FOTR: EE @ the cinema
Jan. 18th, 2026 03:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shallownessFOTR = The Fellowship of the Ring
EE = the extended edition
Excuse me while I emote at you. I found out via Honest Trailers that they were releasing the extended editions of the Lord of the Rings movies in the cinema because it’s 25 years (25 years!) since the first film was released. So, of course I checked if this might be happening near me, and it was, though being middle aged now, the thought of seeing all however-many hours of it without a break made me quail (at home you have the natural break of changing discs), but the chance to see it on the big screen was so very tempting. I managed to get a ticket – the auditorium was full, a range of ages and a substantial minority were female.
ANYWAY, it was worth it, and now I want to try to see the other two, even though Fellowship has a special place in my heart. Glorious to see it on the big screen (and my efforts to prep for it as in what I ate and drunk when, and going to the toilet straight before worked.)
It's weird, I must have seen the extended edition more – it’s the first DVD I ever bought – than the cinematic version, but I still mentally clock all the extra bits as it went along. The music is so powerful (I own those CDs too) when married to the visuals, which are so gorgeous. (I had to check if Howard Shore got an Oscar for this one, and he did, fully deserved.) Look, all of the craft that went into the films is wonderous, from the prosthetics to the costumes, to the weapons and jewellery, to the sets…(though it was horrible to learn about the yucky atmosphere where they were working on the digital effects, and the Weinsteins’ names come up early as producers.)
I spent the first half hour (or longer, probably) beaming at the Shire in all its natural, warm hues. Ian Holm puts in a wonderful performance as Bilbo, Christopher Lee’s voice is so resonant, matched by McKellan when the wizards clash (Blanchett’s theatre experience also tells), which means that the wizard-fu kind of works. I was also cringing at Saruman’s ecocide, as I always do, relieved to know that the Ents will exact justice, horrified at the making of the Uruk-hai, and now with added grievance at tech bros who seem to have read Lord of the Rings and missed the whole point (why, yes, I am thinking about the seeing stones and how much water AI data centres need.)
And Frodo, he of the big, big eyes, the accent I forgive, seeming, like the other hobbits who join the Fellowship, so young, as well as small when they leave the Shire, but with that surprising resilience that makes the great and wise respect him. You root for him, even as he gets woobified by the pull and weight of the ring, the Morgul blade wounding him so early in his journey, even as he stupidly tries to leave Sam behind, even knowing exactly how it will all play out at the end. It is satisfying to rewatch it having seen the adaptation of the Hobbit, ‘remembering’ as the passing references to characters and places, and more tangibly the chainmail and Sting, play out. The Rings of Power is tricksier, but I felt a little of that in the Khazad-dun scenes, and when Elendil got referenced as Aragorn’s forebearer, as well as Isildur.
But back to the hobbits – never mind Sam’s accent either, just love his sturdiness, as he can’t bring himself to talk to Rosie, but is loyal to Frodo. Pippin got most of the laughs, but I love the soulfulness that we see in him and Merry as they face real danger and real loss.
And then Strider turns up, and I got the pure hit of lust that lasts all of FotR for Mortensen’s Aragorn – I cannot tell you how much I love it when he fights to stave off the Uruk-hai and let Frodo go. But he totally earns the ‘My brother, my captain, my king’ line. We see more of Aragorn’s doubts and pining in this edition, and I was impressed at all the Elvish he talks. (There is a bit where I’m down on him for patronising Arwen, because she’s older than him and seems to have made up her own mind. He thinks it’s nobly protecting her, I think it’s patronising. I don’t mind them introducing her earlier and in a more action role, because it’s such a male dominated film, as much as I do undercutting her agency, but that’s a bigger issue in the later two films.)
Rivendell is so, so beautiful (as is Lothlorien. As is the Shire too, but in a homelier way.) I got a bit narked that the Council was all male, because it all got a bit testosteroney. Bean does a great job of giving Boromir soul, that quite a lot of what is driving him is honourable, even if some of it is ego. Rhys-Davies does something similar, with added comic timing. Legolas is just beautiful, and then turns out to be crazy useful in fight scenes. But every character gets their moment of complicated reaction to whatever it is, with Gandalf knowing the most, but his relationship with Bilbo and then Frodo (and in future with Pippin, who he’s mainly and quite rightly castigating) grounding it all.
And to see the glorious landscapes of New Zealand, with the sculptures and digitally added architecture of the mighty but fallen glory of men on the big screen is such a treat. The action scenes are imprinted on my mind, with the sword, bow and axe all playing their part. The grand sweep of good versus evil, the threat to the Shire that Frodo sees in the mirror bringing it home, that vivid lidless eye, the horror of the Riders, how they give the Ring a persona, it’s all familiar and powerful.
And yes, there was nostalgia, as there always is, while internally hooting at the eagle rescuing Gandalf, (while being glad that he escapes Saruman’s grasp,) NOBODY TOSSES A DWARF and YOU SHALL NOT PASS, although in the moment, it’s good standing up to evil, the strong protecting the weaker, an act of friendship. There was knowing that the actors got a tattoo, knowing that Sean Bean climbed a mountain rather than get into a helicopter, because I watched all the footage, of how excited fandom was in the still-early days of the internet, respect at Liv Tyler and everyone who tried to get the Elvish sounding natural. But there was also responding in the moment to the chase sequence at the Brandywine bridge, to people who shouldn’t reaching for the ring et cetera, as if I were seeing it for the first time. A hugely satisfying experience.
EE = the extended edition
Excuse me while I emote at you. I found out via Honest Trailers that they were releasing the extended editions of the Lord of the Rings movies in the cinema because it’s 25 years (25 years!) since the first film was released. So, of course I checked if this might be happening near me, and it was, though being middle aged now, the thought of seeing all however-many hours of it without a break made me quail (at home you have the natural break of changing discs), but the chance to see it on the big screen was so very tempting. I managed to get a ticket – the auditorium was full, a range of ages and a substantial minority were female.
ANYWAY, it was worth it, and now I want to try to see the other two, even though Fellowship has a special place in my heart. Glorious to see it on the big screen (and my efforts to prep for it as in what I ate and drunk when, and going to the toilet straight before worked.)
It's weird, I must have seen the extended edition more – it’s the first DVD I ever bought – than the cinematic version, but I still mentally clock all the extra bits as it went along. The music is so powerful (I own those CDs too) when married to the visuals, which are so gorgeous. (I had to check if Howard Shore got an Oscar for this one, and he did, fully deserved.) Look, all of the craft that went into the films is wonderous, from the prosthetics to the costumes, to the weapons and jewellery, to the sets…(though it was horrible to learn about the yucky atmosphere where they were working on the digital effects, and the Weinsteins’ names come up early as producers.)
I spent the first half hour (or longer, probably) beaming at the Shire in all its natural, warm hues. Ian Holm puts in a wonderful performance as Bilbo, Christopher Lee’s voice is so resonant, matched by McKellan when the wizards clash (Blanchett’s theatre experience also tells), which means that the wizard-fu kind of works. I was also cringing at Saruman’s ecocide, as I always do, relieved to know that the Ents will exact justice, horrified at the making of the Uruk-hai, and now with added grievance at tech bros who seem to have read Lord of the Rings and missed the whole point (why, yes, I am thinking about the seeing stones and how much water AI data centres need.)
And Frodo, he of the big, big eyes, the accent I forgive, seeming, like the other hobbits who join the Fellowship, so young, as well as small when they leave the Shire, but with that surprising resilience that makes the great and wise respect him. You root for him, even as he gets woobified by the pull and weight of the ring, the Morgul blade wounding him so early in his journey, even as he stupidly tries to leave Sam behind, even knowing exactly how it will all play out at the end. It is satisfying to rewatch it having seen the adaptation of the Hobbit, ‘remembering’ as the passing references to characters and places, and more tangibly the chainmail and Sting, play out. The Rings of Power is tricksier, but I felt a little of that in the Khazad-dun scenes, and when Elendil got referenced as Aragorn’s forebearer, as well as Isildur.
But back to the hobbits – never mind Sam’s accent either, just love his sturdiness, as he can’t bring himself to talk to Rosie, but is loyal to Frodo. Pippin got most of the laughs, but I love the soulfulness that we see in him and Merry as they face real danger and real loss.
And then Strider turns up, and I got the pure hit of lust that lasts all of FotR for Mortensen’s Aragorn – I cannot tell you how much I love it when he fights to stave off the Uruk-hai and let Frodo go. But he totally earns the ‘My brother, my captain, my king’ line. We see more of Aragorn’s doubts and pining in this edition, and I was impressed at all the Elvish he talks. (There is a bit where I’m down on him for patronising Arwen, because she’s older than him and seems to have made up her own mind. He thinks it’s nobly protecting her, I think it’s patronising. I don’t mind them introducing her earlier and in a more action role, because it’s such a male dominated film, as much as I do undercutting her agency, but that’s a bigger issue in the later two films.)
Rivendell is so, so beautiful (as is Lothlorien. As is the Shire too, but in a homelier way.) I got a bit narked that the Council was all male, because it all got a bit testosteroney. Bean does a great job of giving Boromir soul, that quite a lot of what is driving him is honourable, even if some of it is ego. Rhys-Davies does something similar, with added comic timing. Legolas is just beautiful, and then turns out to be crazy useful in fight scenes. But every character gets their moment of complicated reaction to whatever it is, with Gandalf knowing the most, but his relationship with Bilbo and then Frodo (and in future with Pippin, who he’s mainly and quite rightly castigating) grounding it all.
And to see the glorious landscapes of New Zealand, with the sculptures and digitally added architecture of the mighty but fallen glory of men on the big screen is such a treat. The action scenes are imprinted on my mind, with the sword, bow and axe all playing their part. The grand sweep of good versus evil, the threat to the Shire that Frodo sees in the mirror bringing it home, that vivid lidless eye, the horror of the Riders, how they give the Ring a persona, it’s all familiar and powerful.
And yes, there was nostalgia, as there always is, while internally hooting at the eagle rescuing Gandalf, (while being glad that he escapes Saruman’s grasp,) NOBODY TOSSES A DWARF and YOU SHALL NOT PASS, although in the moment, it’s good standing up to evil, the strong protecting the weaker, an act of friendship. There was knowing that the actors got a tattoo, knowing that Sean Bean climbed a mountain rather than get into a helicopter, because I watched all the footage, of how excited fandom was in the still-early days of the internet, respect at Liv Tyler and everyone who tried to get the Elvish sounding natural. But there was also responding in the moment to the chase sequence at the Brandywine bridge, to people who shouldn’t reaching for the ring et cetera, as if I were seeing it for the first time. A hugely satisfying experience.
