Lord of the Rings Trilogy Movie and DVD Review

The Lord of the Rings Trilogy

Movie and DVD Review

Sure, what else would you be doing on New Years eve apart from watching all three Rings movies back to back? I mean, it just makes sense doesn't it? I shot back that in the time it took to watch three movies which I had already seen, we could view at least seven which I hadn't. However, I could feel myself being sucked into an eleven-plus hour Whirlpool of Hobbits, Elves and Dwarves during which I feared that I would Frodo-like lose my grip on reality. I was outvoted two to one and our little Fellowship of the DVD was struck.

I was reticent from the outset and almost determined not enjoy myself. I remembered the scene in Clerks 2 where Randal Graves describes the three movies as dreary walking, and that seemed to be how I remembered them. If the films were this bad then I was going to need the Clockwork Orange eye openers to make it through all three.

I'm convinced that Peter Jackson must have put some kind of subliminal messaging into these films because by the time Cate Blanchett had finished her Elvish peth-eth-eth-eth through the opening monologue, I was ready to go on a sightseeing tour of New Zealand wearing Hobbit feet and the One Ring.

The First movie, Fellowship of the Ring, is played on a smaller scale than the two which follow. Apart from a brief trip to the land of men, Jackson keeps the backdrops distinctly unpanoramic. This gives the film a more parochial feel, which allows the other two thirds, with their massive battle scenes to really open up the trilogy. It reminded me of a Middle Earth Magnificent Seven; a band of gunslingers who come to the aid of a village in trouble. It's a character piece that invests the audience in the other two battle infested installments.

I realise now the reason why I didn't enjoy Two Towers first time out. Eighteen months had passed since the first movie, and rather than watch Fellowship again, I rented Two Towers and watched it cold. There's no recap at the start of any of the movies. Instead, you're throw straight in to the current story again. This is fair enough given that there's so much story to tell, but Two Towers doesn't have a definitive start or end and so can be disappointing if watched in isolation. Not so this time, because we whacked straight into it immediately after Fellowship.

We called it an early morning half way through the second movie and although I agreed, I secretly wanted to continue, but was brought round by the realisation that it was 2AM and there still remained some six odd hours of film.

Helm's Deep is the single best set piece in the trilogy. The only downside is that it's mostly intercut with Tree Beard scenes. Although these scenes tend to stop the pacing from becoming too frenetic, they can also be quite boring when placed alongside an Elf shooting arrows whilst sliding down a flight of stairs on a shield.

Return of the King is undoubtedly the fortunate son of the trilogy (there's a "jewel in the crown" pun just waiting to be made here). It gets all the plot resolutions, the Shelob sequence (containing my favourite trilogy camera shot of the upside down spider), Mount Doom, and, barring Helm's Deep contains all the grand battles. Even though the movie flicks through them all in whirlwind style, I would echo the "too many endings" criticism. The movie finishes too far after its climax. Viggo Mortensen must be some actor to have come away from this film seeming manly, given that in one scene he's wearing an effeminate crown and signing a musical number. I almost expected a bluebird to alight on his arm and sing along with him.

The DVD extras are top drawer. Each movie contains about five hours of documentaries, as well as writer, director, cast and crew commentaries (four in all). The cast commentaries are the best, but don't expect an even experience since the whole ensemble contribute. The highlights are Dominic Monaghan and Billy Boyd, who are genuinely funny while Sean Astin and, to a lesser extent Elijah Wood give the usual bland sentiments about "the craft" and how us normal people don't realise what a difficult process an actor goes through to create a character.

The documentaries are plentiful, but unless you're a die hard, certain parts can be skipped. The portions dealing with the adaptation of the source material and the filming process are excellent, but once I reached the WETA workshop and big-atures sections, I found myself hitting the chapter button on my remote more frequently, especially given the nasal monotony of WETA creator Richard Taylor's voice.

Now the real test. How to make it through the final paragraph with relying on the use of Gollum's "P" word? Just consider this; when you take the extras into account, there's well over twenty four hours of material in the complete box set of DVDs, not to mention that the films are some of the best made in recent years. When you factor in that the set costs less than €50 in most shops, I think you'll find that there's precious little you can do, but buy these fine DVDs. Oh...

8.5/10