January 27, 2010

Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
#3 on my Top 100 List
This whole trilogy revolutionized the way that mainstream audiences looked at fantasy and this one was the one that started it all. Beyond that, this launched Viggo Mortensen as a bone-fide action star and Orlando Bloom as the quintessential heartthrob of the early 2000s (who happens to be really good with a bow and arrow). There are several journeys within this movie, most obviously Boromir's arc from noble Gondorian prince to weak and greedy soldier and finally back to a man of honor. Merry and Pippin start out the story as young and naive - only at the end when they sacrifice their freedom for Frodo do they start to see the gravity of their situation. The nine actors playing the members of the Fellowship create a beautiful relationship that lasts throughout all three movies, though it evolves as it goes. This movie is the creation of an entire world and none of it disappoints - the Ringwraiths are scariest when they're on horses, demon Bilbo is beyond creepy (even if it's just a split second), and that is the best damn old man/wizard fight I've ever seen. But one of the most impressive things about this entire trilogy is that with all of those amazing special effects, some of them are still just old-fashioned hard work - forced perspective and "bigatures" (miniature models that can tower to over 11 feet) look perfect and far more realistic than the fallback CGI that any other film would have used. I saw this in theaters more than any movie to date.
My Netflix rating: 5 stars