The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) Review

A lot of people have a deep love for The Lord of the Rings movies. I unfortunately don’t, and in this post I shall touch on some of my reasons for that. However, aware that these movies are special for a lot of people, I shall state my points in an un-heated and logical fashion, pointing out all the things I liked as well as the things I disliked…though I can’t promise there won’t be the occasional snark or the occasional caps lock. (But I’ve also been known to snark a bit at things I myself love deeply, you know. Sometimes it’s just necessary.) And I would love to discuss points of agreement or disagreement with you in the comments!

(Spoilers abound. Be warned.)

(Also be warned, this is really really long and rambly and almost going through the movie scene-by-scene. There’s really no other way to properly review The Lord of the Rings. (I was originally going to review all the movies in one post, but at some point during the writing process I realized the folly of my ways.))

I grew up on The Lord of the Rings in their original form of Tolkien’s behemoth story. The story became a family read-aloud when I was about two, so I really can’t ever remember a time when I hadn’t had exposure to it.

I didn’t see the movies until much later. I didn’t love them when I first saw them, but Noddy and I decided recently we wanted to give them a fair chance (and watch the extended editions, since we only saw the theatrical versions before), so we got the DVDs out of the library – they came in fancy matching cases of complementary colors, which made me happy – and got watching.

Let’s start in Hobbiton. The Shire, to be precise.

And I have something nice to say right out of the gate, because I love how they did Bilbo’s hobbit-hole. It was perfectly snug and cozy and bright and just the right amount of clean-but-cluttered. The rest of the Shire, though quite nice, didn’t match the Shire of my imagination (there weren’t enough trees, for one thing), but that is neither here nor there. If I mentioned every single visual thing that didn’t match the picture in my imagination, this would become quite the tedious review. (Even more so than it already is, so just try and imagine that for a bit.)

Ian Holm as Bilbo didn’t click for me, though. I didn’t find him endearing enough, and I don’t think we were given enough reason to like Bilbo or care about him; he just came across as Frodo’s grumpy old uncle with a weird sense of humor. Obviously you lose something of Bilbo’s story without the events of The Hobbit, but I still think Bilbo’s character is pretty clearly defined in The Lord of the Rings without all the added context of his backstory. In my opinion, they could have come much closer than they did to the scattered, adventure-seeking, loveable hobbit that Bilbo should be.

Elijah Wood as Frodo was one of the better-cast characters, I thought. He had a bit less gravitas (and was a bit more of a pretty-boy) than I think Frodo should have (and be) but I would say he was well-portrayed on the whole, and mostly well-acted. There were some notable exceptions to that for one or two more emotional moments, but more on that later.

I do think it was a bad decision, though, to have all the action of the story happen while Frodo is still quite young. It made his character throughout feel weaker and less mature than in the book.

Sean Astin made an extremely good Sam – probably one of the best performances in the trilogy. He had a good mix of the pluck, naivete, and stouthearted loyalty that make Sam the endearing hobbit we all know and love. He doesn’t look like the Sam of my imagination (how rude of them not to look into my mind when making casting decisions), but Such is Life.

And Ian McKellen as Gandalf is really just iconic. I can’t imagine anyone better playing him. I’ve heard that Tolkien himself had once said that if there were a movie of LOTR he’d want Cristopher Lee to play Gandalf…but while the author is almost always right, I honestly think Ian McKellen was a more Gandalf-y choice. (I’ve heard that when preparing to play the character he listened to audio recordings of Tolkien and tried to model Gandalf’s voice on his voice, which I think is really cool.)

I wasn’t so pleased with Merry and Pippin, though, at least at their first introduction. I know that they’re supposed to be more immature and silly than Frodo, but they should still be likeable and endearing; speaking personally, as they’re portrayed here I found them more annoying than anything. In the book, there was also something very touching about their schemes to join Frodo’s quest – their stouthearted refusal to let Frodo go off into danger without them, even while they had no idea of the real risks involved – which we completely lose here, where they just get caught up in the quest accidentally.

I never really warmed much to Merry throughout, but Billy Boyd’s Pippin grew on me a lot. By the end of the trilogy, though I still didn’t like all the writing of Pippin’s character, I could safely say that I think he played the character well and did a very good job when the script allowed him to. In fact, one of my favorite scenes in the whole trilogy is one between him and Gandalf – but since it happens in The Return of the King, I’ll say no more about that just at present.

Anyway. That’s all the major characters from this beginning chunk of the story, I think – unless you count Rosie Cotton; it was probably a good decision to introduce her existence here instead of waiting until almost the end of the story as was done in the book.

I’m not sure how I feel about their explaining the Ring’s entire backstory at the very beginning. I’m not immensely annoyed by it, but I don’t see how it serves the story any better than if they had waited and told the essential information as flashbacks when Gandalf explains it to Frodo. In fact, I think it makes the suspense a lot higher if you don’t have any backstory at first, and are wondering for the first twenty minutes of the movie what on earth is the deal with this weird magic ring, rather than being able to complacently say for the first twenty minutes “ah, of course, Frodo has Sauron’s Ring. Surely Gandalf should have figured this out by now.” Similarly, I saw no need at all for us to see Gandalf searching through the old manuscripts in Minas Tirith to find out the truth about the Ring…again, I think it adds more to the suspense if you’re left in the dark about where Gandalf is and what he’s doing until he comes back.

In any case, the Unexpected Party part was all fine. I’m glad they kept in the “ProudFEET!” line, and Bilbo’s “I don’t know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve” line. And the bit where we see Bilbo telling the hobbit-children about some of his adventures from The Hobbit was pretty cute.

Bilbo and Gandalf’s discussion/fight about the Ring was pretty good, too. I especially liked the shot with Bilbo slowly, slowly tilting his hand to let the Ring fall, and how very heavy it looked/sounded as it landed.

Also – not really relevant to this part in particular, but I might as well say it here as anywhere – the technical wizardry behind making the height difference between the hobbits and men was VERY well-done. (Some of the green screen was a little shakier, but this was pretty early days for good green-screening, so I can cut them slack.)

As mentioned in passing earlier, while I can understand the decision to cut out all the years passing before Frodo leaves the Shire just for story-condensing purposes, I don’t really like it. Frodo feels – and looks – very young, and lacks the maturity that book-Frodo had. It doesn’t majorly change the story, but it does change his character, and not for the better, in my opinion.

I also really, really don’t like that we see the confrontation with Gandalf and Saruman when it happens chronologically, instead of finding out about it when it’s explained at the Council of Elrond. Again, I think it REALLY cuts down on the suspense if you know exactly what’s happening to Gandalf the whole time, instead of worrying and wondering and dreading along with Frodo.

Also, who exactly made the decision that this should happen?

Gandalf is giving hyperactive-toddler energy here, which I don’t think is quite the feel that’s desired for this particular moment.

So the hobbits leave the Shire, the Old Forest and Tom Bombadil and Farmer Maggot are cut out but Such is Life, and we get to Bree.

I liked the cute detail of the separate, lower door-viewer-thingy in the door for hobbits.

I was sadly disappointed in Butterbur. (And yes, I know it’s ridiculous in a story of this size to be complaining about such a minor character as Barliman Butterbur, but what can I say? I LIKE Butterbur. I wanted to see him portrayed right. (I think LOTR just brings out this level of wrangling over nitpickiness in people…even from people like me who aren’t crazily dedicated LOTR fanatics.)) He wasn’t funny, or likeable, or remotely interesting, which was all very sad. I don’t see why things are fabricated in the movies in order to add humor (like Merry and Pippin being so annoying, and don’t even get me STARTED on the treatment they give poor Gimli), while the humor that’s actually written into the books is removed. Butterbur is a funny character! He adds levity to this rather stressful stay at Bree! Let him fulfill his purpose!

And now we meet Aragorn.

Truth be told, I’m not fully satisfied with Viggo Mortenson as Aragorn. He was just plain too young, for one thing. Though Aragorn of course should not look like he’s in his eighties, he should be seasoned, mature, well-weathered – you should be able to imagine, looking at him, that he’s spent years in the wild and slept countless nights on the hard ground and suffered through unimaginable hardships. He also needs to have an undefinable gravitas and air of authority – a certain kingliness, even before you know who he is – that I just didn’t feel. Viggo did a fine job, and I think was not at all a bad choice for the part – but he couldn’t truly BE Aragorn to me. (To be fair, I think it would be very hard to find an actor who could properly be Aragorn.)

Story-wise, I think we needed more time for the hobbits to be convinced to trust him – they made the decision in a foolishly short amount of time – but I get it, time-restraints and all that. Trying to trick the audience into thinking that the Nazgul were actually spearing the hobbits’ beds annoyed me; it had absolutely no purpose story-wise, and so felt like it was just a cheap grab for attention.

Moving on to Weathertop…the location for which was quite cool.

This bit was well-done on the whole (though why didn’t they include Frodo’s attempts to fight back against the Nazgul? I think it weakens his character to make it seem like he only runs and hides and never even tries to defend himself). I’ve heard from those who know more about such things that Aragorn’s technique in fighting multiple assailants at once is fairly realistic, so that’s cool.

And now Arwen is introduced, since Glorfindel has been replaced by her.

I think that introducing her here is an understandable decision (I’m sorry, Noddy, I know you disagree with me on this); in the context of this story, Glorfindel isn’t a very major character. That being said, I really don’t like Arwen’s characterization. They were trying so hard for the “girl-boss” image that, to me, she just felt cringey and annoying and artificial. Little that we saw of her in the book, I felt like her character there had far more gravitas than what we got here. I absolutely agree that adding more scenes with her makes sense, but…not THESE scenes.

I also disliked the dynamic they created between her and Aragorn, in which Aragorn needs Arwen’s help to overcome his self-doubt. I understand that they wanted Arwen to feel like her own character and Aragorn’s equal, but I think they already felt like equals in the original story. In fact, they feel less equal here – it seems like they’re trying to make Arwen superior to Aragorn.

Not to mention that Aragorn isn’t SUPPOSED to be constantly riddled with self-doubt. He is humble, absolutely, and he has the moment of indecision sometimes, but he is fully aware of his identity and doesn’t need Arwen’s constant reminding to know who he is and what he needs to do. (Also, the mushy-gushy-ness of their scenes together was A Bit Much. Both characters are far too mature to need to be smooching every ten seconds.)

In any case, Arwen gallops off with Frodo, does her whole “come at me, bro” thing to the Nazgul once she’s in the river, drowns ’em all, &c. I did find her grief over the ailing Frodo quite touching.

Then we’re in Rivendell! Hurray!

The location, again, was gorgeous. Absolutely perfect.

The same cannot be said for Elrond’s characterization, unfortunately – he was dour and scowling and overall just unpleasant. Very different from the kind, wise Elf-lord of the book. (He also looks like Neil Young, which was a little distracting.)

And now the gang starts arriving for the Council of Elrond!

I don’t care much for Orlando Bloom’s Legolas, either. Legolas doesn’t get much characterization, so it feels rather like we’re supposed to like him solely based on his hair, his shooting abilities, and his “aren’t I so cool” pout…and it was not doing it for me. (To be fair, I think Legolas is one of the less-developed characters in the book too, but at least he’s less annoying there.)

But I may dislike Gimli’s characterization even more. They strip the poor fellow of all dignity and subtlety and turn him into pure farcical comic relief. It’s true that he was something of a comic relief in the book, but it was done with much more subtlety (which actually made him funnier, in my opinion), and it was also not the be-all-end-all of his character. I think John Rhys-Davies could potentially have made a very good Gimli with different scripting – they make him look very Gimli-ish, and I was impressed with his acting in the 1989 Great Expectations, so it seems like this is more of a screenplay problem than an actor problem.

Sean Bean’s Boromir was exceedingly good, though; one of my very favorite characterizations in the trilogy. He felt very complex and layered, and I think he did a great job of getting across both Boromir’s flaws and virtues; his bravery, loyalty, desire for uprightness, but also his overconfidence in physical power and overconfidence in himself and his own people. You couldn’t fully dislike him or fully trust him, which is a perfect playing of Boromir’s character.

I don’t know why they had to handle the Council itself the way they did – changing it from a bunch of mature people having a conversation to a bunch of immature people shouting at each other. It comes down, once again, to a lack of subtlety. If I could state my one biggest problem with these movies, that would be it – Peter Jackson is rarely very subtle, and subtlety is something I really value and something which was very present in the original story.

In any case, Frodo will take the Ring to Mordor though he does not know the way, and the gang is off.

(But first I will stop to say that I liked the scene where Bilbo is saying goodbye to Frodo and gives him the mithril shirt and everything. The bit where he’s all sad after going berserk over the Ring sort of Got to me, if you know what I mean.)

So the Fellowship tries to go up Caradhras, it doesn’t work out too well, &c. The bit where the Ring falls off and Boromir picks it up is not at all a bad bit of character exposition (although if the Ring is really that easily knocked off of Frodo’s neck, it’s strange that it doesn’t fall off more often).

I liked the set for Moria pretty well – the sets are something the movies tend to do really really well. They did a good job of showing the grandeur and the majestic quality of Moria (at the main levels, at least), which I liked.

Frodo and Gandalf’s little conversation as they watch Gollum snooping about was good, too. The dialogue was taken from the “Shadow of the Past” chapter, of course, but I thought it fit quite well in its new place.

I didn’t enjoy the fight scene over poor Balin’s tomb so much, though. For one thing, it was interminable. (I’m sorry. I’m not a big battle-scene person, so maybe I don’t appreciate these parts as much as I should. Especially ones that are filmed with very quick shots and bad lighting and lots of handheld camera, because then I have no idea what’s even going on for most of it.) For another thing, it does seem very unlikely that, even wearing mithril chain-mail, the very direct hit that Frodo got wouldn’t have killed him then and there from just the blunt force if nothing else.

Anyway. Our Fellowship is chased around by Gross Orcy Guys, jumps around on crumbling rocks – for some unexplained reason leaving Frodo for LAST in jumping when he’s the most important person on the quest – and for some other unexplained reason the movie makes poor Gimli an object of fun of in a moment of crisis.

And then we have Gandalf’s iconic “You shall not pass!” moment, which is great, of course. I sadly found the effect to be spoiled a bit for me, though, by Frodo’s slow-motion “NNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” after Gandalf falls. It was so very over-the-top that it didn’t feel genuine and I couldn’t take it seriously. It’s a shame, because I wanted to like this part and feel bad about Gandalf and everything, but I was taken out of the mood rather.

So then Aragorn leads us off to Lothlorien…and this is the first set that I just didn’t like. They made Lothlorien creepy, and it shouldn’t be creepy. Even in winter, Lothlorien should be sunny and golden – a very pale dawn-like sort of golden, of course – there should be something indefinably ethereal about it – but it should be beautiful and enticing; a place you would really actually want to stay in. This Lothlorien was certainly beautiful, but I wouldn’t personally want to stay there for longer than a quick tour.

I didn’t like Cate Blanchett’s Galadriel either. She was also extremely creepy, and indeed gives off strong villainess-vibes when we first meet her, which I don’t think is right for Galadriel at all. Galadriel should be powerful and mysterious, but also unqualifiedly and obviously good. I find myself thinking of C.S. Lewis talking about the Oyarsa in the beginning of Perelandra – people may not like Galadriel, but it’s not because of any lack of obvious goodness on her part, it’s because they see her goodness and don’t like it because of their own lack of goodness in some respect. (I think we see that clearly with Boromir’s reaction to her. He resents her, not because of any issue with her, but because she exposes his own faults and temptations.)

Celeborn was pretty forgettable, but let’s face it, he’s pretty forgettable in the books too, so I’m not complaining too much about that.

Onwards we go…I like Boromir’s continuing character development…I really like the Gates of Argonath…

Frodo and Boromir’s confrontation was quite well-done. Again, I think Sean Bean’s Boromoir is one of the best performances, and he did a great job here of switching from Boromir’s manic frenzy for the Ring to a sorrowful, almost frightened realization of what he’s been doing and the effect he must be having on poor Frodo.

I’m not sure how I feel about the interaction they add between Frodo and Aragorn before Frodo runs off. I get that they wanted to show that Aragorn is able to withstand the lure of the Ring, but I really don’t think Aragorn would have sent Frodo off to Mordor all alone. He would at very least have urged him to take Sam along. (Speaking of whom, this is just a little thing, but I disliked how drawn-out they made that part where Sam is flailing underwater when trying to wade out to Frodo. It seemed – like the Nazguls spearing the beds we thought the hobbits were in – like just a cheap bid for attention; we all know that there isn’t actually any danger of Frodo just sitting there and letting Sam drown.)

Though it wasn’t book-canon, I appreciated how Merry and Pippin tried to use themselves as bait to lure the orcs away from Frodo. That was touching, and showed character growth. And it was quite satisfying when Boromir came bounding in to protect them. Boromir’s last stand over the hobbits was very good acting-wise, but I didn’t like the slow-mo and dramatic music every time he was shot. Again, subtlety. (I have heard that what’s being chanted at this part is Faramir’s lines about “I love not the sword for its brightness,” and that is pretty cool, I grant you. But I think it would have been a better directing decision to have that solemnly chanted after Boromir’s death, not dramatically chanted during his death.)

His death was well-done and properly affecting, though. (EVEN THOUGH THEY MESSED UP ARAGORN’S LINE. He’s supposed to say “No, you have conquered” not just “You fought bravely” which is LAME and doesn’t have the same heart wrenching double meanings like it’s supposed to. Erggg. But other than that it was good.)

It made me tear up and everything, though I didn’t full-on weep. (I’ll let you know when they arise which two moments in the trilogy did make me really weep, because I’m sure you’re all agog to know.)

And that being said, I should probably end this segment of the review here. My thoughts on The Two Towers are coming at some point…hopefully before we’ve all grown moss and gathered birds’ nests like Bilbo’s trolls.

What are your thoughts on The Lord of the Rings, books and movies? Which are your favorite character portrayals in the movies? What opinions of mine do you agree/disagree with?