Friday, January 11, 2008

The Lord of the Rings

First of all, a brief synopsis of the story for those who live in a galaxy far far away and haven’t read the book or watched the movies: The Lord of the Rings tells an epic tale of good against evil, spanning three volumes - The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and The Return of the King. The story begins at Bag End in the Shire, at the home of Frodo Baggins. Frodo is a Hobbit - a small creature with hairy feet and a large appetite, not normally prone to adventuring. Frodo has a gold Ring given to him by his Uncle Bilbo, who had 'found it' after its loss by a creature called Gollum, in the course of a previous long journey recounted by JRR Tolkien in The Hobbit…
Second, I have read the book and find it really amazing especially the world Tolkien managed to create. Everything is meticulously detailed. Tolkien introduces many geographical areas and living beings. Each kind of creatures has its own language, peculiarity, history and legend. I must say that Tolkien is an author with an imagination that surpasses the average writer.
The plot, which is the quest for the destruction of the Ring of Power, is thrilling. The characters do not stay long in one place and this gives a real dynamic to the story since every new place corresponds to a step forward to the characters’ quest.
Finally, after having read the book I have to admit that Peter Jackson made a wonderful job in his films. I think that it would have been difficult to do better than that. He really managed to transpose the lines of Tolkien into the screen in a wonderful and enjoyable way. Obviously he skipped some nice passages from the book such as the one with Tom Bombadil but it doesn’t spoil the quality of the movie at all. Here is the opening scene of the fellowship of the ring:

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