“But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines, it will shine out the clearer.”
Titles: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, The Return of the King
Director: Peter Jackson
Where Available: HBO Max
The Lord of the Rings trilogy is known for being one of the best film and book series of all time. At some point in my early life, I watched three The Hobbit movies in the theater with my parents, as The Lord of the Rings is one of their favorite sets of films ever. I remember none of those movies. I have wanted to watch the story of Frodo Baggins and the Rings for such a long time, and 2021 felt like the right year to pull out the DVD set and get to it. One of my main film goals for 2021 was to knock out pretty much all of the top-rated movies of all time, as I could literally be a “film student” in just a few months. It only seems right to start with LOTR. I do own the extended versions as well as the regular release versions. For my first time around, I watched the standard length versions, but I know I will be revisiting the extended versions very, very soon. (I am organizing this review by film so that my ideas are more focused on each one individually)
The Fellowship of the Ring:
I’m not a very epic high fantasy/magical/battle filled movie person, but WOW, was this spectacular! This film does a great job at introducing the world that The Lord of the Rings takes place in: Middle Earth. We meet the Hobbits in The Shire, the Elves in Rivendell, the Orcs at the Battle of the Chamber of Mazarbul in the Misty Mountains, and so many more races so many different locations. I am no-where close to understanding any of the terminology in the realms of Middle Earth, but it didn’t matter for this movie. I was here for the adventure.
The coloring in The Fellowship of the Rings is so vivid that my eyes were glued to the screen. Each section of the world we enter has a unique atmosphere, letting the viewers and fans of the book see the difference between new and old and good and evil.
Since I didn’t understand much of the script, as I am no mega fan yet, instead of looking at a character’s mouth when speaking, I was looking at their eyes. Peter Jackson and his actors really love eyes. I wish I had counted how many shots of just eyes there were in this film alone.
SCALE. SCALE. SCALE. Right off the bat with Frodo and Gandalf, the size difference is visually mind-boggling and utterly impressive. I have no idea how the editors and special effects team pulled this off without making it look stupid.
I am VERY MUCH ready to see where Aragorn goes to in movie two, along with Frodo and Sam, who seem to start on a diverging plot-line for the rest of the trilogy.
This was a REALLY strong start, and I will have to rewatch this next time with a fine-tooth-comb.
Favorite Character: Legolas - DID YOU SEE THOSE SHOTS HE MADE WITH HIS BOW AND ARROW???
Favorite Line: Frodo - “It is no bad thing to celebrate a simple life.”
Run Time: 2h 58 min
Rating: 5/5 (starting strong, and it only goes up from here)
The Two Towers:
I had such an URGE to watch The Two Towers immediately after finishing The Fellowship of the Ring, but 1) it is three hours long, and 2) I worked late for a few days and wanted to sleep IMMEDIATELY when I got home, but WOW was it worth the wait. I digested the first film and gave it a 5/5 just to be completely entranced by the second.
I was much more emotionally invested in this film. All of the characters were pulling on my heartstrings left and right. I may have shed a tear or two towards the end. This movie had many different storylines; Frodo, Sam, and Gollum; Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli; Saruman and his army; and the Trees, Pippin, and Merry. All of these paths, minus Frodo’s, meeting up in the end to fight was so satisfying. Speaking of fighting, the Battle of Hornburg at Helm’s Deep was extraordinary! (The only reason I know the names of anything this time around is because a quarter of a way through this movie, I decided to make a cheat sheet, which I will include at the end of this post) The action was intense, bloody, sweaty, and so entertaining. The Two Towers focused much more on the enormous landscapes and terrain than the architecture, even though some pretty incredible towers like the title says.
We get to hang out with Gollum a lot in this movie, which was not pleasant. He is SO GROSS, but it was awesome to watch him drive the boys insane. I mean, he has full-on conversations with himself and his multiple personalities, which made the movie even better!
I can’t talk about iconic characters and not mention my husband, Legolas. This man has my heart. The most memorable moment in this entire movie was when Legolas LITERALLY surfs down a set of stairs on a piece of wood in the middle of a massive battle WHILE shooting with his bow and arrows IN THE DARK! It was so badass, and I will never forget it.
The special effects got much, much better in the second film as I expected, and I’m sure movie three will be even better! I couldn’t take my eyes off the screen for this one.
Favorite Character: Samwise. This man is the best sidekick and friend in the entire world, and nothing can change my mind.
Favorite Line: Samwise - “But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines, it will shine out the clearer.”
Run Time: 3h
The Return of the King:
“Well, I’m back.” And with those words, Peter Jackson ends the best movie trilogy of all time. The Lord of the Rings has come to an end, but the story of the Ring will go on forever. There was no way I could wait after watching the second, so I started immediately!
Any movie that starts with a happy scene in a pub will instantly become the saddest movie ever, and then, in the end, it will also have a happy scene in a pub. (I am never wrong!)
It was creepy to see Gollums origin story after all the horrible things he has done and is about to do. I don’t remember if there was more to his story introduced in the Hobbit, but yeah, this was weird and perfect.
The stars of this movie are Pippin and Merry, hands down. THEY BOTH FACE THEIR FEARS AND DO EVERYTHING THEY CAN TO SAVE MIDDLE EARTH. They are the perfect characters, and the line “You smoke too much Pippin” proves it. Them finding each other in the end made me scream “The bros are back together” so loud.
The two massive war scenes in this movie were so satisfying. I just KNOW that mega super fans of the books and the first two movies were screaming when the Battle at Pelennor Fields and the Battle of Morannon happened because I was screaming, and I’m new to this world.
One fantastic thing about The Return of the King was the run time. Now 3 hours and 20 minutes may seem like a super long movie (I type this as I am watching Kenneth Branaugh’s movie version of Hamlet that is 4 hours long), but I was two hours in before I realized I was two hours in if that makes sense. Time flew by because I was so entranced. Now, could I explain to you what happened in the first two hours? Nope, but the feelings I had are explanation enough. I thought the first chunk of the movie was emotional, but WOW was the last hour a ROLLERCOASTER. I thought the Battle at Pelennor Fields was the end and that everything was going to be resolved, and then I remembered that Frodo didn’t make it to Mount Doom at Mordor. That is when things started going downhill for me, or rather uphill for the film (See what I did there?)
Frodo and Sam’s relationship in this film was like a knife being twisted so far into my heart.
Here are some of my notes from watching:
Sam giving Frodo his share of water and a portion of his food? Gollum blaming Sam for eating the last of the food and sending him off? Sam finding the food towards the bottom of the mountain?? Sam protecting the ring after thinking Frodo died from the spider??? Sam killing the orcs that took Frodos body after the spider???? Sam carrying Frodo the rest of the way up Mount Doom because the ring took so much energy out of him????? Frodo putting the ring on at the last moment and seeing Sam cry??? Frodo and Sam LYING ON THE ROCKS AS THE VOLCANO EXPLODES????? SAM CONGRATULATING FRODO ON FINISHING THE BOOK THAT BILBO STARTED????????? THAT HUG FROM SAM BEFORE FRODO GETS ON THE LAST SHIP LEAVING MIDDLE EARTH??????? THAT VOICEOVER OF FRODO GIVING HIS FINAL GOODBYE TO SAM WHILE WE SEE SAM LIVING A HAPPY LIFE IN THE SHIRE?????? Can you tell that this made me emotional? Frodo and Samwise forever.
I will again explain why Legolas is the coolest character in this whole world. He climbed a giant elephant looking monster using arrows shot into its body while shooting arrows at the people driving it, and then slid so elegantly off the trunk as the animal fell. I mean, COME ON! WAS THAT NOT THE MOST BEAUTIFUL THING EVER? I also loved that Gimli and him were counting how many kills they got during the battle, and Gimli said that this only counted as one. Iconic.
When Aragorn is crowned king and instead bows to the 4 Hobbits (Frodo, Samwise, Pippin, and Merry), I felt a tear stream down my cheek. This one hurt, even though it ended happily.
Favorite Character: Aragorn - Fun fact: for the longest time, I thought Liam Neeson was Aragorn, and I would go around and say, “Wow. Liam, you are a king for being in two of the best movie trilogies of all time (Batman and LOTR).” This is sadly not the case. I seriously looked at those DVD covers for so long and did not realize it wasn’t him. It turns out he is played by Viggo Mortensen, which I didn’t know until the moment I started the series. After finishing the films, I was watching a Cinema Therapy video on youtube called “ARAGORN vs. Toxic Masculinity.” The best line to describe Aragorn from this video is, “You can decapitate orcs and write poetry. They are not mutually exclusive.”
Favorite Line: “My dear Sam. You cannot always be torn in two. You will have to be one and whole for many years. You have so much to enjoy and to be and to do. Your part in the story will go on.”
Run Time: 3h 20 min
My silly little cheat sheet:)
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