-omir. Anyway, Dumbledore dies and Bore-omir says that one doesn’t walk into Mordor. Needless to say he definitely doesn’t as he dies five minutes later.
Oh yes, Mordor is where the bad guys live. It’s basically Milwall, but nicer and they’re in a war with the humans and elves and dwarves. At the end of Fellowship of the ring, Frodo and Sam split off, Merry and Pippin are taken and that’s all that.
In The Two Towers, there are a whole bunch of stories happening. Frodo meets Golum, the guy who is crazy about the ring. He meets Boromir’s brother and something happens. Legolas and Aragon find out that Dumbledore is actually alive. They go to a village with a king who they save and move the town to a castle to stop Mordor killing them. Anyway, this goes on for hours before a quick battle which happens. Merry and Pippin find a tree and have really sloooooooooooooooow conversations. They flood somewhere. That’s all.
Once that was finally over (And after taking a night off in between), I took on the final frontier, The Return of the King. Picking up where we left off, Aragon and team go and fight in an epic war against the Mordor ultras. Meanwhile, Frodo, Sam and Golem try to get in to Mordor to destroy the ring, by throwing it into Mount Doom. The whole thing is rather epic, there is a lot of fighting, Aragon becomes King, the ring is destroyed and we all live happily ever after about an hour later.
So where do I even start? Well, lets start with the first film. No doubt I will go off on tangents (I haven’t planned any structure for this post), but we should get to the end.
Fellowship of The Ring was nice I thought. It was a really well made action adventure film. It was a bit of a bog standard template, however it did so many things so well. It really reminded me of Deathly Hallows Part 1, except most things were better.
The level of exposition at the beginning thankfully hit the balance between detail and being too long. It kept my attention enough and told me exactly what I needed to know. It introduced Golem and Bilbo well.
The landscapes, oh how brilliant were they. Everything was so lushous and green, really contrasting with the darker moments of danger. Compare this to the third movie, which had my favourite tonal feel where everything seemed so much more dead and coming to the end. This film showed a real vivid and alive landscape with each scene looking varied.
The plot was a bit convenient in places. Dumbledore would say “Oh I hope we don’t go in there”. Frodo would say “Oh, looks like we have to go in there.” Dumbledore would then groan. It got a bit silly, but for the film genre, it was fine.
The character acting was a bit hit and miss across all three films. Aragon and Dumbledore were both great, the latter somewhat redeming himself from being the worst part of Cats (Which is no mean feat). It was refreshing to see the old person not just being a wise mage, but being a key part of the action. I didn’t care much for Legolas or Baby Hagrid. They were both there and the latter was funny at times. Merry and Pippin were both enjoyable and Sam was okay, but Frodo… Ergh, what was going on there. The acting felt off. I’m not sure whether it was Elijah Wood or the script, but I just cringed at every line he said. He had so much potential. It would have been great to see the effect of the ring on him be a more prominent psychological part of the story, but it was just a background thing which even after 9 hours felt under developed.
My favourite character however was Saraman (Again, apologies if I misspelt, I don’t know much about the franchise). He was an evil personified by Christopher Lee. Unlike the eye of Sauron, he was a real and physical danger, one who could take on Dumbledore… Then he was gone. Despite being a big role in the first film, he just didn’t really ever turn up again after. It really was a shame to see the character under-utilised later on.
But he wasn’t in the latter books Joe – Well, I don’t really care. You can adapt whats in the books to make a better movie. I didn’t see Jojo Rabbit dancing with his imaginary Hitler in Caging Skies.
The thing which lifted the first film from decent to really good had to be the soundtrack. It’s one of the best I’ve heard. The orchestral score was wonderful with the muted trumpet call for arms enough to motivate me to go through all three hours. The first film had the best soundtrack of the three by a country mile and I really felt the absence in the other two films.
The Two Towers took quite a tonal contrast. It turned into more of a war film with much darker set pieces at night. They didn’t quite get my imagination as much. Honestly, I thought this film was the weakest of all three and is probably the one I won’t bother ever watching again as it was kind of forgettable.
Firstly, I felt like there were way too many storylines happening. You had Frodo and Sam going one way, Merry and Pippin another, Dumbledore went one way, Legolas, Aragon and Hagrid went their own way. I was a little bit loss and loads of characters were introduced who I didn’t really understand either. There was too much going on and it almost reduced my investment in each story. (That’s why you should have read the books – Oh shut up).
The war scenes were much to cut constantly. The whole things were tough to focus on, especially without lighting and felt like a mess. I don’t much care for war scenes in general *cough avengers*, but this one felt messy and unrefined. The dialogue between Legolas and Hagrid just took away from any real stakes. The kill count felt amateurish and just took away any sense of danger, much like Avengers.
Each story felt laboured. Okay Frodo meets Bore-omir’s brother (Sore-omir?) but whatever. I didn’t get where he was taking him or why he was taking him. It just happened and went on for ages. Aragon et al started a fight, but I wasn’t really sure what this one was for as opposed to any other or why the stakes were especially high. There was ages before and then the fight overwhelmed. Merry, Pippin and the tree was the worst story. It was slow and dull. The pay off was lame and it meant no more Sourman.
The film didn’t look interesting, the soundtrack wasn’t as good, the pacing was off and it just didn’t intrigue me.
Return of the King however… My gosh what a spectacle of a film that was. Each bit came together beautifully, all to climax in a predictable, yet stunning way.
Lets start off by talking about Golum. He was brilliant. Andy Serkis was incredible. The psych of the character, his inner conflicts and his self monologues were all eerie and breathtaking. The script and the looks were wonderful. The big blue eyes were a thing of nightmare. In fact, all of the make up across this film especially was incredible. The orks all looked scary and the Mordor leader in the war looked bone chillingly out of Doctor Who.
The performances were all great. Even Elijah Wood gave a great performance, so did Sam. By this point, everyone knew their characters and the stakes. Everybody was invested and it was epic. Even Merry and Pippin threw some emotional weight behind what they were doing.
As I eluded to earlier, the middle ground dead field settings worked well. They matched the film tonally, while keeping it engaging to look at. The music and everything else was on point as well.
The climax scene was high stakes. This was it. Frodo needed to lose the ring. With a tense choral soundtrack and a fight with Golem. The smoke isolating them and the lives of the others in increasing danger. We see Frodo decide to not destroy the ring before Golem comes along. They fight and both fall. Was it Frodo’s doing to destroy the ring or did he want it for himself and accidentally destroy it? It’s an ambiguous question with one interpretation being darker. We see a true reflection of him in Golem as he falls to his death happy to have the ring back, the reason he’s been following Frodo all along and we’re done.
Except we’re not. Dumbledore saves everyone before a bit of a drawn out ending. I could have lived without it, but I appreciate it was there for those who worship the books and the films. I’d lost focus as we were three hours in, but I have no interest in penalising it. If I were in the cinema, I’d have enjoyed it more I imagine.
Summary
What a brilliant set of films. Epic in scale, they were vast although not without flaw. Fellowship of the Ring was a well made action adventure film which is a good template and shows how they should be made. Helped by epic landscapes, brilliant dialogue and one of the best soundtracks in film, this really stood above so many more in the genre. 4.5 stars.
The Two Towers was slow and didn’t have much of a pay off. Some of my acting and character issues remained, lots of things were introduced which didn’t add much to the story. The war scenes were pretty poor to. It was a set-up film and not special on its own. 2.5 Stars.
Return of the King was epic. Each story element had a great pay off. Golem was even better in this film as was Frodo. The lands all looked fantastic and the war epics, while cliche were all put together really well. The climax scene was brilliant and made the nine hours worth it. This is how adventure films should be made. It really showed how average Endgame was with a focus on character’s we’d taken to heart, giving each one their own epic send off. The fact I watched the whole film without a drink break mid-way through (unlike the other two) is testament to how epic it is. This was a brilliant film well worthy of best picture. 5 stars.
All in all, this is the definitive book adaptation that we should hold all others to. A labour of love which will stand the test of time. While it took a while for the series to find its feet, when it did the pay off was brilliant.
All three films are available for free on Prime.
The Film Ramble 