The Lord of the Rings:
The Fellowship of the Ring

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Cast:
Elijah Wood (Frodo)
Ian McKellen (Gandalf the Gray)
Viggo Mortenson (Aragorn)
Sean Bean (Boromir)
Liv Tyler (Arwen)
Sean Astin (Sam)
John Rhys-Davies (Gimli)
Orlando Bloom (Legolas)
Billy Boyd (Pippin)
Dominic Monaghan (Merry)
Christopher Lee (Saruman the White)
Hugo Weaving (Elrond)
Cate Blanchett (Galadriel)

(2001) Lord of the Rings has been regarded as, next to Star Wars, one of the most commercially successful trilogies of all time. This, however, is the first movie to make the theaters. One of AFI's greatest movies of all time, Peter Jackson goes all out in this movie. According to the filmography, he had a mindset that was basically all about perfection, perfection, perfection. This movie is about the trek of a group of racially different beings on a quest to destroy an ill-fated ring, they call The One Ring, before its master, the mighty Dark Lord Sauron, has his minions take it from them and return it to his hand. They cannot have him have the Ring because according to the text on the Ring, only darkness and destruction and despair will follow the path of the Ring. It was entrusted to a Hobbit named Frodo, who right now looks like the unlikely, unwilling hero at this point. But he knows that he must take it to Mount Doom, the place where it was made and the only place that can destroy it completely. However, he needed help getting their. So a wizard, Gandalf the Gray, two men, Aragorn and Boromir, three Hobbits, Sam, Merry and Pippin, an Elf, Legolas, and a Dwarf, Gimli, all decide to help him in his time of need. So they set out into the wild and encounter things such as Orcs, Goblins, a huge-ass squid, a five story tall fire demon known as a Balrog, Uruk-hai(half men-half elf). After they fight off what they can of the Uruk-hai, Merry and Pippin are taken hostage by the still-living Uruk-hai. This is also when three different stories unfold into the next movie. Sam and Frodo decide to go on their own way to Mordor to destroy the Ring. Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli find that they can no longer protect Frodo, and they think that their job with him is done. But, they have a new task: find and rescue Merry and Pippin. Also, Merry and Pippin have their own story to tell, but that's another movie.

When we watch this movie, we se a lot of Jackson's style in the scenes. One such sign is his funny side with the comic relievers Merry and Pippin who always seem to make a joke when the time is right. Also, we see this with the humorous tension between Gimli and Legolas. Their races have always been at odds with each other for some unknown reasons, but the way they handle it is something that audiences love to watch.

One realization came to my head when I watched this movie was that Peter Jackson has this love for extreme detail in his movies in almost every shot made. Like, for example, we look at the Balrog when Gandalf fought it. We could see every crevice, and the flame emitting from it was absolutely beautiful, every time it took a step, flame bursts from the bottom of its feet. That sequence, atristic wise, was absolutely beautiful. Suffice it to say, this film is basically 1/3 CGI, and all shooting wsas done in New Zealand (Peter Jackson always loved to film in his homeland). For example, The sanctuary of Rivendell was actually Kaitoke Regional Park, towards the Upper Hut of New Zealand. Also, where we see the Shire, in reality, they are at the Kapiti Coast District. To make a long story short, every shot in this film was shot in New Zealand.

The camera technique in this movie was very smooth and the continuity was very easy to follow, anyone can watch this movie and not get bored. One sequence that I can't stop talking about was the scene in the beginning, the epilogue. There were some very cool shots there, some good editing styles, especially then we see all the races of living things getting their Rings of Power. Also, the fighting sequences were cool because sometimes, there close-ups of the characters faces while they were fighting. One fight i really liked was the fight in the Mines of Moria, all of that was expertly choreographed, and the cinematgraphy in it was genius. Also, the music in this movie has to be synonymous with great and epic. The music towards the beginning was very peaceful, tranquil if that's a good term for it, like there was no evil in the world. As the plot progressed, the music got a little more darker, more suspenseful.

My overall opinion of this film is that this movie is a great piece of art, also a good movie, and a good film. Not many movies can say that. I could see that he liked most of the Fellowship, except Boromir because he represented the fallen corrpution of man. But, he got to like him again when he redeemed himself by defending Merry and Pippin to his last breath. I also saw, from my experience in theater, if you don't have good actors, you don't have a good movie, and the acting in this movie was very acceptional. The CGI in this movie was used very well, compared to other films made now that are using CGi too much and it is used with little finesse, unlike this movie. The theme i also liked because it gives all the small and insignificant people hope that they will make a difference in this world, hopefully for the better.