Lord of the Rings Movies

Dark Lord Sauron, who was disembodied when the One Ring was cut off from his hand, is the personification of evil in the Lord of the Rings movies. This guy didn’t have a drop of good in him, not one bit. Staying in his tower, the Barad-dur, he employs other creatures of darkness to do his dirty work for him, and find the one thing that could possibly restore his former form and power. Greed keeps him alive. Not satisfied with being able to command numerous creatures and still have a vast amount of power, he still wants more. Good thing that the good side always wins, because a world with Sauron as one of its superpowers might be the reincarnation of hell on earth. Yikes.

Personally, I wasn’t into the hype set by the Lord of the Ring trilogies. I was more into the Harry Potter series because the characters were younger and the plot was easier to understand. When I tried watching the film for the first time, I just slept around halfway of the first film.

Don’t get me wrong. The film was good but for me it was sort of boring because I didn’t quite understand some plots. But when I read the book, I found it engrossing and thus understood the film when I had the chance to watch it again.

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As previously noted, the Lord of the Rings trilogy was only a sequel to Tolkien’s “The Hobbit”. As with other highly successful movies like X-Men, Star Wars, Harry Potter, and Superman, one can assume that the producers of the trilogy would like to extend their earnings by making sequels or prequels. Unfortunately, no other film was made with regard to the LotR trilogy under the production company New Line Cinema as of the moment. Maybe after a few years, they might produce these prequels but the nect problem would be that the LotR hype would have died down by then.

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Since the Book can contain a much larger time frame than a film, certain parts of the book were changed in order to fit it all in the three films.

Some changes were made to the characters of Aragorn and Frodo. Changes were also made to certain events like the participation of elves in the Battle. There were also some parts of the Book that were deleted like the chapter of the Scouring of the Shire and some were added.

The film only followed the basic plot of the book while diverging from the characterization of the main characters.

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The film was distributed by New Line Cinema with an overall budget of $280 million and is considered one of the biggest movie projects made. The project spanned eight years in production in New Zealand due to its large demand in props, design and actors.

This undertaking gained such good reviews and good returns at the box office. The LotR trilogy earned a whopping $2.92 billion in movie sales. It also earned a number of Academy Award citations with a total of 30 nominations wherein 17 were won including Best Direction and Best Picture for the Return of the King.

Image source: en.wikipedia.org

The films were set in the world of Middle Earth wherein the story revolves around the adventures of a young hobbit named Frodo Baggins played by Elijah Wood. The story is basically into the destruction of the One Ring and will lead to the destruction of the Dark Lord Sauron. But conflict arises and Frodo’s called the Fellowship is broken and Frodo is left with some companions to continue the quest. Other characters like Gandalf and Aragorn unite with the people and battle the wizard Saruman until his defeat. Ultimately, the Ring is destroyed and the Evil forces are defeated.

Image source: en.wikipedia.org

The elves in all LOTR movies had obviously captured the hearts of everyone. We have to note, of course, that they are somewhat different from each other, including their physical and psychological aspects.

Based on Oh Joy! Movie Trivias, in the movie, the distinction in appearance of the various elven races is prominent. The wood-elves (or Sylvan elves) have blond hair (Legolas, Galadriel, etc.) whereas the High Elves (or Sindar) have black hair (Elrond).

So the next time you had the knack to watch it again [even if it is the nth time, I know.], try to observe their similarities and differences.

With the actors seemingly internalizing their characters for the sake of utmost professionalism and to add a personal touch to the movie, some had decided to do more than what they are required to do.

Take Viggo Mortenson for example, who completely forgot that his true identity and mistaken himself for Aragorn for like hours.

Another remarkable actor in the movie, Orlando Bloom, who played Legolas Greenleaf, broke a rib while shooting a scene on horseback. Luckily, he was able to return and continue filming the movie after seeing a doctor (Oh Joy! Movie Trivia).

Talking about taking it all internally.

The Lord of the Rings trilogy was appreciated by many due to its special effects, pacing, and action. Capitalizing on this success, New Line Cinema is creating a live action adaptation of Bilbo Baggin’s explorations and adventures with ‘The Hobbit’.

Pan’s Labyrinth director Guillermo del Toro has signed up to be at the helm of the project, with the Lord of the Rings trilogy director Peter Jackson now serving as executive producer and co-writer. The movie has been split into two parts (similar to what was done with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows) which will be shown in 2011 and 2012, which chronicles the events in Bilbo Baggin’s life up to the very beginning of the first Lord of the Rings movie. Guillermo del Toro signed on for the project in 2008. The film is being shot in New Zealand with the casting still a guarded secret.

Lord Of The Rings Trailer – Awesome video clips here
This is the style that was adopted by the film’s financial backers that had one movie being made with some of the cast and crew shooting scenes for the other two installments. The rest of the time was spent doing all the digital enhancements that made the film possible as well as gave ample time to get shots reviewed and re-shot if necessary. Tolkien’s version in the novel was as much as possible followed with some additions to make the scenes better with his blessing of course. He was taken as a consultant throughout the filming of the whole series so as to maintain the faithfulness of the film to the author’s vision which to his delight was adhered to.
From the elaborate sets to the still existing Hobbit Village in New Zealand, the utter natural beauty and diversity of the land gave background to one memorable film series indeed. Though many have been put off by the fact that the three part will remain a three part film, many were wowed by the mastery of the producers and other staff to deliver a seemingly impossible realm, the realm of magic and fantasy as it was competing for the same market as the Harry potter series for the same audience body.