The Lord Of The Rings

    • The Lord Of The Rings

      Quite a long time ago now, i made a promise to bring a preview about a great movie (i think), called The Lord Of The Rings. For those of you who've seen it, you will know what am talking about! Before the release of the Second part of the movie last december, i was under the illusion that the movie is made up of two parts only. However, after i went and watched the movie i discovered that there is actually a third and concluding part to be released sometime next year or at the end of this year

      This is one of the very few big-budget blockbusters that unqualifiedly deserves its success. "The Fellowship Of The Ring " was released in 2001 and "The Two Towers" in 2002. and all we can do now is look forward with excitement to the release of "The Return of the King" in 2003. Like the books they came from, these three fillms will be cherished by future generations




      One ring to rule them all
      one ring to find them
      One Ring to bring them all
      and in the darkness bind them

    • Lord Of The Rings : Fellowship Of The Ring




      In the entire three hours of the audacious, transporting, spectacularly cinematic first "Lord of the Rings" installment, there are only two very brief moments that don't come across as being 100-percent a part of the mystical, dark and magical realm of Middle Earth.

      These moments are not because of bad performances (there aren't any), negligent directing or special effects gaffes. In fact, from the digitally dialed-down stature of the actors playing hobbits to the frightfully demonic hoards of living-dead orcs (minions of the supernaturally evil antagonist), the effects are seamless.

      These moments of doubt are merely scenes that take place in such plain locations (e.g. a non-descript river bed) that they seem far too familiar and Earthly in a movie of underground troll cities, ominous mountains called Doom, idyllic ancient forest hamlets of immortal elves, and hobbit's homes burrowed into impossibly green hillsides.

      Zealously dedicated director Peter Jackson ("Heavenly Creatures," "The Frighteners") has brought the monumental ambience, the distinctive characters and the indelible spirit of "Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring" to life so tangibly that it took my breath away.

      For the uninitiated, this film is the first of a trilogy adapted from J.R.R. Tolkien's weighty, layered, complexly detailed epic fantasy trilogy, replete with mythical species of beast and humanoid (hobbits, elves, dwarfs, wizards), and rife with classic themes of good versus evil.

      Its unmistakable influence can be felt in everything from science fiction ("Star Wars") to video games ("Myst") to Led Zeppelin songs ("Misty Mountain Hop," "The Battle of Evermore") to Goth culture. Yet at its core is an ostensibly simple, metaphysical story of one omnipotent gold ring, which was forged by Sauron the dark Lord of Mordor, inscribed with a spell and sought by all who desire power, and which has been missing for 3,000 years.

      "Fellowship" opens with a brisk, booming historical backstory about a whole slew of enchanted rings given to the leaders of the aforementioned race. This prologue is accompanied by a CGI-ed battle scene of incredible proportions between the armies of these (mostly) virtuous cultures and hoards of sinewy, ghoulish undead minions that serve Sauron, who created his one ring to control all others. Sauron was defeated and his ring was lost, but not until after its influence has wrought eons of chaos upon its inheritors.

      Many centuries later the ring is stumbled upon by an unsuspecting hobbit (a diminutive, hairy-footed, happy-go-lucky breed of people) named Bilbo Baggins (Ian Holm), who squirrels it away like a secret treasure. Then on his 111th birthday, Bilbo leaves the comfort of his earthen home in a bucolic shire to spend his retirement in Rivendell, the waterfall-scenic city of the elves.

      The ring passes into the hands of Bilbo's young cousin Frodo (Elijah Wood), who is visited by Gandalf the Wizard (Ian McKellen) with a warning: Now that the ring has been located, Sauron and his armies will be rising from the ashes to claim it at all costs. To stop him, the ring must be destroyed in the fires that created it on Mt. Doom, Sauron's lair. The whole "Lord of the Rings" trilogy (the sequels were filmed simultaneously for release in 2002 and 2003) is the story of the quest to do so.

      Wide-eyed young Frodo, a teenager in hobbit years, is more than apprehensive about being charged with this crusade, and Wood's performance captures the weight of his character's bewilderment with credible, captivating ingenuousness. But wise, warm, distressed Gandalf insists vehemently, knowing Frodo is the only person with a heart pure enough to bear the ring to its destiny without succumbing to its virulent influence.

      Frodo embarks on this adventure escorted by three hobbit friends and a shaky, distrustful alliance of heroic warriors. One is a Viking-like dwarf (John Rhys-Davies), another a bow-wielding, ethereal elf (Orlando Bloom), and two are humans, played by Viggo Mortensen ("A Perfect Murder") and Sean Bean ("GoldenEye"), breaking out of their bad-guy typecasting to provide their heroes with heart and palpable internal strife. Meanwhile, elderly Gandalf engages in a wizard-fu mano-a-mano with a powerful former ally and sorcerer named Saruman (Christopher Lee, chewing just the right amount of scenery), who has become a servant of Sauron and is amassing his hellspawn army.

      While making friends (Cate Blanchett, Liv Tyler and Hugo Weaving give strong performances as immortal elves) and facing enemies along the way, Frodo and his fellowship run up against the movie's two undermining problems along the path to Mt. Doom.

      The first is that the picture's middle hour is a repetitive series of trials for our heroes -- journey-and-skirmish episodes so similar (battle against a mystical creature or demonic antagonist without major injury to heroes; trek to a new location; repeat) that on a couple occasions I rolled my eyes and thought, "Here we go again..."

      The second is that the film ends mid-journey with a non-finale that is true to the book, but so abrupt and unsatisfying it almost feels as if the director is laughing from behind the screen, knowing he's left you hanging until the next installment -- 12 months away. The practical upshot of this is that "Fellowship" will never be able to stand on its own as a motion picture.

      I have other complaints (Howard Shore's score is overwrought and far too dependent on annoyingly jaunty recorder music), but for an adaptation of this magnitude, the very devoted Jackson gets almost everything right. So much so that this prodigious production should duly impress any neophyte and deeply satisfy Tolkien's cultish legions of fans.

      From the hobbits' modest shire to the dwarfs' elaborate caverns to the waterfalls of Rivendell, the production design is absolutely other-worldly on a scale that has to be seen to be believed. The photography is both beautiful and crafty (there's an aerial tracking shot through a forest that's just astounding). The many sword fights are varied and exciting. The costumes and makeup, especially on the beastly ringwraiths with their demonic faces and exoskeleton armor, are an awesome success.

      For once, here's a gigantic-budget movie that wears its outsized grandiosity well and lives up to its hype and ambition. More importantly, the characters are perfectly cast (can you think of any actresses more elfin than Blanchett and Tyler?) and properly, reverentially steeped in Tolkien's elaborate mythology.

      At times it may be hard to keep up with the picture's multitude of narrative particulars (which warriors are descended from kings, the origins of the ringwraiths). But while any shortcomings of "Fellowship of the Ring" -- be they trivial, trite or troubling -- will inevitably be the topics of debate among fans and film buffs alike, this film may well be the all-time cinematic champion of the fantasy genre.




















    • The Lord Of The Rings : The Two Towers



      The Two Towers gets off to a quicker start than Fellowship of the Ring, because the story is already in motion. We're just picking up on events that have been established. The first hour has more action scenes than the whole of Fellowship, but there are still heavy plot developments in the three hour span. Two more major battles come in the 2nd and 3rd acts, and those offer both huge displays of battle and individual moments, like Legolas surfing down the stairs during the Battle of Helms Deep. Now that the Fellowship is divided, there are several plot threads. Going back and forth at just the right moments, it's easy to follow them. The whole interrelated story is still tough, but you'll see this more than once anyway






      CHUCK GRAHAM
      Tucson Citizen
      Dec. 19, 2002

      GRAHAM'S GRADE

      Relax, dear reader. "The Two Towers" is just as good as "The Fellowship of the Ring." This second installment of J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings" maintains the energy and charm of its predecessor. Particularly the energy.
      Some will say "The Two Towers" is better than the first one because it has much more action. Thus we can look forward with satisfaction to next December when the third and final "Rings" film, "The Return of the King," arrives to make this trilogy directed by Peter Jackson an instant classic.
      With all the main hobbit, human, elf and dwarf characters established in "The Fellowship of the Ring," Jackson gets to fling his players all over the place in this one. We get to follow three stories that only partially converge. At the end of "The Two Towers" some three hours later we are reminded "The battle for Helm's Deep is over. The battle for Middle-earth is about to begin."
      And what a battle it will be. According to various press sources, 20,000 actual human beings were hired as extras to be the shield and spear carriers in the massive army of Uruk-hai stretching from one side of the screen to the other, marching relentlessly on the stone walls of the humans' refuge at Helm's Deep.
      Remember that ridiculous computer-generated battle sprawl at the end of "Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones"? Jackson is making no mistakes like that. His battle scenes are sweeping, recalling Cecil B. DeMille rather than George Lucas. We in the audience are swept up in this clash of good and evil, with the good warriors so hopelessly outnumbered they deserve a battle cry equal to "Remember the Alamo!"
      Against all odds, the New Zealand director has figured out how to bring Tolkien's fantasy trilogy to the screen, making it as enjoyable for brand-new initiates as for dedicated fans of the books. In all likelihood, the films will replace the books as the favored portal for entering Middle-earth to meet Frodo and his height-challenged pals, Aragorn the knight with virtue and Gandalf who becomes a white wizard in time to fight against the evil axis of those two white wizards gone bad, Sauron and Saruman.
      The screenwriting team working with Jackson is so good at weaving in all the books' lore, including languages that Tolkien invented (with English subtitles provided), it is a good idea for everyone to brush up on their hobbitology. Don't try digging out those dog-eared paperback copies packed away with all your other paraphernalia from the 1970s. Plenty of Web sites now provide all the necessary Cliff's Notes-type summaries.
      "The Lord of the Rings" series has such a convincing fantasy atmosphere, it is easy to forget Tolkien first published these adventures in 1954 at the height of the Cold War. As the story of Frodo (Elijah Wood) the ring-bearer develops, the metaphor becomes even stronger for making the ring stand for the scientific secret of building atomic bombs. Not only does Frodo want to destroy the power of the ring so it can never be used again, but he begins to experience illness comparable to radiation poisoning.
      We learn, too, that the nearly hairless and exceptionally ugly Gollum (Andy Serkis) was once a Hobbit 500 years earlier. Keeping the ring for all those centuries has turned him into a creature far more despicably animal than hobbit. Another scene in the story points out how the ring cannot be used to create anything, but only to destroy.
      The main ethical conflicts continue to be developed in "The Two Towers," and the power of their messages is even more meaningful today than 50 years ago. Tolkien wanted to dramatize the battles of good vs. evil, friendship vs. the forces of corruption and nature vs. industry. His prescience was uncannily powerful.
      Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen) gathers power while emerging from his dark depression in "The Fellowship of the Ring," showing himself in this episode to not only to be a convincing leader capable of leading a nation but also with the strength of character to be true to Arwen (Liv Tyler). Don't worry, there are no yukky romantic passages in "The Twin Towers." Arwen is only on screen for a few minutes.
      The human princess Eowyn (Miranda Otto) tries to hit on Aragorn when he shows up to help defend her tribe at Rohan against the 10,000-soldier army of Urok-hai. Though he is being tempted by another human, Aragorn remains true to his pointy-eared first love, Arwen the elf.
      Gollum has a much bigger role this time out. Frodo and Sam (Sean Astin) have become separated from the other hobbits, Merry (Dominic Monaghan) and Pippin (Billy Boyd). As the fires of battle blaze on the horizon, Frodo and Sam are determined to reach the Mountain of Fire to destroy the ring. They catch Gollum, who has been following them, determined to get the ring back. Now Frodo and Sam must get Gollum to lead the hobbit duo to Mordor and the Mountain of Fire.
      Meanwhile, the wizards Sauron (Michael Hughes) and Saruman (Christopher Lee) are determined to mass an army of Uruk-hai and use the ring to destroy all humans forever. Merry and Pippin have been captured by Orcs, who think one of them has the ring. Merry and Pippin escape, make friends with the tree spirits in Fangorn Forest, but are just leaving the forest when "The Two Towers" ends.
      The main adventure, and those great battle scenes, revolve around the traveling trio of Aragorn, the blond elf archer Legolas (Orlando Bloom) and the grumpy dwarf Gimli (John Rhys-Davies). At the human settlement of Rohan, Gandalf (Ian McKellen) makes a surprise entrance to help heal the troubled King Theoden (Bernard Hill). That's when the humans prepare to defend themselves against those marching hordes at the battle of Helm's Deep

    • The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King



      Release Date: December 17, 2003
      Studio: New Line Cinema
      Director: Peter Jackson
      Screenwriter: Peter Jackson, Frances Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Stephen Sinclair
      Starring: Elijah Wood, Sir Ian McKellen, Sean Astin, Billy Boyd, Orlando Bloom, Kevin Conway, Hugo Weaving, Brad Dourif, Martin Csoka, Bernard Hill, Sir Ian Holm, Christopher Lee, Dominic Monaghan, Viggo Mortensen, John Rhys-Davies, John Noble, Liv Tyler, Karl Urban, Cate Blanchett, David Wenham
      Genre: Adventure, Fantasy, Sci-Fi
      MPAA Rating: PG-13
      Official Website: LordoftheRings.net
      Review: Not available
      DVD/VHS: Not available

      Plot Summary: The third and final part of The Lord of the Rings trilogy tells of the opposing strategies of Gandalf and Sauron, until the final catastrophe and the end of the great darkness. We return first to the fortunes of battle in the West.

    • Enchanting story teller

      The world has changed
      I feel it in the water
      I feel it in the earth
      I smell it in the air

      Much that once, is lost
      for none now live who remember it

      It began with the forging of the great rings

      Three were given to the Elves
      Immortal,wisest and fairest of all beings

      Seven to the dwarf lords
      great miners and craftsmen
      of the mountain halls

      and Nine
      nine were gifted to the race of men
      who above all else, desire power

      For within these rings was bound strength
      and the will to govern each race

      But they were, all of them, deceived
      for another ring was made

      In the land of Mordor
      in the fires of Mount Doom
      the Dark Lord Sauron forged in secret
      a master ring

      and into this ring poured his cruelty, his malice
      and his will to dominate all life

      One ring to rule them all

      \
      \
      \
      \

      The ring passed to Isildur
      who had this one chance to destroy
      evil forever

      But the hearts of men
      are easily corrupted
      and the ring of power has a will of its own
      it betrayed Isildur to his death

      and some things
      that should not have been forgotten
      was lost

      History became legend
      Legend became myth
      and for two and a half thousand years
      the Ring passed out of all knowledge

      Until, when chance came
      it ensnared a new bearer

      The ring came to the creature Gollum
      who took it
      deep into the tunnels of the misty mountains

      and there, It Consumed him

      The ring brought to Gollum
      unnaturall long life
      for five hundred years
      it poinsoned his mind
      and in the gloom of Gollum's cave
      it waited

      Darkness crept back into the forests of the world
      Rumor grew of a shadow in the East
      Whispers of a nameless fear
      and the Ring of power perceived
      its time had now come

      It abandoned Gollum

      But something happened then
      the ring did not intend

      It was picked up by the
      most unlikely creature imaginable

      A hobbit, Bilbo Baggins of the Shire

      For the time will soon come when hobbits
      will shape the fortunes of all


      Galadriel



      To me The Lord of the Rings
      is Cate Blanchett voice-over and the prologue
      what comes after ...!!?? no comments


      thanks


      Nazlat

    • Although i have the CD of this movie, i haven't the opprtunity to see it until now

      I really don't know why?..my youngest siblings and cousins saw the movie but i didn't like to see it with them$$7 Maybe becase i prefer to see it by myself at first so i could focus on it well..

      Maybe i am going to see it one day on Oman TV#e

      Thanks a lot Master for your big effort in posting this story of this movie besides the pictures

    • Its been a full year since i've been to see the second part of this movie$$t On December 17th, this year, i went to see the last and concluding part! The Return Of The King..... I have to say, the journey really did end and the last part was amazingly astonishing

      i really enjoyed it and think that this movie would be one of greatest ever

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