The background is explained concisely in a voiceover prologue, and the action proceeds in a straightforward manner. One does not need to have read the books to appreciate the movie. First and foremost, The Lord of the Rings is an adventure, and, in that, it is relentlessly successful. Certain scenes have been cut or condensed in the name of pacing, and the role of one character (Arwen) has been expanded to enhance a romantic angle, something that was largely absent from Tolkien's work.
The Fellowship of the Ring moves fluidly and, in the process, exhilarates. Jackson and his co-screenwriters (Fran Walsh & Philippa Boyens) do an excellent job condensing more than five hundred pages of text into a script that never feels choppy, uneven, or rushed. Lord of the Rings devotees will be delighted to learn that the motion picture adaptation is as faithful as one could imagine possible (and, consequently, is nearly three hours in length). From the first moment of the first reel, I was there. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring brings Middle Earth to glorious life.
This astounding movie accomplishes what no other fantasy film has been able to do: transport viewers to an entirely different reality, immerse them in it, and maroon them there for nearly three hours. With this production, Jackson has used The Lord of the Rings to re-invent fantasy for the cinema in the same way that the novel provided the blueprint for the written word. As entertaining as Harry Potter may be, it cannot hold a candle to The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. Now, along comes The Lord of the Rings, as anticipated for 30-50 year olds and Harry Potter was for their children. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was one of the year's most anticipated releases and, by the end of December, it will be one of the top money-makers of the past 12 months. Finally, 2001 has seen the belated emergence of fantasy as a legitimate cinematic genre. Consider the evidence: titles like Willow, Dragonheart, and Dungeons and Dragons. A lot of this has had to do with the poor quality of the product. (Including publicity and marketing, the overall price tag will approach $500 million.) To say that fantasy movies have not been a big draw at the box office is to understate the matter. The Time-Warner company invested nearly $300 million for the package deal of all three movies, which were filmed back-to-back-to-back. After briefly being courted and jilted by Miramax Films, Jackson found a backer in New Line Cinema. So, Jackson turned his attention to The Lord of the Rings. For a while, it looked like King Kong would get the go-ahead, but the project was squashed in the wake of the failure of Sony's Godzilla and Disney's Mighty Joe Young.
In the late 1990s, New Zealand-based director Peter Jackson (Heavenly Creatures) had two projects on the drawing board - a remake of King Kong and an ambitious, three-film adaptation of The Lord of the Rings.
Nearly every published fantasy author acknowledges having read and been inspired by Tolkien's canon, and, while The Lord of the Rings may not be the longest or most complex fantasy series to date, it remains the standard against which all similar works are measured. This would not have happened without the popularity and influence of Tolkien's The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Fantasy has gone from being a cult genre to entering the mainstream. A couple dozen titles have been replaced by hundreds. During the past three decades, the fantasy area in bookstores has expanded from a minor subsection of science fiction to a major category in its own right. Tolkien, who is regarded by most readers as the Father of Modern Fantasy. During the past three decades, the fantasy area in bookstores has expanded from a minor subsection of science fiction to a In the pantheon of fantasy writers, no diety is treated with greater reverence than J.R.R. In the pantheon of fantasy writers, no diety is treated with greater reverence than J.R.R.