An In Depth Review Of All Three Lord of the Rings Movies
On today's episode of LCB we did a review and tale of the tape for the LOTR trilogy, which you can listen to here:
This movie had an incredibly hard task and didn’t really have much room for error. All three movies were obviously shot at the same time, and this one had to set up this incredibly complex, dense world while developing a ton of characters at once in order to make the audience invested for the sequels. I think it was not only able to set up the trilogy perfectly, but it’s also a great standalone movie in it’s own right.
I think it’s easiest to break it down into the acting and the technical. From an acting perspective, the Fellowship will always be Ian McKellen’s movie to me. He is the wise grandfather who is almost the security blanket for the fellowship and also the audience by proxy. That is why when he is ripped away from us, it’s really devastating to us as well. Something I love about the movie is that everyone's motivations are made clear without the characters getting too one-dimensional. Every member of the fellowship is there for their own reasons, which are more distinct in the beginning before the group becomes more single purposed over time in the sequels.
On the technical side, there is so much to love about this movie. One thing that stands out in contracts to the Hobbit movies is Jackson’s balance of CGI to practical. He uses it where it is necessary to capture the sheer scale of certain settings like Moria which is so huge and dark or Rivendell which is so angelic and light. Also the scale of giant Orc armies or with creatures like the Balrog, but the practical stands out so distinctly in the more intimate scenes like Balin's tomb, the shire, the battle of Amon Hen.
I also always loved how the script had something for everyone. It has dramatic fantasy terms for the book readers, it also has dumbed down lines for the audience and plenty of comic relief. The soundtrack is also something that I always think complimented this movie as well as any soundtrack has for any series of movies. I won’t say it’s as iconic as star wars, but I could hear two notes from this and know the main theme.
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Jackson also does a great job of capturing the horrors of middle earth. The disgusting slime of Orcs, the birth of Uruks, the goblins, the Balrog, the Nazgul the Watcher in the water. There is so much to fear in this world which is also important for really showing you the gravity of the situation for the later movies.
While a lot of the Fellowship was a bit more intimate, the Two towers gets a little big grander and gives you a deeper look into the nations of middle earth as well as the corruptive powers of the ring
I think this movie, from an acting perspective, is a sort of shared glory for Viggo, Elijah Wood and Bernard Hill. Viggo shows you the turmoil Aragorn is going through coming to terms with his destiny and embracing the role as the leader of the world of men. Elijah really gives you his descent from being one of the few characters that's either outright corrupted or so afraid of being corrupted that they won't go near the ring to turning into this sort of addict almost like Gollum. I also really love what Benard Hill did in this movie because the Character of Theoden is great. I think that Theoden views himself as a failure in a lot of ways. He failed himself by allowing himself to be corrupted, he failed his son by allowing him to be killed, and he failed his people by allowing them to be slaughtered by Saruman. His conflict leads him to make the safe choice which is the wrong choice, and you can see how desperate he is by the end of the movie when he goes full Goth. Also Andy Serkis having a Shakespearean type monologues against himself are just amazing.
From a technical standpoint, the scale is obviously upped a ton on this. We get the first true battle with Helms Deep and it's not just an incredible battle in context of the movies, but arguably one of the greatest sword and shield battles in any movie ever made in my opinion. The dread before the storm, the changing tide of the battle, the desperation of those fighting it and, once again, a great balance of CGI vs practical. 3-½ months of night shoots to finish it and it paid off.
Something that stands out to me more in these movies is how similar Miyazaki is to Tolkien in a lot of ways. The story is always a warning against greed and power, and how living in a symbiotic relationship with nature is better than a parasitical one that we as humans have come used to. I think environmentalism is probably the bigger focus in this movie between not just the Ents revenge but the iron industry of Isengard being shown as the ultimate evil.
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I think this movie not only delivers on the setup of the first, but then sets the stage for the MASSIVE conclusion that we get in RTK.
The stage was set for RTK with insane expectations. The previous two movies were incredible, getting both popular and critic love while grossing close to 2 billion dollars combined. For it to work, it had to wrap up a bunch of splintered storylines cohesively while upping the action ante AND giving the audience a cathartic experience. Not only did it succeed in wrapping up what the previous two started, but it was the best standalone movie in my opinion.
From an acting perspective, there was so many moments that had to be nailed perfectly for them to work. Theoden's speech and death, Aragorn's speech at the gate and farewell to the hobbits, the Grey Havens ending, Faramir's sacrifice, Sam and Frodo at Mount Doom and so many more. Bernard Hill, yet again, delivered an undersung performance as Theoden but Viggo really killed it in what is essentially his movie. His dialogue with the King of the Dead, Elrond and his speech in front of the gate really are spectacular. Sean Astin is also incredible in this and delivers an incredibly emotional punch in more than one moment.
On the technical side, the scale reached a real make-or-break level. The battle of Pelennor Fields was like Helm's Deep on crack, so the fact that it looked as big and believable and goosebump-inducing as it was is a miracle of CGI to me. Again, and forgive me for stressing this so hard, Jackson's balance of CGI to practical was on point. Minas Tirith looked big and grand in the computer generated wide shots but also real and fantastic during the shots on set. The armor looks real, the prosthetics on the orcs look real, the swords look (and in some cases are) real. Everything helps immerse you into this fantastical world, especially the music. Howard Shore was in his fucking bag for this movie, nailing the horror of the Nazgul, suspense with Shelob and sheer desperation at the black gate.
In the end of this movie, all of our emotional investment is rewarded. We were given the greatest climax any trilogy has offered while every character's arc was wrapped up perfectly. Again, considering the insane expectations the world had going into this movie, the fact that it met and exceeded them was a fucking triumph.
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Every time I watch these it just makes me fucking hate the Hobbit trilogy 10x more. Peter Jackson stretching that book into three movies to make more money makes him the original All-Business Pete IMO.