There are a few premier fantasy franchises that have transcended nerd culture and reached the pinnacle of popular culture. These are stories like Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, and Lord of the Rings. They are all adaptations from books that turned into media either in the form of TV shows or movies. They have all received acclaim for both their movies and their literary importance. Currently Game of Thrones and Lord of the Rings are about to go head-to-head in the battle of streaming tv shows. So in preparation for the start of Rings of Power, I watched all of the Lord of the Rings movies for the first time in well over a decade, and I went all in and watched the extended editions, and let me just say woah! It was stunning. All of the movies were so good. I was completely blown away. Like kid me knew these movies were good but could never really understand what all went into these films, but now I fully appreciate all of it, and I fully understand why people rewatch these movies every year.
Of course now I have to rank the films from best to worst. Not that any of them were bad, they were all superb, but nonetheless, I still must rank them. It is an obligation.
It goes as follows:
1: Fellowship of the Ring
2: Return of the King
3: The Two Towers
The first to me, is by far the best. It does so many things well. It introduces the audience to the world, and it explains the premise of the ring in an effective way. Then it brings the audience to the present day and sets the stage for the odyssey that is about to occur. For the hobbits, they had never really been out of the shire, so they all have a sense of wonder and curiosity that is beautiful. Going out and seeing the world is such a great experience, and even though they are often in peril, it does not stop them from being awed at times by the things they are seeing, like when Sam sees the giant elephant for the first time. It is also the only movie where the conglomerate is together. In the later two movies, Sam and Frodo are mainly by themselves and with Gollum. Whereas in the first one, the fellowship is together, and it creates a great found family dynamic.
Then Return of the King is second, because it nails the dismount. There are massive battles going on, there are alliances being formed and backs being had. It is the culmination of a giant journey, and it is very fulfilling. It ends and you want it to continue, but they wrap such a nice bow on it, that it is okay that it has ended. It gives everyone a chance to be a hero, and they all step up to the plate and succeed in their trials. Also when Frodo and Sam make it into Mount Doom, that is one of the most memorable scenes from the whole trilogy, it is one that stuck with me from the first time I watched the movies.
Two Towers is last. It is the glue that holds it all together. It still tells a great story and has some incredible battles. The trees come in and save the day, and Saruman falls, but at the end of the day, it did not hit the same as the other movies did to me. The whole story is necessary, and this movie is still engrossing, but it gets last of the three. Sorry.
The relationships in these movies are a key to the success. It would not work nearly as well if the chemistry was not there. The members of the fellowship all clearly care about each other, and they play off each other so well. The relationships also went beyond just those in the fellowship, some of the people like Aragon had relationships that were more romantically involved. Even within the fellowship, there were mini bromances. There was so much love between some of the male characters, that they definitely could have been in relationships. Of course, there is Sam and Frodo. They go out on their own, and Sam is always willing to wait hand and foot onto Frodo. I know he gets married at the end of the last movie, but it would not have been surprising if Sam married Frodo instead. There were two other hobbits that were basically tied at the hip, and those were Pip and Merry. They danced and sang together, and whenever they had to be separated, they were heartbroken. The last was my favorite, and that was Legolas and Gimli. It started out like all good bro relationships with rivalry that turned into good natured competition and their relationship continued to flourish as the movies progressed, and it reached its peak when they were surrounded by the Orcs in the final battle, and they half said their goodbyes as they thought their death was eminent.
Another reason why these movies have had such a long life and continual following is their top tier production. The movies have aged incredibly well. The set design is brilliant and the CGI that is in the movies is typically good, especially considering that these were made in the early 2000s. To be honest, the quality of these movies are better than most of the fantasy and CGI movies that are being put out now. There are movies coming out every week now where the CGI is so bad that it takes me out of the movies as I break down how fake it looks. It also helps that they filmed these in New Zealand, which is a natural wonderland and one of the most pristine countries left in the world. I am a huge sucker for great landscapes, and these movies have plenty of that, and what is more is that there are plenty of scenes of people running across the vast swaths of nature, which any time nature and running are blended, even in elf and dwarf clothing, I am all in. The only time where the CGI did not work for me at all was with the Ghost army. That was very clearly early 2000s special effects, and that looked terrible. It also made me question how the ghosts worked, they could not be hit by swords, but they could hurt others? Seems a bit much.
Frodo is for all intents and purposes the main hero in the film, and one of his most redeeming and important qualities was compassion. It was interesting to see how his attitude toward Gollum affected him. It is unclear if Frodo always had this compassion though. At least his compassion for Gollum came from Gandalf, when Frodo said that Bilbo should have killed Gollum when he had the chance, but Gandalf corrected him on his thinking. Gandalf is basically the wizard of compassion, it did not matter what evil the person had done, when the battle was over, Gandalf was almost always willing to show compassion and some level of forgiveness. One person who could have benefitted from this spreading of compassion was Sam. He basically always looked at Gollum as a beast, and even when Gollum was truly being helpful, Sam was still brutal toward Gollum. If he had been more gracious to this disheveled being, then Gollum might not have turned on them, but we will never really know. The one area where Frodo did not show compassion was when he left on the elf boat to go to eternal life in the elf world, and he left Sam the book to go on another adventure and write another story, like Sam was not with him the whole time! Without Sam there would not have been a story, Frodo would have failed, so for him to have the audacity to be like here Sam go write your own story is just beyond rude. What a terrible friend.
One reason why I really enjoyed these movies is their horror elements. Peter Jackson, the director, before making these films had made multiple horror movies, and after he did Lord of the Rings, he went back to making more horror and monster films. So it makes sense that he did such a good job with the darker elements to this epic. His creation of the orcs was excellent, and the factories that he had them working in, including the birthing of mega orcs from the mud was just amazing. The other dark settings and monsters in the mines, and giant spider in the cave, were also effective. Even the dark riders who were after Frodo, and the after effects added to show how Frodo’s mind was being affected by these dark riders was excellent. It was not scary per say, but it was definitely horror adjacent.
It is safe to say that Harry Potter was greatly inspired by this story. The first way in which I noticed this comparison was with the ring itself. It is essentially a horcrux. Well Lord of the Rings came first, so the idea of the horcruxes is based off the ring. Sauron is basically staying alive and regaining strength through the ring, and in Potter, Voldemort was staying alive and regaining strength because his soul was placed into the seven objects. So in LOTR, if the ring was destroyed, so would be Sauron. Also with both the ring and the horcruxes, specifically the locket, whoever was wearing it/in possession of it, their mental state was not great. Their temper would be shorter, and they would not play as well with others, and this is true in both stories.
Also there is the comparison of Frodo and Harry. They both are compassionate toward others, specifically Dobby and Gollum. This worked out better for Harry than Frodo, but still they were both generally kind to those that others were not. Finally in both stories, they thought the chosen one would die for the sake of everyone else, but they both end up surviving. At least at the end of Harry Potter, Harry did not tell Ron to go write his own story, because he had class. Also there did seem to be some similarities between Gandalf and Dumbledore. They were both mentors, but mysterious and at times seemed questionable. The best comparison I have though is with Tree Beard. He was basically the Lorax from Dr. Seuss. Both claimed to speak for the trees and want better for the environment, specifically the forest, which was well before the time of the environmental movement started. True icons.
Of course, the movies would not have been as good as they were without the excellent score backing it all up. The whole score is stellar, but the part that has stuck with me the most form even my first watch, is the deep bass that goes with the orc’s music. It is filled with the loud resounding low notes, and it is absolutely perfect for the scenes with the orcs. The other music that plays when they are traveling is very fitting as well. Even the songs that are sung by the Hobbits are good despite not really being a part of the score.
I cannot recommend watching these movies enough, especially the extended editions. I have not watched the normal versions recent enough to really know how different they are, but I do know that the extended editions were well worth the extra time. This week the first two episodes of The Rings of Power came out, and two episodes of the House of Dragon have come out. Through two episodes, I am more partial to the House of the Dragon, but from what I have seen of them both, they are both going to be great. Rings of Power was made for a billion dollars, and from the quality, you can tell. It is early, but I am all in on Galadriel’s story line in Rings of Power. Go watch it all!
Other movies this week:
Three Thousand Years of Longing: A story about a genie who tells stories that helps show the importance of stories and to be careful what you wish for.
Jaws: In IMAX was pretty cool. One specific moment made me jump higher than I have in a long time, which was cool. A big shark doing big shark things. A classic. The mayor was a scum bag, but it could be argued that he cares too much about small businesses.
New Rankings:
Fellowship: 5 Stars
Two Towers: 4.5 Stars
Return of the King: 4.5 Stars
Three Thousand Years of Longing: 3 Stars
Jaws: 4 Stars
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