I guess I am fine with some of her scenes for that reason, but to include her just for Title IX reasons, I can’t agree with that.
The most jarring thing to me on a review many years later was how obvious the change of perspectives were when dealing with the backs of heads of small actors that are supposed to be hobbits or dwarves, and it makes me feel differently about the first film, which was my favorite because of its slow burn pace, when much of it is actors talking to children dressed as adults.
There was a painful scene when Aragorn draws his sword on the Hobbits in Bree for the first time. It didn’t look like a badass wildman comfortable with his sword but somebody’s dad LARPing. This got better as the series went on. Minor nitpick i know.
Among other nitpicks, the scene in Moria where the CGI pillars was just copy-pasted into a giant empty hall that stretched on forever seemed pretty dated then and worse now, and the whole diversion into Athal Loren was edited pretty badly as far as pacing goes, without a clear sense of what, exactly, is going on other than another sightseeing detour. I still like the Balrog, i feel like it works because it’s relatively “steady” and not like the silly tentacle monster full of never-still CGI curves.
Super picky nitpick was always for me the hairline scratches visible on the One Ring. I felt it should have been unnaturally flawless, even if with plain ornamentation.
I’m almost close to changing my view that the first movie was the best movie - there were so many nitpicky things about it that seem second rate now when compared to the more tightly proofed and edited second film.
Also, it is weird where the tree guys pull down the dam is stop motion models and not CGI? Was this some kind of backlash against the bad CGI in the first film?
All your nitpicks are nano-level ridiculous but this one takes the cake boarding on Planck Length.
Tbh I’m kind of onboard with it. The wear gave the ring a sense of age and weight, but I think an utterly flawless gleam could have upped its unnerving factor.
Sure, but from a practical filming perspective you have two equally valid stylistic choices.
However the flawless look could be spoiled by inadvertent scuffs during scene filming. So by making it slightly imperfect you make it so any marks occurring during filming do not contradict what is already shown.
I just finished reading Fellowship of the Ring to my kids but I can’t remember if the end of the book and the end of the first movie are aligned. Are we good to watch the first movie now or do I need to read some of the 2nd book to catch up with the end of the first movie?
Read the first part of TT to them. The fellowship movie has the early parts of TT.
Awesome, thanks! Do you remember where the cutoff is?
The movie cuts off right after the party splits ways. After the fight resulting in Boromir’s death, Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli go after the hobbits, and Frodo and Sam set off for Mordor.
I don’t recall where the books divide, but that’s where Fellowship the movie stops.
Ok cool. The first book ends right after Frodo crosses the river into Rivendell and the wild river takes out the Ring Wraiths.
Oh, ha, that’s not the end of Fellowship. That’s just the end of Book 1. Fellowship is books 1 and 2. The Fellowship movie definitely goes to the end of Book 2 (“The Breaking of the Fellowship” chapter, if I remember right)
(Each volume of the trilogy consists of two books, for a total of six. The individual books don’t have names, just numbers)
Ooooohhhhhhhhh. Thanks for edumacating me on the topic!
Subject matter expert here.
You’ll want to read The Fellowship of the Ring in its entirety, then read the first chapter of The Two Towers titled “The Departure of Boromir”…before watching The Fellowship of the Ring movie.
It is that simple.
Ha, I would have bet money that The Departure of Boromir was the last chapter in Fellowship, not the first chapter in Two Towers. Goes to show what I know.
Yeah, the movie splits after slightly different.
The last chapter in Fellowship is the The Breaking of the Fellowship, which concludes with Frodo deciding to leave for Mordor on his own to avoid endangering his companions, following his adversarial encounter with Boromir alone. Although of course Sam comes tagging along.
Boromir’s death and the capture of Merry and Pippin occur in The Two Towers following an orc attack while the rest of the fellowship is still looking for Frodo.
EDIT: apparently so many people tried to access this site, it broke somehow.
But neverfear, you can access it all on the archive:
https://web.archive.org/web/20190604210219/http://www.mckellen.com/cinema/lotr/991014.htm
Whew! We just finished reading The Departure of Boromir and now are ready for the first movie. While it’s exhausting at times, there’s something awesome about reading Lord of the Rings out loud. It makes you focus on the language and pronunciation, etc. I’ve picked up a lot more nuance this time, especially since I read them The Hobbit immediately before we started LotR.
Did you study the pronication guides in the appendix already? One of the most common errors I hear is pronouncing Elf names which start with C such as Celeborn as an “S” sound instead of the hard “C” it needs to be.
I didn’t but will now! I’ve been intimidated by the Appendix.
Don’t tell your children about the appendix or they may be scarred for life if you mispronounced any names in your reading!