- Get my digital copy the lord of the rings trilogy extended edition movie#
- Get my digital copy the lord of the rings trilogy extended edition series#
Until that day comes, transparent Elrond continues to haunt my dreams, and my Lord of the Rings rewatches, if only for 15 seconds at a time. With its corny visuals and music video vibe, it's not so hard to believe that Frodo's bizarre introduction to Rivendell could reach meme status at some point. I am fully aware that the Fellowship's reunion at the end of The Return of the King is cheesy, but I bawl every time I see the hobbits bouncing around and hugging each other.Īnd what about the many, many memes The Lord of the Rings has spawned? It's nearly impossible not to laugh at Legolas's (Orlando Bloom) cry of " they're taking the hobbits to Isengard!" or Boromir's (Sean Bean) assertion that " one does not simply walk into Mordor." These are moments that should be serious, but their lives beyond the films make it hard not to chuckle at them, even in context. After all, some of the trilogy's cornier moments have become some of my favorite parts of the films (which are, in turn, my favorite movies of all time). In the grand scheme of things, this sequence doesn't make a huge dent in The Fellowship of the Ring's impact. With all that in mind, these 15 seconds of strangeness simply aren't up to par with the rest of the movies. All three films deservedly won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects. These are the same movies that revolutionized CGI with Gollum (Andy Serkis) and painstakingly constructed weapons, armor, and miniatures of entire cities. Still, every time I re-watch The Lord of the Rings, I'm thrown off by the cheesiness of these 15 seconds. A moment as bizarre as this breaks up the visual language of The Lord of the Rings, and in doing so breaks our immersion. The Lord of the Rings trilogy is so good because it feels so real. Within five minutes, transparent Elrond's intense gaze is completely gone from my memory.
Get my digital copy the lord of the rings trilogy extended edition movie#
The movie continues with Gandalf's (Ian McKellen) escape from Isengard, and not long after that we get the iconic scene that is the Council of Elrond. The good news is that the illusion isn't broken for long. Middle Earth is fully actualized thanks to the incredible amount of detail put into every aspect of these movies, from costumes to props to visual effects. That strangeness is the problem: The Lord of the Rings trilogy is so good because it feels so real. Having transparent Elrond gaze directly into our eyes while transparent Frodo drifts away into dreamland is nothing short of surreal.
Unfortunately, it just looks far cornier than anything we've seen in The Fellowship of the Ring - off-putting, even. This imagery mimics Frodo's disorientation and places the audience in a similar state of mind. It's a mini fever dream, which I will grudgingly admit makes sense in context. The movie follows that badass sequence by taking a hard left into a '90s music video. Arwen literally just summoned a flood of watery horses to wash the Nazgûl downriver. Up until this point, we've been watching a fantasy epic unfold. The sequence only lasts 15 seconds, but it is jarring. It also includes this truly weird shot: Tweet may have been deleted
Get my digital copy the lord of the rings trilogy extended edition series#
As Frodo risks succumbing to the blade's poison, the film moves into a dreamlike series of cross dissolves showing Rivendell, Frodo, and Elrond (Hugo Weaving). The problem with all this visual excellence is that it makes one bizarre sequence - and one shot in particular - stick out like a sore thumb.Ī little over an hour into The Fellowship of the Ring, Frodo (Elijah Wood) is wounded by a Nazgûl's Morgul blade at Weathertop, so Arwen (Liv Tyler) brings him to Rivendell for some much-needed Elvish healing. Tolkien's fantasy world is the trilogy's greatest achievement.
It's so easy to immerse yourself in the films' version of Middle Earth, and Jackson and his team's ability to so completely realize J.R.R. The visuals hold up, with everything from the Balrog to the fiery wastes of Mordor appearing real. Welcome to Fix It, our series examining projects we love - save for one tiny change we wish we could make.įor a movie that was released 20 years ago, The Fellowship of the Ring - and the entirety of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy - still looks amazing.