Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring ( * * * * )
It's better than the book.
The Acting: I've said it before, and I'll say it again: a good director can command a good performance out of a mediocre actor. Here we have Liv Tyler, Elijah Wood, Sean Astin and Orlando Bloom all delivering the goods as they've never done before. Unfortunately for the LOTR series, the two best performances both takes place in film one--Sean Bean as the unstable, covetous Boromir and Ian Holm as the unstable, covetous Bilbo.
The Story: Condensed, clarified, and improved over the book...and worlds away from the complete garbage to follow in the next two movies. In film one, they string together the relevant parts of Tolkien's Silmarillian, The Hobbit, The Fellowship of the Ring, and even the first chapter or two of The Two Towers. It's pretty amazing that they can do that with so little dragtime.
The Direction: Who'da thunk Peter Jackson had it in him. New Line, that's who. Who's New Line? A financially solvent production company, thanks to Peter Jackson. So kudos to the director and big kudos to the vision of the producers, who are rolling in money and whores.
Overall: It's long, but it doesn't feel long, and that's that. Probably the first time super-extensive CGI ever shook hands with human emotion.
Tredekka Rules:
The Acting: I've said it before, and I'll say it again: a good director can command a good performance out of a mediocre actor. Here we have Liv Tyler, Elijah Wood, Sean Astin and Orlando Bloom all delivering the goods as they've never done before. Unfortunately for the LOTR series, the two best performances both takes place in film one--Sean Bean as the unstable, covetous Boromir and Ian Holm as the unstable, covetous Bilbo.
The Story: Condensed, clarified, and improved over the book...and worlds away from the complete garbage to follow in the next two movies. In film one, they string together the relevant parts of Tolkien's Silmarillian, The Hobbit, The Fellowship of the Ring, and even the first chapter or two of The Two Towers. It's pretty amazing that they can do that with so little dragtime.
The Direction: Who'da thunk Peter Jackson had it in him. New Line, that's who. Who's New Line? A financially solvent production company, thanks to Peter Jackson. So kudos to the director and big kudos to the vision of the producers, who are rolling in money and whores.
Overall: It's long, but it doesn't feel long, and that's that. Probably the first time super-extensive CGI ever shook hands with human emotion.
Tredekka Rules:
- Rule 4: Sweet Actor Bonus--the magnificent Christopher Lee, +1 point
- Rule 6: Over The Top Acting Award--Ian Holm as Bilbo is funny, pathetic, sympathetic and scary, often all in one breath. +3 stars. Also, +1 star to Christopher Lee, who couldn't be more badass OR British when he talks about shit bein' "wreathed in flame".
- Rule 22: The Great Entrance Award--goes to Sauron, who proceeds to fling guys around with his mace like he's swatting G.I. Joe figures. +1 point.
- Rule 23: Master And Command Your Title, Stupid, -1 point.
- Rule 28 (NEW RULE): The "For The Kids" Penalty--I'd like to address this one directly to Billie Jackson and Katie Jackson: Fuck you. Thanks to your daddy, you mop-haired fucks got more work this year than fucking Michael Ironside, and that ain't right! -1 star.
Tredekka Score: ( * * * * )
posted by Tredekka at 7:00 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home