The Lord of the Rings
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Movie Reviews of The Lord of the Rings
Movie Review: Better than Jackson's
Summary: 5 Stars
Yeah, yeah I know- Peter Jackson's trilogy set all sorts of box office records and the last installment won an oscar. That wasn't impressing me much while I was nodding off in the movie theater. Some of those ponderous, useless scenes between Viggo and Liv Tyler had me playing tetris on my cell. 'Chicago' won an Oscar okay? 'Nuff said.
Sorry, it takes more than some swelling music and some woman yodeling in arabic while slow motion deaths are happening every ten minutes to move me to tears. Not to mention a dozen or so trick, 'Gotcha' deaths that any fan of the books wouldn't be fooled by. After Frodo's fourth fake death scene I was begining to feel insulted in several ways.
Back to brass tacks. The main reasons why Bakshi's is the superior film:
--Peter Jackson either blatantly plagiarizes some of his shots (the hobbits hiding from the black rider under the tree), or is so obsessive about comparisons, he makes very akward changes of pronunciation. Yeah I know they have a strange habit of saying 'Aruman' in Bakshi's, but I find it less grating than 'Gree-mah' Wormtongue. It's Grimah. As in grime. He's a grimy little worm. Get it?
--Bakshi's cartoons are better actors. Sorry but it's true. I found the little animated Frodo's 'just to get there' speech more moving than anything that came out of Elijah Woods mouth. And the John Hurt voiced Aragon cartoon version actually has a little menace, unlike Mr. wet-look Mortenson who may make female LOTR fans swoon, but is about as menacing as the hobbits he protects.
--Bakshi's orcs, Balrog and Black Riders are cooler than any CGI concoction of Jackson. They ain't too pretty and that's exactly why they're better. Bakshi's Balrog is the stuff of tripped-out nightmares. The whip, the lion's head, the platform boots, the bat wings- like some demented cross-breed of Gene Simmons and Lucifer. His stand-off with the cartoon Gandalf, I'm sorry, is cooler than any scene from PJ's trilogy, and it's not even my favorite scene.
Bakshi did it weird but did it right. Jackson knew it before he shot his first scene and he knew it as he collected his oscar. You can throw $180 million dollars worth of CGI orcs on the screen but no amount of money will make bad actors good, or lame dialogue inspiring. Aruman would agree.
Movie Review: The Second is by far the Best
Summary: 5 Stars
The second movie in this series was done by a different team of animators and, I think, a different director. What a series it would have been had they made all three in this format!This second video is far more artistic and "adult" than the first and, most especially, than the last. The live animation creates an artistic and poignant atmosphere by combining the movements and forms of living actors with the glossed over paints and styles of animation. The story maintains its finer points and does not condescend to a child's level--and, after all, anyone who loves Tolkien knows that this story, with the exception of The Hobbit, is not a child's fairy tale.
Frodo and Sam set out with their friends to destroy the ill-gotten ring of Bilbo and upon embarking on their quest, are immediately drawn into evil and danger. The artists of this film capture the surreal landscape and the vagaries of multi-dimensions as Frodo battles the dread-Lord Sauron and his minions--sometimes while leaving the physical plane of existence and emerging in the dream-like netherworld of the ring. This altered plane of existence is easily written in a novel but difficult to convey in a realistic manner on film. The animators master this transition beautifully and without making it appear superficial and cartoon-ish.
The live action of this film brings a viciousness and, most importantly, a reality in movement to the battles which the characters consistently face. This is completely lacking in both the first and the last movies of the series. And finally, Frodo's character displays a much greater depth than ever Bilbo did in the animated video, The Hobbit (which is likewise a good movie, just of a very different level).
This movie deserves all of the acclaim and hopefully, the live action movie coming to theatres in December will be at least as well done. The only sadness is when one realizes how wonderful it would have been had all three animated films been done by the crew of the second. Why they reverted back to the Hobbit's creators for the final movie (Return of the King) is beyond me.
Movie Review: Highly Stylized and Impressionistic
Summary: 5 Stars
This film is hardly what Tolkien must have envisioned for the Lord of the Rings. It's not what anyone else envisioned, either, for that matter, unless perhaps, for some true-blooded children of the 70's. Nevertheless, I have always loved it.
Watching it is like experiencing The Lord of the Rings in your sleep, as a nightmare. If you can set aside your own vision of the tale and approach this movie on its own terms, it's amazing.
It is a mood-piece.
The landscape art is spartan, dark and drawn in bold strokes. Sometimes the landscape backdrops behind the characters are simply abstract, designed to elicit a feeling more than anything else. The segments where the animation is rotoscoped create a dark surrealism that make you feel like you've fallen into a dream. Although admittedly, that dream is more than a bit psychedelic. :)
I first saw this movie in the theater as a child and it formed the bedrock of my imagination. This film is the reason I spent the first twelve years of my life prowling through my neighborhood as a Ring Wraith every Halloween and the reason I devoured the books the minute my parents thought I was old enough to understand them... and kept on reading everything I could get my hands on.
My own vision of Middle Earth has morphed and grown with me, and yet, coming back to this movie as an objective adult, even though I can see its flaws, I still love it as much as I did then. The creepiness of the style is still haunting. It still evokes the same mood. I highly recommend this movie to anyone who can sit back and enjoy someone else's vision of Middle Earth.
Movie Review: Lord of the Rings as it should be
Summary: 5 Stars
This is an excellent film and is far superior to the recently released piece of effect's filled love story... that came out during Xmas 2001. This version is darker and more adult oriented as opposed to the dumbed down let's get a lower rating and make more money for the studio young children's version that seemed to run through the 2001 version of the film. It's such a shame that WB got cold feet and backed out at the time of it's original release and didn't make the second film and complete the story. My Coments on this DVD release are as follows.1. This is not a true letterbox version of the film. What WB have done is taken the original pan & scan version of the film as it was on the original VHS tape and rematted it to give it the appearence of a letterbox film. If compared to the original VHS release You see that you gain no extra picture at the side's of your screen and less picture at the top and bottom of the screen. In other words this is not the panavision 2.35.1 version that was shown at the cinemas in 1979.
2. Usual WB... packaging ie a cardboard snap case because they are to cheap & miserly and couldn't give a... about their customers to issue there products in keep cases.
3. Good package design for the Region 1 DVD 5 stars the Region 2 DVD is not so good 2.5 stars
4. 5 star rating for an excellent and the best version of the story released so far on film. A big Zero for everything else excluding packaging.
overall buy this DVD despite it's many flaws while you can (IF YOU WANT A DECENT VERSION OF THE FIRST HALF OF THE STORY) as I fear it will never come out again once it is deleted.
Movie Review: Great aritstic animated piece - and Lord of the Rings !!
Summary: 5 Stars
I think Ralph Bakshi has done very good job. Just imagine how difficult-or maybe impossible is to make movie or radio conversion of a book. and when it's such a book as lord of the rings... it looks like peter jackson wants to do his LOTR so well that no newer version will be need in future, but bakshi made his version as a big tale without neverending sidestories (which we all loves of course)...but - combined live/anime technique is very artistially interesting, scenes with magic-esspecialy ring wraiths are outstanding! art, animation and expressions of characters is so close to real movements as never.there is a lot of side animation-a little things but very forwarding this film for more experienced viewers. voices are great! gandalf, frodo, gollum-all has perfect voices and intonations.when you have all the time on mind that it was made in 70's it's amazing (even that 'old' fashion has marks for today's imagination (celeborn looks like someone from old startrek)). it's pretty long (>2hours) and ends very unexpected, but i think Bakshi's LOTR is great and can be watched again and again...only note i had on this is music. not as themes, but arrange of motives in movie - trace of emotion position (1st meet with dark rider-totally breaks terror atmosphere with sweet hobbit theme when hobbits are in view shiverring) and that music is in some places too loud and too mid freq (aggressive) but it's matter of all old records and not of principe alone. Must be seen by any tolkien and good art lover!