Anyway... (possible spoilers ahead)

I went to the premier this morning (it premiered (sp?) at 00.01 here in Sweden), and all I can say is:

Good.

It's a good movie, I only looked at my watch once, and that was after I had hesitated for about 20 minutes because I didn't want to take my eyes off the screen. However, if the hype had not been so incredibly big, I would have gone completely nuts. I had already seen most of the coolest scenes on TV (although I tried to resist), and that's not very fun. I haven't read the book, but since I found the movie a bit un-satisfying, I'll read the book when I get the time.

The effects: Wonderful. Really. This is the first movie where I had a hard time separating CG from the real thing, though I knew most of it *was* CG. Even the cave troll was well done. There's no Jar-Jar-binks crap in this movie, that's for sure.

Nevertheless, I was quite happy to see that a vast majority of the dialouge in the movie was taken verbatim out of the book, one of the most controversial things ever if you know the history of "editing" of LotR. Sure, there were some things that were cut out for time constraints, and I must say that while I miss some of the parts, the more important ones were kept in the movie. I mean damn, we sat down at midnight, and after the movie and previews were over it was 3:15am, so props to the editors and producers for allowing that much content from the book to stay in.

Acting: Not great, but it gets the job done. There are moments where certain actors shine for a bit, but nobody delivers an outstanding performance. Luckily, they kept the screen time of the oh-so-beautiful, but oh-so-terrible-acting Liv Tyler down to a minimum.

Sets and costumes are incredible in this movie. All too often, fantasy sets and costumes only go half-way and give you a general idea for the attire. In this movie no expense was spared in making every thread look convincingly weathered or grand, and makeup was excellent as well. There's one shot where one of the elven women bends down to kiss someone on the forehead and the sunlight behind shines through her pointy ears, giving exactly that pinkish quality you would expect, and no, you can't tell where the prosthetic and her ear begins. Don't even get me started on the frightening depictions of Orcs and Goblins and all manner of evil creatures.

Another stand-out, as Lark already pointed out was the settings, they're the best that I've ever seen. I can't stress enough that everything about this movie was the way that fantasy SHOULD be done. The only gripe I had was some of the CGI backgrounds weren't as seamless as I had hoped, but all were quite passable, and above anything else I've seen (with maybe the exception of FFMovie).

For those impressed with this movie, or slightly UN-impressed, wait for the next two movies, it only gets better. Heh, it'd be hard to do these books as separater movies, if not for the plain fact The Two Towers happens immediately (well, one hour after, for literal people) after The Fellowship of the Rings, which is why it feels incomplete.

I have a few questions for those who've seen the movie:

When I got out... it was one of those "Oh yeah, that was only fiction " things, that make you all disoriented when you come back to real life... Those rule...

I can't stress enough that everything about this movie was the way that fantasy SHOULD be done.

Uh-Greed.

In THIS movie, do they show Sauron? I remember reading online about how they WILL show Sauron, not just an eye...but I doubt it's in this one.

In the beginning... in the ass-kickage battle scene...

Of course, it was not entirely MY vision of Middle-Earth. but that's not what I expected. If I want my Middle-Earth, I read the books. What I expected, and got, was the first part of an epic story told in grand style.

BTW, Sauron is shown. And Lothlorien and Galadriel are not as grand and focused on as I thought they should be.

It was awesome, really awesome. They started with just letting you *hear* the Balrog, the floor in the entire cinema trembled (literally) as the party was chased. Then, it broke through a massive stone wall, a black creature with horns (I think...) swept in fire, and a gigantic fire whip...

And you do get to see Sauron, in the beginning. Then, it's just an eye.

WHAT A MOVIE.

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Originally posted by Yavarice:
And is Elrond played by the Agent from The Matrix?

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And before anybody complains about swearing...this is Azure. Get over it.

The points about Bombadil and Arwen have already been made, and I think they're important ones. I can understand Bombadil, mostly. He's a weirdo, and the movie obviously needed to cut things. Arwen was just a fucked up and stupid move though. Yeah, let's butcher one of the greatest stories of all time because we want more love scenes. Whatever.

The landscapes and scenery were absolutely perfect. Every bit was just how I imagined it, or better. The background music was very fitting as well.

The Mines of Moria scene was perfect, whole way though. The sense of tension was just as good as in the book, and Gandalf's fight with the Balrog couldn't have been any more spot-on.

The scene with Caradhras was too short. I always thought of it as a more significant part, but whatever, I guess they needed to speed things up.

Pippin and Merry were a *bit* too much comic relief for my taste. Hopefully they'll develop the characters more in the next movie in the Entwoods.

Aragorn and Boromir looked fucking identical. That pissed me off.

Best part of the movie was the ending(the "Breaking of the Fellowship" chapter). Boromir's betrayal and redemption, and Sam's persuit of Frodo were two of the best and most touching scenes I've ever seen in any movie.

As already mentioned, the scenery/landscape stuff was absolutely incredible. You can't even tell when CGs are used. You really have to see it to know what everyone is talking about. It is just simply incredible.

I'm probably gonna see it again, because I want to get familiar with the names, and because I still don't understand some of the parts - like how Frodo ended up that elf kingdom (Riverdale was it?) or how Gandarf (sp?) escaped from that other evil magician guy.

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Originally posted by gruco:
Aragorn and Boromir looked fucking identical. That pissed me off.

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I don't think Merry & Pippin were too much of a comic relief.

Anyway, Pippin was perfect, but Merry should have been more serious...

Strider and Aragorn are the same person.

One thing that troubled me was that some of the names were not said often or clearly enough, as demonstrated by an earlier post. And some things were not explained as well as they should have been.

Technically, it was Elrond (the main guy at Rivendell) that started the flood. The white horses were just ad-on by Gandalf. No offense, I just had to point that out.

I haven't gotten far enough in the book to be as picky about the movie, but scenes I did notice they left out are the shire elves and talking to the farmer guy.

Also, the book tells the story in a more 3rd person limited view (centered mostly around Frodo) but the movie was more 3rd person omniscient. It cut to scenes showing what happened to Gandalf and Saruman's tower, etc. It makes more sense for a movie to do it that way though since flashbacks are more confusing in movies unless done correctly.

What was that super orc thing that killed... umm... oh-look-it's-strider-wait-no-it's-just-that-guy-they-casted-that-looks-so-fucking-identical? Is it just a regular orc or is there something special? He mentioned elves become orcs so I thought it might be one of the three elves (since the nine men became ringwraiths I thought it might make sense).

Oh, I wish they hadn't chosen two guys that look so similar. I kept getting the two confused.

Is that how you're s'posed to pronounce Mythril (or Mithril... I can't remember how to spell it). I always thought the first vowel was like in "mint," not "me."