I'm convinced that The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy is going to do fantasy films what Ricky Martin did to Latin music. Admit it, before Ricky Martin you probably knew only a handful of non-Hispanics that were actually interested in Latin music. Before Peter Jackson whipped out his Rings, there were only known the group of nerds and older people who, according to the populous, didn't know jack about good, mature, and realistic entertainment (like American Pie 2), and read fantasy like a little kid devours popcorn in the movie theater. Now all of a sudden The Lord of the Rings is dominating its respective bestselling list, and there's new hope that fantasy films won't just be reduced to nine hour CGI epic mini series on NBC. So this is what we've been missing!
Besides the fact that both are introducing a hoard of new people to a genre that otherwise wouldn't have been acknowledged, there, uh, obviously is nothing really similar between the manufactured Latin of Ricky Martin and Peter Jackson's genuine Lord of the Rings. Jackson threw himself into this project like Baz Luhrmann did Moulin Rouge (if Jackson weren't from New Zealand there'd be a good comparison there). Jackson has created a faithful adaptation of something once thought to be unfilmable, and created something so good that it transcends all audiences - From the geeks to the cinema purists. Thankfully, though, it's not a retread of that Star Wars crap.
I wasn't a Tolkien expert before I saw the movie (though now I've seen The Fellowship of the Ring seven times in the theater, read all three books in the trilogy and am starting to read it again, and have read The Hobbit and The Simillarion), but when I watched the movie I knew I was seeing something brilliant. This is escapism at it's best (Moulin Rouge is escapism at its nirvana), it takes you to a new world but doesn't alienate you at the same time. That was the problem with other fantasy films; they sure did take you to another world, but rarely were you actually comfortable in that world. This is mostly because these films aren't written well enough, nor are they directed/acted in a way that would be tolerable. In The Fellowship of the Ring, you actually want to sit with Bilbo (Ian Holm) and (Oscar/Golden Globe nominee/SAG winner Ian McKellen) Gandalf and smoke weed, you want to get a pint with Pippin (Billy Boyd), you share Sam's (Sean Astin) enthusiasm over seeing the elves, and once you actually see the elves you're in awe (dude, I wanna live in a place like Rivendell! dunno about Lothlorien, though, it would be hell to live in if I had bladder problems....), and you feel for Frodo (MTV Movie Award nominee Elijah Wood... snicker) every 1 million times he gets hurt or almost killed. And this is so because Peter Jackson's got all of his skills in tact; he directs the action and the cast masterfully so that almost every unbelievable thing seems real.
The Fellowship of the Ring wasn't another carbon copy movie adaptation that lacked any creativity or originality that otherwise would've made it entertaining. People get a thrill at how much scenes in The Fellowship of the Ring mirror their own mental interpretation of the book, yet the scenes themselves are hardly the same in the film as they were originally. The easiest example of this would be that in the book, Arwen (Liv Tyler) wasn't given more than a descriptive paragraph; in the movie, she's kicking Nazgul booty and getting mushy with her mortal beau Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen, one of People's 50 Most Beautiful People). And it doesn't take Gandalf but two seconds to convince Frodo that Bilbo's ring is evil and that he should get out of the Shire immediately. In the books it takes several months for Frodo to actually leave his home. Yet regardless of how different events play in the movie, it still has the same feel as the book itself, which is how every adaptation should be. Can't say that for Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, unfortunately. The script isn't perfect. The more I watched the film the more I noticed its pacing problems. Certain scenes and revelations felt rushed, though I can appreciate the effort since, hadn't they squished and eliminated certain things, the movie would've been six hours long. But still, there are certain things (like the aforementioned scene between Gandalf and Frodo) that could've been done much better.
The Fellowship of the Ring boasts one of the best ensemble casts of last year. While only Ian McKellen was the only cast member nominated for legitimate awards, he's certainly not the only best thing about the movie. There's only one in the entire cast who fails to completely invoke his character (yes, ladies, that would be your untalented Orlando Bloom, who feels obviously uncomfortable running around in tights), everyone else seems as if they've lived in Middle Earth their entire lives. Though I loved McKellen's performance, the best performance in my eyes was that of Ian Holm, who, despite being in the movie for what feels five minutes, leaves a lasting impression as Bilbo. I don't think even a real hobbit could be even more like a hobbit than Holm was (though neither I nor anyone else has actually met a real live hobbit before). Grudgingly I admit that Mr. Malnutritioned Chihuahua himself, Elijah Wood, was (gulp) excellent in this movie, and in some respects I am boggled as to why McKellen, who was marginally better, was the only one of the two that received (legitimate) recognition. I doubt we'll ever see him that good again.
And how about that Howard Shore? His score to The Lord of the Rings is the nearly equal to that of seeing an ugly duckling turn up at a ten year high school reunion looking like a knock-dead gorgeous swan. Howard Shore's no ugly duckling, though; he was a good composer before The Lord of the Rings ever fell on his lap. But, and let me do my best Orlando Bloom impression here, this is no mere score, it's a darned symphony. Opera more like it (though I'll admit, he must've listened to The Omen a few times before sitting down to write it). There's as much dedication put in this score as there was making the movie. Thankfully his score's not a retread of John Williams' bombastic crap (and hey, Shore won over him, too). If all goes to plan this easily will become one of the most famous scores of all-time.
I'll cop out and say there's too much to list to prove this movie's great. It's well directed, with enough originality and skill that would make Chris Columbus damn his NYU education; it's well acted, even if Orlando "Teen Beat" Bloom can't keep up with the rest of the cast; it's visually stunning, though they did over do the computer enhancement thing a bit too much; and most importantly, it's entertaining. It's rare that a potential blockbuster like Lord of the Rings would actually be worthy of an Oscar nomination but Lord of the Rings does it beautifully. So, um, see it or I'll make you listen to Ricky Martin.