Things you DID like about the Fellowship of the Ring.

[EOL]

Anytime you see a movie which is based on a book, especially a fantasy book, the big worry is that it's not going to be as good as you imagined it, or it's going to be different than you imagined.

I can say that though PJ often did it differently than I had imagined, it was always as good or better than my imagination, and that is the highest compliment I can give.

 

[Don]

Things I liked:

- The Balrog: Most amazing CGI creature I've ever seen. Absolutely the most terrifying thing you could possibly meet in the depths of Moria.

- The Black Riders: Looked really cool, especially in groups. I didn't much care for their shrieking, but when you think about it, a loud shriek inspires more immediate fear than some low, whispering moan.

- Legolas' Archery: Right on! Especially the part where he fires three arrows in rapid succession.

- The Eye: Perfect!

- Mount Doom: I *love* the view of Mount Doom erupting and billowing black smoke. Especially during the narrative intro where it's shown only for a brief moment when it's mentioned ("...in the fires of Mount Doom...")

- Gandalf, Bilbo, Boromir: Fantastic performances. I still love the other characters, but I found these three had the most impact when they spoke on the screen:

Gandalf: "Bilbo Baggins! Do not take me for a conjurer of cheap tricks! I'm not trying to rob you!"

Bilbo: "In an envelope. There on the mantelpiece... Wait, no. Here it is in my pocket. Isn't that odd now? Yet, after all. Why not? Why shouldn't I keep it?"

Boromir: "It's a strange fate that we suffer so much fear and doubt over so small a thing. Such a little thing..."

- Gandalf's ride into Hobbiton, especially when the little Hobbit children come running up to the road beggin Gandalf to come play with them, then they're so disappointed when he simply ignores them...until the little firework display.

- The main theme, plus the theme that starts after they first see the light coming off of the Balrog until the stairs collapse.

- Galadriel Flipping Out: Yikes!

- Pretty much every fighting sequence.

- The entire opening narrative, come to think of it. Fantastically done (if a bit incorrect, storywise).


You know what? It's probably easier to think of the things I didn't like. There's just too much that I *did* like!

 

[A2Z]

- Mount Doom: I *love* the view of Mount Doom erupting and billowing black smoke. Especially during the narrative intro where it's shown only for a brief moment when it's mentioned ("...in the fires of Mount Doom...")

Anyone else notice how that scene looks exactly like this picture? There were a lot of other scenes that matched art that's been done over the years. Pretty impressive in my opinion.

 

[Fast Learner]

The awesome shots of the ring at the Council of Elrond, with the bickering races reflected in it. This showed the evil power of the ring far better than anything else. Awesome.

 

[kenjib]

Ian McKellan
Christopher Lee
The orcs crawling up the pillars and creeping out of the cracks in the ground.
The Shire
Bree

And finally, reposted from the other thread:

Oh, one thing I really liked was when Bilbo had that freakout over the ring. That made me jump out of my seat, it was so completely unexpected. It reminded me of one of my all time favorites scenes in any movie: "Just tell 'em Large Marge sent you. Eh heh heh heh heh! EH HEH HEH HEH!"

 

[madriel]

I've seen the movie five times so far and everytime I see something new. It's an amazing movie.

The Balrog was scarier than anything I'd ever pictured reading the book. OMG.

Everything connected with the ring. The shadow world was creepy and I loved how the ring was portrayed as being almost sentient and very malevolent in its own right.

Legolas and his archery.

Boromir. He always seemed to be just an arrogant jerk in the books. In the movie he's always protecting the hobbits and wants the power to protect his people, not just power itself.

The setting. The CGI. The expressions they capture on the actors' faces.

I was also impressed by all the little details they got right. For example, heading out of Moria Legolas only has a couple of arrows left and then he gets resupplied in Lothlorien.

There's just too much they got right to list even half the things I loved about this movie.

 

[Zappo]

A lot of things... I'll mention one.

The dungeons - I mean, Moria and the caves under Isengard. Do you remember the dungeons from the D&D movie? Three rooms, one monster?

Moria is huge, and you feel all that vastness in the movie. In the D&D movie, the character is always in a room with two exits, and one is where he's come from. In LOTR, there are multiple doors and stairways, huge spaces, the cave goes on in many directions, and you can actually feel that the damn place runs for miles and miles! Same for the orcs' caves, every shot shows the cave going further down, further up, and generally further.

 

[Replicant]

What did I like most about Fellowship of the Ring?

Peter Jackson's courage, and vision, above all else. Having the guts to make the movie, streamline the books where they needed to be streamlined, even tweak where necessary. Tolkien-purists be damned.

Given a visual medium and a three-hour window as constraints, Mr. Jackson did a far better job than I could ever have hoped.

 

[Storm Raven]

- The Great Battle against Sauron right at the beggining... the elven formation was a eye opener... Elrond at front makes him seem even more the part of the oldest elf in middle earth.

Minor nitpick. Elrond is not the oldest elf in Middle Earth. He's not even close. Based upon the records found in the Silmarillion and the appedices of LotR, he is at least 6,441 years old (he was born prior to the beginning of the Second Age), but it is difficult to nail down his age much further than that.

He was born quite late in the First Age, which makes him thousands of years younger than Galadriel and Glorfindel, and most likely younger than most of the elves in Mirkwood (including Legolas, who also has no listed birth date in the Second or Third Ages, making him a First Age holdover), as well as most of the elves in Lothlorien. If one wnet through the books carefully, I think you could easily come up with a half-dozen or more named characters who are clearly older than Elrond, and probably dozens of other elves who are probably older.

As to things I liked about the movie. Pretty much all of it. The things I didn't like are too inconsequential to matter anyway.

 

[kenjib]

As I understand it Cirdan is probably the oldest elf remaining in middle earth. At the very least, even if there are any other elves remaining that are as old as him, there are not any that are older. He was probably one of the original elves that first awakened on Middle Earth.

As a point of reference, he is two entire generations older than Galadriel and Celeborn, who are in turn a generation older than Elrond (he is the son of Galadriel and Celeborn, in fact). Legolas is a prince of the elves of Mirkwood, son of king Thranduil, but this line isn't really documented so it's unsure how old they are. Glorfindel has an undocumented lineage as well.

In all likelihood Cirdan has no belly button. He is very old. I imagine that he'll be cut from the movies though, which would make Galadriel/Celeborn the oldest elves to appear in the films.