This movie(s) will rule. I had just about given up hope of seeing a decent, cool movie and enjoying it ever again. Reading this and Harry Knowles' opinions makes this salty movie buff's mouth water. I need some escapist fantasy about now...

Notably, it was NOT made in or by "Hollywood". THAT institution has betrayed its true fans too many times. Need I mention their maiming of: "Godzilla", "Star Wars:the Phantom Menace", "Gone in 60 Seconds", "Tomb Raider", and on and on for, oh, about the last 5 years of dreck?

There were FReepers working on this production.

How odd that this review seems not to have read the books prior to seeing the film! Did I miss something?

I can only hope that the films will lead to reading the books. I, too, am looking forward to the films, mouth awatering. But, that comes only from having read the books through about every 24 months over the past couple of decades.

I remember when I last read all of them out loud to my family -- last winter. We were almost hanging crepe when it was over.

If anyone can get their hands on Tolkien's biography, it's a fascinating read too.

More from TheOneRing.net

From: serviam

I'm writing to report that 29, 30 & October 1st, New Line is holding a series of screenings of the 26 minutes of LOTR footage previously viewed at the Cannes Film Festival and other locations. I'm assuming that the invitations were sent out to media outlets and press (I can ONLY assume, as I was out sick from work on Friday when the publication I work for [the A&F Quarterly] received its invitation, so I haven't actually SEEN the thing; I only heard about it because a thoughtful co-worker (bless 'im) called me at home while I was convalescing).

My co-worker gave me the number of an automated screening-reservation line provided by the P.R. firm that's handling the firm. A quick call to a human-being-operated line listed on the recording enabled me to find out the location of the screening and all the available times (21 in all). I made my reservation for sunday's 6:30pm showing. At five o'clock, I caught a Long Island Rail Road train from my (so sick she couldn't come with me, much to our mutual chagrin) girlfriend's apartment into The City. I tried to use the time wisely--instead of staring into the windy, rainy night through the windows, I finished off Clive Barker's wonderful work of dark fantasy, Weaveworld. Thank goodness Barker's so good, or I might have been completely incapacitated by the mix of anticipation and trepidation I felt about the footage. Of course, I'd seen all the reviews, for which the word "rave" seemed woefully inadequate, but my hopes for this movie are higher than those for any other film I can remember. (This coming from a man who has a tattoo of the Rebel Alliance insignia on his right arm--in other words, there have been other movies in recent years that i've looked forward to for some time.) I met up with my good friend and fantasy afficinado Ken in Penn Station, and away we went, by subway and foot, to our destination.

As we entered the lobby we could hear the sounds from the 6pm screening bleeding through the doors. Not wanting anything spoiled, I threw on my headphones and blasted the latest Tool record, successfully drowning out even the Balrog (Tool can do that). The doors opened promptly at 6:30, spilling out about 20 thoroughly impressed industry types. (Even New Line studio flacks seemed legitimately pleased by what they'd seen.) Ken and I took our place in the screening room's lush seats, and almost within seconds, the lights went down, and the film began.

At this point, words fail me.

Others have summarized the contents of the Cannes footage, and I won't rehash their work. I will simpy add my voice to the growing chorus of people who have boldly proclaimed that nothing--and I mean NOTHING--can prepare you for how absolutely INCREDIBLE this film is. The teasers, the trailers, the interviews, the spy reports--impressive as they are--are incapable of conveying the truth of the matter: What P.J. and company have done here is not just good, not just great, but PERFECT.

DEAD.

SOLID.

PERFECT.

I literally had not a single complaint. I was transfixed from beginning to end. I was totally convinced by everything--the sets, the scenery, the costumes, the effects, the creatures, (most crucially) the performances. There is quite simply not a single off note. I came away with certain impressions that stand out in retrospect--how perfectly Ian Holm has captured Bilbo's charm...how utterly convincing the Cave Troll is (of course it doesn't look "real"--nothing that ISN'T real "looks real"--but it's only that semantic distinction that keeps you from believing it'll leap out of the screen and come after YOU next)...how Hugo Weaving, in his portrayal of Elrond, somehow managed to convey centuries of hardship and sorrow in a mere look upon seeing the One Ring for the first time since his comrade Isildur defied his advice an Age ago...how a second-long glimpse of Miranda Otto as Eowyn left me wondering whether Aaragorn's heart could stand the strain of being near her...how John Noble as Denethor's one-line appearance made me ache for the loss of Boromir as though he were my own son...how Moria is every bit as awesome as the greatest city the dwarves ever constructed should be (as my friend Ken put it, "The problem with fantasy films up until this point is that no one was willing to spend the money it takes to convey the scope of how these things appear in your mind...but that WAS the scope of how those things appeared in my mind!")...how Sam--I mean Sean Astin--NO, I mean SAM--is indeed the best friend a hobbit could have...I could, and probably will, go on for hours. It truly is that good, my friends, even for a person who's invested so much mental and emotional energy in Tolkien's world over the years that anything short of perfection would be treason. It bears repeating: it's perfect. Absolutely perfect.

A final thought: As I waited for the subway to take me back to Penn Station, I looked at a sign that read "Subway Service As Of September 19." The seemingly banal announcement that changes had occurred in subway service that bore posting brought crashing home the horrible images of the catastrophe that necessitated those changes. A catastrophe, I suddenly realized, that had been completely banished from my mind for 26 glorious minutes. But the footage I saw was no balm of forgetfulness; it offered more than mere oblivion. It offered the knowledge that good can, and must, triumph over evil. It offered the hope that even the littlest of us can make that happen. It made me realize that this film--this story--is exactly what we need. Coming full circle, Barker once told me (no, I'm not above name-dropping) that his fondest hope was to share his dream-life with as many people as possible. Peter Jackson has taken it upon himself to do exactly that with the dreams of J.R.R. Tolkien. Now more than ever, let us be grateful that he's succeeded. And believe me, he has, he has, he has.

From Aint-it-cool-news.com

Moriarty Takes A Trip To Middle Earth: LOTR Cannes Footage Reviewed!!

Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.

I am finally able to set aside my voodoo doll of Knowles and stop putting giant needles in his back. We are once again on at least a semi-even keel. You see, Wednesday morning at New Line, I got a chance to see the 30 minute reel of footage from LORD OF THE RINGS that was shown to the world press at Cannes.

And I feel much better now, thanks.

You see, up until now, I've been watching LORD OF THE RINGS the same way all of you have. I've been checking out the stills that popped up online. I saw the two theatrical trailers and that one great Internet trailer. I've seen a few of the New Line behind the scenes clips from the website. I'm very interested in the films, but to be honest, I thought of them as Harry's project on the site, the films he was covering. I knew I wasn't going to go to Cannes this summer, so I didn't feel like I'd "missed"something when he went.

The more I heard about it from other outlets, though, from people who hadn't been to New Zealand, who hadn't seen the behind-the-scenes stuff Harry had seen, the more I started to get antsy, impatient. Everyone sounded like they'd had religious experiences watching the footage. There was a screening in LA for some of the press at the Egyptian Theater one day, and I didn't find out until the day after. They showed in in Australia. The more times it showed, the more desperate I got.

And then Gordon Paddison and Wendy Rutherford came through. New Line Publicity Gods that they are, they invited me to one of the screenings on Wednesday, and I managed to wrangle an invite for John Robie, one of the our other West Coast operatives. And so it was that we arrived a half-hour early, crazy to see the footage, determined to get good seats. We did, indeed, too, in the second row of the small screening room, right between Keith Stern, who runs McKellan.com, Ian's official site, and Smilin' Jack Ruby, man about town for CHUD and 13TH STREET.

The room filled up quickly, and by 11:00, the whole bunch of us were fidgeting with our press notes, chattering a little too loudly, anxious for it to start. When the lights went down, I got that feeling you get when the rollercoaster first catches the track and you start to move forward, into that first big hill. The New Line logo comes up, then a shot of Gandalf and Peter Jackson sitting in a cart, with Gandalf driving. I know you've heard reports that Ian McKellan was going to be playing Gandalf in the films, but I'm afraid that isn't true. They appear to have just found the real Gandalf and pressed him into service. I've met Ian McKellan, and that certainly isn't him in the footage I saw. Peter Jackson welcomed us to Middle Earth, and I realized that he was smaller... hobbit-sized. As he spoke to us, the viewers, Gandalf smiled down at him, bemused by Jackson. When Peter finished his brief intro, Gandalf couldn't resist a wry, "Very nice, Peter."

And then the real footage began.

And that's right about the time I lost my damn fool mind.

Those first shots of Hobbiton set the tone right away. The green of the hills, the golden mid-afternoon sunlight, the way the doors of the Hobbit holes are set in the earth... it's all perfect. There's a sculpted, painted feel to each image. Gandalf climbs down from his cart and knocks on the door to one particular Hobbit hole. An irritated voice tries to shoo Gandalf away from the other side of the door, saying "I don't want to see any more well-wishers." Gandalf can't help but smile as he asks, "How about an old friend?" The door is thrown open to reveal Bilbo Baggins, who looks startlingly like Ian Holm. Couldn't be, though. Bilbo is just over three feet tall, and when he embraces Gandalf, it's obvious these are real people interacting, not special effects set against each other.

Bilbo invites Gandalf in, and as Gandalf steps inside, my eyes went on overload. It was like I was having trouble processing what I was seeing. As Bilbo took Gandalf's hat and staff from him and moved around the Hobbit hole, the camera following, it was odd. I've read descriptions of this setting since I was very young, and now, all of a sudden, here it was, real, with a real Hobbit running around. Gandalf catches his head on a chandelier, then slams it again moving into another room. The whole time, he and Bilbo talk, and you can sense the history between the two of them. These are old friends, bound by shared adventure. Gandalf finds a map that Bilbo has out on a table, and as he looks at it, we recognize it as the map from THE HOBBIT. Even though I've never seen this map, I recognized it right away.

The footage then jumps forward to Bilbo's birthday party, and it's pretty obvious how drunk Bilbo is. He's slurring his words, barely able to stand up. He tells the people of Hobbiton good-bye, then slips on the Ring, vanishing instantly. As strange as it is, this is one of the details I wanted to see. There's a million ways to make someone disappear. Do you do it all at once? Do they go translucent first? Is there a sound when they do it? All those choices are important, and in every moment of this footage, the choices Jackson has made are strong ones. This doesn't feel like a film where the FX are the reason to watch, and part of that is because the FX are so incredibly good. They are simply part of the texture of the world, not something removed from it. When Bilbo reappears in his Hobbit hole, he is confronted by Gandalf, who demands the Ring from him. There's a moment where Bilbo isn't sure he can give the Ring up. He's worn it less than 20 times in his whole life, but it's already got a hold on him. When he gives it to Gandalf, it looks like it almost breaks him. Bilbo slips away in the middle of the night, leaving Gandalf to explain things to Frodo.

And again... I didn't see Elijah Wood in this footage. I've seen Elijah Wood in a number of good films over the years. I'm a huge fan of THE ICE STORM. I've watched Elijah grow up on film, and I've even had lunch with him. The person I saw yesterday was Frodo Baggins. It was obvious when he decides to hide the Ring and never speak of it again. "After all, no one knows it's here... do they, Gandalf?" The way he turns, the way he looks at Gandalf, dawning fear in his eyes... there's something innocent about this poor Hobbit. He has no idea what he's in for, or what is going to be expected of him. "Do they, Gandalf?"

And then there's the Black Riders, sweeping into the Shire at night, the Hobbits just barely escaping ahead of them in a series of quick cuts. In the Prancing Pony in Bree, we see the Hobbits trying to blend in, and we see a dark figure in the corner watching them, our first glimpse of Strider. We see the moment from the second trailer. "Are you frightened?" "Yes." "Not frightened enough." There's something great about the quiet confidence in what Strider says there, the way he knows trouble is going to keep coming. A few more quick cuts, and we're in Rivendell. Our first glimpse of Elrond, looking absolutely nothing like Hugo Weaving. Looking absolutely nothing like a human, actually. There's something ethereal about Elrond, something alien and beautiful. We see the Council meeting to discuss the fate of the Ring, and we hear Gandalf warn of its power. Frodo steps up to volunteer himself to carry it to Mount Doom, the only place the Ring can be unmade. Gandalf says he will join him. Then Aragorn speaks up, offering his sword. And Boromir. And Legolas. And Gimli. And Samwise and Merry and Pippin. And as we look at the Fellowship of the Ring, assembled for the first time, I got real chills. Again, I've imagined these characters for most of my life, and to look at them, flesh and blood, all of them exactly as I'd imagined, the Hobbits the right height, the Elves perfect and odd, Gimli a fireplug of a warrior... it was overwhelming.

We saw the money shot from the second trailer, each member of the Fellowship coming over that mountain pass, all of them to perfect scale even with that moving camera, and a track from Hans Zimmer's GLADIATOR score came up underneath, low and building in power. We hear them discuss the best way to proceed, and they decide that they will not go over the mountain, but will instead go through it. They decide to enter the Mines of Moria.

All the footage already had gotten me wound up, but just hearing them say "The Mines of Moria"and seeing the doors that they were about to enter kicked me over into a different sort of excitement. It was like we had finally crested the hill, and the rollercoaster was dropping now, down into that first crazy plunge back to earth.

The scale of the mines as they enter is staggering. Giant columns, endless rows of them, all shrouded in shadow. Only Gandalf's staff provides illumination as they walk through this long-dead place. We saw a sort of condensed version of the scene. There's stuff here like the Watcher outside and Frodo catching sight of Gollum's eyes in the darkness that wasn't included in the footage. It's in the film, but they cut our sequence to give us one particular stretch of action, placing it in the right context first. Watching the Fellowship move through the Mines, you get a real sense of how small they are in this place, how unprotected. It's just them. There's no army to back them up. Even the tallest of them is just a speck here, and the way Jackson shoots them is evocative, powerful.

They find the tomb of Gimli's king, and he collapses, weeping openly on the tomb. Gandalf finds a book amidst the bodies around the tomb, a record of what happened in this place, and he reads from it, from the last entry. "Something is coming. They are here." It's terrifying, and as Pippin flinches away from Gandalf's words, he knocks loose a bucket that goes ricocheting down a long well, dragging with it a chain that is wrapped around a skeleton in armor, all of it going along, clanging and banging the whole way down. The noise is incredible. It takes a long, long moment for the silence to return, and Gandalf hisses, "Fool of a Took." He just barely has time to register his displeasure before another noise begins.

This noise, however, is getting closer.

There is the sound of drums playing, war drums beating, and vast numbers of something moving up from the bowels of the mines, coming closer, and the Fellowship has no choice but to draw back into the relative safety of the room they are in, barring the door just ahead of a flood of arrows and orcs. As the Fellowship draws up close, backs together, and begins to ready their weapons, Frodo sees that Sting, his sword, is glowing blue. He just barely has time to register the fact before the door gives way and these horrifying creatures begin to sweep into the room. The battle that unfolds is harrowing, bloody, vicious. The Hobbits fight with the same determined valor as anyone else, and they begin to turn the tide of the fight, slaying everything that attacks.

Then the Cave Troll comes bursting in. If you look quickly, you can see the Cave Troll in the new commercial that premiered last night during the MTV Video Awards. This thing is what I always wanted the Rancor to be. He's fast, huge, deadly, and totally convincing. When Legolas tangles with the thing, there's real menace to the way it moves. Legolas runs up the thing's arm, shoots an arrow down into the top of its spine, then leaps off of it. The way the thing uses both its hammer and a chain on its wrist as weapons is fantastic. Everyone has a different fighting style. The way Aragorn weilds his sword, or the way Legolas uses his bow, or the way Gandalf fights with both Glamdring and his staff at once... it's breathtaking.

The Cave Troll corners Frodo, literally, playing cat and mouse with him around a column in the corner of the room. When he catches Frodo and starts dragging him out of his hiding place, Aragorn attacks, and he uses a sort of trident to spear the thing. It roars, knocking Aragorn through the air, and pulls the weapon free, turning it on Frodo. He appears to spear Frodo, and this spurs the others to go crazy, attacking the Cave Troll with renewed intensity. All the orcs are dead now, and the Fellowship works together, slashing and hacking the Cave Troll, circling in on it. Legolas puts one arrow right through the roof of the Troll's mouth, piercing its brain, finally taking the thing down. When they run to Frodo's side, he is okay, already sitting up to reveal the mithral armor he wears, a gift from the Elves.

There's barely any time to catch your breath, though. As amazing as that scene is, it leads right into them fleeing through the Mines, just ahead of an even-greater army of orcs. They flood into the main chamber like spiders, crawling over walls and down columns, a blanket of evil stretching out behind the Fellowship, then stretching out ahead. The Fellowship stops, trapped, orcs on all sides of them. It's like a nightmare image. Just when it looks like they're going to be attacked, there's the distant glow of fire, and the orcs stop. There's a mammoth sound, low and rumbling, and the orcs actually begin to scatter. Gimli looks pleased, like he believes the orcs are afraid of the Fellowship. They're not, though. They're afraid of the same thing that Gandalf is afraid of, the thing that casts the flickering reflection of flames on the walls as it draws closer. Gandalf urges the Fellowship to run, and he stays right behind them.

By this point, there was a woman in the screening room a few rows behind me who had come down with an acute case of the holy shits. Very low, almost too herself, she just kept saying, "Holyshitholyshitholyshitholyshit,"a mantra of disbelief. I could feel my own mouth hanging open, and a quick glance at Smilin' Jack and John Robie confirmed that they, too, were stunned by what they were seeing.

The Fellowship starts into another chamber, down a long series of stairs, and what is set and what is digital matte and what is miniature all blurs for me. What I am seeing is impossible, but it is real. As the Fellowship tries to head across the stairs, the thing in pursuit of them begins to rain massive blows down on the room, and sections of the stairs begin to fall away ahead of them. There is no choice but to push forward, even if that means jumping for the humans or throwing the Hobbits across. Someone offers to throw Gimli and he growls at them, "No one tosses a dwarf,"practically biting their arm off. One after another, they make the leap, until it's only Aragorn and Frodo left to cross. Another section of stairs falls away, and suddenly it's too far to jump. There's no way they can make it. The room continues to crumble, and suddenly the whole upper section, where Aragorn and Frodo stand, begins to fall. "LEAN FORWARD!"Aragorn yells. "FORWARD!!" He and Frodo ride the stairs down, into the next section of stairs, leaping at just the right moment. This whole time, orcs shoot arrows at the Fellowship, and Legolas returns a steady stream of fire. It's unreal how many elements of suspense Jackson seems to juggle at once. The Fellowship begins to hurry off, but Gandalf stops and turns to face whatever is pursuing them. "Your swords can do no more good here,"he says, urging them to leave him. Just then the Balrog makes its entrance, and upon first sight, it became one of my favorite movie monsters ever. Made of shadow and fire, with flames that erupt from cracks in its skin, like a giant bull with elements of a scorpion mixed in, the Balrog is like nothing you've seen on film before. Gandalf stands and faces it, and in a voice that is worth every penny McKellan was paid and more, intones, "YOU... WILL... NOT... PASS!!" He slams his staff down, we fade to white...

... and then the shots are flying past us now, fast, each one more amazing. Frodo and Galadriel speaking together in Loth Lorien. Several shots of Arwen. Shots of massive battles. A quick glimpse of Wormtongue. Saruman The White facing the Fellowship. Theoden The King in obvious distress. The battle at Helm's Deep. Aragorn readying himself for battle, putting on his armor. There is dialogue over the images, but the blood pounding in my own ears prevents me from retaining it. There's a lyrical beauty to every bit of dialogue we hear, though, an almost Shakesperean elegance to it. This is not dumbed down. This is not for the lowest common denominator. These are massive historical epics, a modern mythology come to vivid life, and what we are being promised here are films for adults, movies that have something to say.

But the thing that got me... the thing that brings tears to my eyes even now, almost two days later... is a series of shots right at the end of what we saw, footage from RETURN OF THE KING. In one shot, Sam is kneeling over Frodo, and they both look scorched, beaten, barely able to draw breath. Sam leans in over Frodo, tears on his face, and says, "It is too heavy, Mister Frodo, and I cannot bear the weight. I cannot carry The Ring." A look crosses his face, something terrifying and determined and undeniable. "But I can carry you!" That declaration of love, so powerful in the scripts I read over a year ago, is wrenching on film, and it's only made more powerful by the next image. Frodo stands in the heart of Mount Doom, bathed in its unearthly glow, and turns to face Sam. Something has died in his eyes, replaced by something dark and awful, and he practically screams, "I will NOT destroy it!! The Ring is mine!!" And as he moves to slip it onto his finger...

The lights come up.

And I'm sitting in a screening room just off Beverly Blvd. It's a Wednesday morning. Everything's back to normal.

Only it's not. Because I've seen what I've seen now, and there's no turning back. I'm not just eager to see these films at this point. I'm rabid. I'm manic. I've never seen anything like the images I saw yesterday, and neither have you.

You think you're ready. But you're not.

You think that you get it by reading my description or Harry's description or Smilin' Jack Ruby's description or the recent description over at TheOneRing.net. But you don't.

You think you understand after you see the new TV trailer that debuted last night. But you can't.

On December 19th, it all changes. What we call a blockbuster, how we view fantasy on film... changed, transformed by two hours and forty-five minutes that will transport you through time and space to Middle Earth. You will take that journey with the Fellowship, and along the way, over the course of three films, we are going to be treated to a spectacle of imagination the likes of which we have not seen in years. Technology and storytelling and design and performance have all been drawn together masterfully by Peter Jackson and his amazing cast and crew, and if 30 minutes of footage can turn me from an interested observer to an evangelical loon, then the whole film may just reduce me to that humbled, awe-stricken child who first fell in love with movies and their potential so many years ago.

At least, I hope so. Dear God, I hope so.

FYI

FYI

75 days to go bump!

Oh my precious.....

If anyone can get their hands on Tolkien's biography, it's a fascinating read too.

One of the flowers of that generation sent to the trenches of the Western Front that somehow escaped being gassed, torched, blown to bits, or mowed down in the mud and filth, or left like shredded meat upon the barbed wire.

Imagine he and C.S. Lewis, years later, sitting in a pub, arguing over the various natures of dragons!

OH GOD I AM SO STOKED NOW....

For someone who read this(and loved it) as a child I can't help but get the feeling that the world is being let in on a secret.

Years ago I saw the cartoon they made of the first part of the trilogy and I remember how disappointed I was. My only question about this movie has been "Can they do the books justice?" and all indications are that they have. I've never been more excited about a movie release.

Fantasy doesn't grab me, but now I'm looking forward to seeing this.

Thanks for the flag.

"The problem with fantasy films up until this point is that no one was willing to spend the money it takes to convey the scope of how these things appear in your mind..

OH so very true...fantasy has had a horrible time breaking into the film genre...largely because the technology and the monetary funds to make it happen have never been there before...not to mention the willingness to stay true to the intent of the original book. Bakshi's version was horrible, although at the time, having been a HUGE HUGE fan of The Hobbit since I was ten, it was an attempt...a very feeble one at that...but at least it was a try...which at the time, was all that me and a very close friend were hoping for. Rotoscoping, which was doing animation over live shots, was about as realistic as it could get without spending the money.

I hated Bakshi's Aragorn, though...ugly ugly...

Hope Vigo Mortensson (sp?) is better.

I have seen pictures of Elijah and Sean though...NO ONE could be better at Frodo and Sam. I recall there was a lot of caterwauling in the British community about not usuing a completely British cast, but I told them then and I believe it now, they will see Elijah and Sam and BE BLOWN AWAY.

and I agree with earlier posters...the very fact that it is taking a producer OUTSIDE the Hollyweird tentacles that will make this film great. Hollyweird has gone bad on telling good vs. evil stories since the days of Steven Spielberg...too much commercialism....

By the way, anyone else besides me looking forward to the Harry Potter movie, another epic good vs. evil fantasy????

NOTICE: if you have an aversion to Harry Potter, I suggest you take your comments to your own d*mn thread. This is not your room to proselytize.

bold and italics OFF

"fantasy has had a horrible time breaking into the film genre."

Probably the funniest thing I have read her since the 11th! :-)

As for Harry Potter, It will beat Lord of the Rings hands down at the box office.

PS. I will put $100 into FreeRepublic's kitty against the first freeper who disagrees!

In other words the loser of the bet pays up! (2 months after BOTH are released in the US is the deadline.)

'splain.

By the way, anyone else besides me looking forward to the Harry Potter movie, another epic good vs. evil fantasy????

Yup. I'll probably wind up seeing both on their opening nights. HP because the wife would kill me if she had to wait an extra day and FOTR because I'm already going stir-crazy waiting for the release.