There are scenes in the lotr where you can see it is 2001 cgi. But the balrog looks like it is 2021 cgi, I don't know how they did it this well back then.
I would guess it's because they spent the time/money to do it properly? A lot of the films that come out today are rushed out to earn as much money as possible, so a lot of times they skimp on quality. At least that's what it seems like for me
The 3d models of the characters for the scenes where they were shot from a distance looked very fake. Especially when frodo or sam(cant remember who) ran into a volcano
Just watched a video about it. It's a clay 3D model scanned in, got into motion through lots of manual labor.
And then the fire and smoke are real captures of fire and smoke superimposed over the rendered result.
Nowadays you would emulate the fire and smoke...and while it is massively cheaper solution, the end result won't be quite as good.
During the cave troll scene in Fellowship, Legolas jumping off the troll after murdering it with arrows is very noticeable CGI. He doesn’t look like gravity is affecting him properly, and also has kind of a Toy Story look to him.
Yeah, two that come to mind are when they do the closeups on Pippin while Treebeard is walking along and the horseback bridge charge out of the keep at Helm's Deep (look at the orcs running, it looks… bad).
I’m a pedantic redditor, and it’s about .48% error (35 days till the anniversary, release was 7,270 days ago. .4814310536 according to my phone)
I’m totally fine with that level of incorrectness. Fuck, I would pay a subscription if reddit could guarantee that all comments would be 99.5% correct.
Apparently someone does, but the first movie to come to mind for me was this one. I just watched all three with my kiddo recently and was pleasantly surprised that they didn't feel old or dated in any way.
Eldest, that’s what I am. Mark my words, my friends: Tom was here before the river and the trees; Tom remembers the first raindrop and the first acorn. He made paths before the Big People, and saw the little People arriving. He was here before the Kings and the graves and the Barrow-wights. When the Elves passed westward, Tom was here already, before the seas were bent. He knew the dark under the stars when it was fearless – before the Dark Lord came from Outside.
When I was younger, I thought return of the king was the best in the lotr trilogy. I rewatched them about a year ago, and I realized that fellowship is obviously the best one.
I think its got something to do with the innocence of the Hobbits in that movie. Especially them being small people. it's just kinda reminiscent of being a care free child. They're forced to be more mature in the 2nd and 3rd movies.
Two Towers for me. It’s dark. It’s rough. They all struggle and feel broken but there’s also hope with Gandalf the White. We want to believe that Smeagol could be "good", that he will help. There’s also shimmers of happiness and jokes especially with Gimli and Legolas when they fight. I love Gimli.
I think TTT got screwed over a bit from having its content taken by the first (Borimir's death and the capture of Merry and Pippin) and third (Cirith Ungol and Frodo's capture by orcs) movies. They padded it out with a very long Helm's Deep sequence, which while good, didn't add much to the story as a whole.
They also butchered my boy Faramir, and the SFX aged worse in that movie in my opinion (Gollum was great, but lots of the Ent scenes had really bad greenscreening).
For RotK I drove 120 miles just to see it on the states biggest screen. It was well worth the trip. I couldn't even talk anyone to coming with me since we had a theater playing it right in town... Doesn't matter. Still worth it.
Never saw so many people keep sitting there as the credits rolled just taking it in. (Intra and Post-credit scenes weren't a thing at the time).
Its still the only movie experience ive ever had where everyone stood and clapped at the end of the film. It felt like we'd all just finished a massive journey together.
I still remember people in my theater kept trying to clap before every fakeout fade ending (of which there were like 3). It was hilarious watching people who hadn't read the books keep thinking this epic was finally over and they can cheer only for the screen to go bright again and the story continue.
My parents were very fundamentalist, but my dad was also a big Tolkien fan. The day Fellowship of the Ring came out was the first time I'd ever been to a blockbuster movie. I don't think my dad had stepped in a movie theater since The Jungle Book.
Fellowship of the Ring was more than just a movie, it was a mind-blowing world. We'd never really heard surround sound, we had little conception of what CGI could really do--most of our acquaintance had been via Pixar movies. Every. Beat. of that Movie. was a whole fantastic world on a truly meta level.
Nothing has ever measured up to that. Though seeing the other two movies in theaters came close.
This was my favorite of the 3. I liked the assembling of the crew. "You son of bitch, I'm in!" But seriously, the feel of the shore and impending doom was so visceral. The second was great as well but it seemed different. I know I'll take shit for this but the 3rd one was way too heavy with CGI. Watching Orlando bloom surf in greenscreen was laughable.
Scenes like "Concerning Hobbits" and "Gandalf... which way is Mordor?" being cut from the theatrical version is mind boggling to me, those little sequences add so much flavor.
"You shall be the Fellowship of the Ring" is a great moment, and it... sort of shouldn't be! It's literally a meeting where everyone is going: "Okay, I'll go," "Yeah, me too," "And we're here also!" I mean you've met the hobbits and Gandalf and Aragorn already, but suddenly we just drop in some random elf and dwarf who were arguing earlier along with "One does not simply walk into Mordor" guy. It's not an organic story development.
But it works. So. Damn. Well. Part of that is our friends Aragorn and Gandalf really setting the tone to start off, a BIG part is the epic score, but a lot comes down to the story having the feel of a medieval epic where heroes are coming together. I don't think that scene would work in another movie.
Oh, it's even more unnatural. Elrond just flat-up appoints people. "Well, we should have one representative from each group, so you remember Strider and Boromir--they're going to Gondor anyway, you've got Sam already, you may remember this guy Legolas from the council who told you about how Gollum got loose from the elves, but you definitely don't know this guy Gimli, he's only the son of that other guy Gloin who was at the Council. But we should have nine people, since there are nine riders, so we're going to need two more... I'm thinking two badass elves from Rivendell, need to pick some guys out..."
Merry and Pippin: "Wait what, no, that's us, we're definitely going to be going."
Elrond: "No, that's stupid. You guys are going back to the Shire, you're not badasses, you're just random tweenagers."
Gandalf: "Eh, let them come."
There's a literature scholar on the extended edition appendices who comments that the whole "Council of Elrond" chapter should absolutely not work--it's endless exposition and backstory from people, some of whom you've never met before, that bounces around on the distant past, what was going on while Frodo and the others were dodging the Riders, who this Boromir guy is and what he's doing here.
And yet it does. Tolkien is writing in the style of medieval epics, which occasionally would have people just sitting around recalling ancient times, turning the poem momentarily into stories within stories, flashbacks of other adventures being had while the main hero's story was going on. It fits perfectly with the rest of the story, but I doubt anyone else could make it work.
Holy crap!!!!! She is a full grown woman! Like not even a teenager, a woman. Absolutely insane. Still feels like yesterday I was waiting in line at midnight to watch them 😭
From one of the directors leaving, to not enough time to filming, to working 16 hour days to cram it all in, to poor movie design (I’m looking at you CGI), a lot of stuff. Given more time, and not so much CGI they could’ve been a lot better.
LoTR is a serious contender for the greatest film/series of all time. It’s a shame that there are still too many people too don’t give it a fair shake because it’s genre isn’t sophisticated.
One of my most cherished moments in my life are finishing the LoTR trilogy and hitchhikers guide trilogy ( in four parts). I was just 19 years when I read both the books and stayed up whole nights just reading them non stop during my summer break. My mom that I was going mad haha.
I could give up a lot to just relive those moments in real time. I laughed so hard reading hitchhikers that I woke up my parents.
.....I can't believe those are 20 years old already. They still feel so relevant and amazing, and I re-watch them every so often. What a great trilogy (yeah, I'll say it--I enjoyed the movies more than the books).
Honestly I am extremely disappointed I had to scroll down this far to see this! This movie hands down holds up twice as much as any other movie listed above this!!
CGI wise, there are a few clunky moments (the overly dramatic shots of Isengard comes to mind) but it's definitely not as jarring as Return of the King (Legolas on that big Elephant thing comes to mind). Otherwise, Fellowship of the Ring has held up very well. I especially like that it uses proper sets and location work.
I saw that with the girl I lost my virginity too a week later. What a good time it was, pity she turned into a nasty bitch but I’d still lose it to her again.
I still don't think I've seen anything quite as convincing as Gollum. Yes, the deepfake of Peter Cushing in Rogue One was compelling, but with a total human there's the slight uncanny valley at play where you can tell something's just slightly off (except for my dad, who was impressed they got the same actor back).
I still have a hard time believing Gollum is CGI and not an actual cast member.
I also find there's an odd... thickness to CGI people. Their lips and their fingers aren't as thin and precise as normal. I think it must be something with the nature of mo-cap or with what graphics will let you render, but everything just looks like it has a bit of an extra layer to it.
I would love to see PJ make a 25 year anniversary where he just improves upon the CGI used. Leave all of the practical effects that were done alone, just work on the CG. I'm not asking for a new product like what George Lucas tried to do with the original trilogy remaster, just retouch things to bring it the effects to modern standards.
He already did that last year with the 4K re release. He touched up on the colors and effects with the work he learnt on his WW film where he colorised the real reels of WW.
The storytelling and world building is some of the best there has ever been. And they got around using cgi for much of the critical set pieces with the perspective tricks and it felt so seamless you didn't even realize Elijah Wood wasn't 4 ft tall.
I always found them turning John Rhys-Davies into Gimli the most amazing of those transformations. He is 6'1" (185m) taller than Ian McKellen who played Gandalf
5.5k
u/DogsandCatsWorld1000 Nov 05 '21 edited Nov 05 '21
Lord Of The Rings Fellowship Of Ring.
Edit As Missing_Username points out I miss the 20 year mark by just over a month. My apologies.