Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring SE (Jackson, 2002)
There aren't many franchises that elicit schoolgirl screams from me. While I absolutely love the original Star Wars movies, I was never a huge Star Wars freak. Instead I'm a Rings fanbody at heart. From the first time I read the books I was hooked, and after that I immediately craved a movie adaption. I really liked the Lord of the Rings cartoon, which perhaps gives you a hint at my state of mind with respect to the franchise. When the movies came out me and my friends made it a ritual to skip the last day of school - after having other people turn in our finals papers of course - and see the movies. The day after seeing The Two Towers on opening day we bailed out of a school awards ceremony to see it again; later I found out I had won a couple school awards, and I can only imagine the look on the teaching staff's face when they realized I was nowhere to be seen.
So obviously the movies are...precious to me. Yet despite my mania I wasn't quick to get the SE versions of the movies. I had seen the TC in the theater so many times that I sort of put off getting the DVDs, feeling that I could wait a few more months until the price went down. Well, more than a few years passed, yet yesterday I finally made my way down to Barnes and Noble and picked up the SE for Fellowship of the Ring.
As I said earlier, I have seen the TC many times, so it was very easy for me to notice even the slightest musical changes in this version. And after watching this it's not surprising why so many diehard Tolkien fans love the SE. While the TC was as faithful as possible to the book, the SE is even better. From the very beginning the faithfullness is evident. After the story recap Jackson places a perfect adaption of "Concerning Hobbits" ahead of where the TC begins (with Frodo greeting Gandalf). Perhaps my favorite aspect of the movies is how brilliantly Jackson captured the essense of the book - from the environments to the music to the costumes. The "Concerning Hobbits" puts all of this on display as the Shire is put on display. With so little effort Jackson shows daily Hobbit life, from the tilling to the eating.
After this scene the TC parts become more evident, yet for the most part everything comes together perfectly. Yet it is the small things that most make an impression. For instance, the SE quickly establishes the Sackville-Baggins and their interest in Bilbo's house. Another short but effective scene happens in the bar, during which the Old Gaffer is actually seen - along with Sam, Frodo, and possibly Sandyman - gossiping. These little details brought a smile to my face and made me appreciate even more the fact that Jackson, a true fan at heart, made the movie.
And of course there are some even bigger additions that make more of an impact. These parts really seem to shine once the Hobbits reach Rivendell. Some of the changes seem casual, yet they are very insightful - such as Aragorn's visit to his mother's grave. Then there's a scene where Gandalf speaks the language of Mordor to repell Boromir from touching the ring - I need to see that again, because at the time it didn't make much sense. Once it was explained I got it more.
Yet easily the best addition comes during the Fellowship's journey into Moria. While I always felt the Moria scenes were great, the SE makes them brilliant. The added dialogue is insightful, and the extra footage makes the battle scenes much, much better. The SE is worth it for the troll battle alone imo.
Some of the additional scenes in Lothlorien seem rather flat though, especially the ones where Aragorn is convincing the elves to let the Fellowship into the city. And of course, this part also includes my least favorite scene in the entire trilogy: Galadriel's green rant about the ring. I hate that part because it just looks so tacky, and could have been done much better. But despite that there are some great scenes here, such as Gimli's change of heart with respect to the "Lady of the Wood". I also like the fact that here you finally get a sense that Legalos is not just some badass archer, but an elven prince.
Overall I found the SE to be great. While there are some flat scenes, for the most part it does a great job adding material to an already great film. The only complaint I have is about the sound mixing. During many scenes the music is just too loud compared to the dialogue, and it gets hard to hear what is being said; this is especially evident in Moria. And while the over use of overhead camera shots have been ragged on by some, I felt that they served an important purpose with respect to showing just how beautiful the environments were, and how perfectly suited NZ was in brining Middle Earth to life. Yeah I suppose different shots could have done this, but I'm not going to knock this since it's obviously Jackson's "thing". But then again, some of the slow motion shots he likes to use in his movies are rather annoying, especially in Kong.
Yet those technical flaws are not nearly enough to harm this perfect adaption of a fantasy masterpiece.
10/10
