Lord Of The Rings, The: The Fellowship Of The Ring
The first of the Lord of The Rings trilogy, Fellowship tells the story of the One Ring, and evil ring of power made by the dark lord Sauron to aid his destruction of the free world. Lost of two millennia, the ring shows up in the Shire, a peaceful land inhabited by the gentle Hobbits.
The first of the Lord of The Rings trilogy, Fellowship tells the story of the One Ring, and evil ring of power made by the dark lord Sauron to aid his destruction of the free world. Lost of two millennia, the ring shows up in the Shire, a peaceful land inhabited by the gentle Hobbits, a diminutive race of farming families. When wise wizard Gandalf discovers the ring in the possession of one Frodo Baggins, a young idealistic hobbit, he realises that the Shire, and indeed the rest of Middle Earth, is in peril unless a the ring is prevented from falling in to Sauron's hand. And so begins Frodo's perilous journey as the bearer of the ring of power, with his friend Sam, encountering Orcs, Elves and Dwarves along the way.
When I heard that Peter Jackson, director of low budget gore fests Bad Taste and Brain Dead was directing the film version of one of my favourite books, I was horrified - great films but not the track record to effectively capture the scale and visual detail so eloquently described in Tolkien's epic. Indeed for many years the books have been considered unfilmable. As a result I hoped it would prove too much for him and that Hollywood would take over. And yet, without much help from Hollywood at all, and bearing a large "made in New Zealand" sticker, we are presented with the first instalment of the greatest written fantasy of all time. Boy was my concern misplaced. So impressed with Jackson's vision am I, that I can't think of anyone else that could have pulled it off so well. From the casting and scenery to the SFX and music, Jackson's vision of Middle Earth is mesmerising, and captures both the spirit and exacting detail of Tolkiens writing.
And this painstaking attention to detail gives you something else to watch each time you see it, so it is great to finally be able to do that with the release of the DVD. In terms of the story, it follows the book closely, but omits some nonessential subplots, and elevates a love story that actually appeared in the book's appendix. At times the story slows, but for the most part tight direction keeps you rapt. It's a thoroughly enjoyable film that will appeal to a wide audience and certainly bodes well for subsequent instalments. Tolkien purists will complain about the omissions from the book, but I think they have done well to compress the story in to a reasonable length film without being drawn in to excessive levels of detail that would destroy the film's pace.
Excellent animated menus present the contents, across 2 disks. The picture is sharp and colourful throughout, even in the dark Moria scenes. The Dolby 5.1 soundtrack is engaging, particularly during the action scenes, and the sub channel impresses on the appearance of the Balrog. I did, however find the sound very slightly out of sink either side of the layer change, which was distracting.
As for extras, three documentaries give plenty of insight in to the project, and do well to explain the size of the task and the thoughts of key people, but there is a lot of repetition between documentaries - particularly with respect to cast and crew interview footage. The same goes for the web documentaries. However the quality of the documentaries is very high and all feature plenty of good footage, somewhat making up for a lack of coherence. The Two Towers preview is very good and really whets the appetite for the next movie. There is also a preview of the Special Edition DVD released in November. Whilst I disagree with the way they have managed the DVD release, the package to come looks great. Finally an Enya video to accompany the theme song is a very nice addition to the extras. The glaring omission is a director’s commentary. Given the logistical issues and sheer scope associated with this movie, we really need a good commentary to put it all in to perspective, and it is sorely missed here.
This gives you a magnificent movie on a decent presentation. The documentary selection does give a rather "rushed" feel to the extras, but we are still talking about supplements to the main feature – a classic movie that is a must have for any self-respecting movie fan.
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