One of the movie year’s key dates is Dec. 17, opening day for “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King,” the conclusion of Peter Jackson’s magnificent adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s classic fantasy-adventure trilogy.
Unlike many trilogies, this one was conceived as a unit and shot all in one piece. For those of you who missed the first two parts, “The Fellowship of the Ring” (2001) and “The Two Towers” (2002), both get special return engagements, starting Friday (Part 1) and Dec. 11 (Part 2), exclusively at AMC River East 21, Illinois Street and Columbus Drive. On Dec. 16, all three movies will be shown together and, as an added come-on, New Line has added deleted footage that was unveiled in the special extended edition DVDs of the first two parts.
“The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring,” Dec. 5-11; “The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers,” Dec. 12-15. Tickets: $7.50 for matinee, $9.50 for evening shows.For information: amctheatres.com, movietickets.com
Here are excerpts from the original Tribune reviews of “Fellowship” and “Towers.”
“The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring” (star)(star)(star)(star)
Hobbits and hobbit-lovers everywhere can rejoice, along with all moviegoers with a taste for fantasy, far-off kingdoms and great swashbuckling adventure stories. Peter Jackson’s “The Fellowship of the Ring” is everything you might want it to be–and more.
Both novel and movie begin in the blissful green Shire of hobbits and pipe-puffing Bilbo Baggins (Ian Holm), decades after his own heroic quest (described in J.R.R. Tolkien’s 1938 “The Hobbit”), where he won a fortune and a magic ring that renders him invisible. After ceding fortune and ring to his plucky chosen successor and “nephew,” Frodo (Elijah Wood), the adventure begins, guided by powerful know-it-all wizard Gandalf (Ian McKellen). Eventually, Frodo and three hobbits link up with elf lord Elrond (Hugo Weaving) and lissome daughter Arwen (Liv Tyler) for a grand council that decides that the only solution is to take the ring back to its dark source in far-off Mordor and destroy it.
A fellowship of nine is formed, including all four hobbits, their human hero-guide Aragorn a.k.a. Strider (Viggo Mortensen) and others. But they immediately meet bloody combat from villainous wraith-riders, deadly orcs and the evil wizard Saruman (Christopher Lee), an implacable, ring-lusting enemy.
It’s a great adventure movie that’s also great fun. But it isn’t really an actor’s movie. Except for McKellen’s Gandalf, it doesn’t contain a great performance. But Jackson has created a marvelous movie saga anyway, a “Fellowship of the Ring” that can be appreciated by audiences who have read the trilogy repeatedly and those who don’t know a hobbit from a habit or Tolkien’s Middle-earth from Middletown, Middlemarch or Middlesex. It’s a hobbit’s dream, a wizard’s delight. And, of course, only the beginning.
“The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers” (star)(star)(star)(star)
“The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers” takes us back to J.R.R. Tolkien’s land of myth and fury–and the return quest is even more staggering and marvelous than “The Fellowship of the Ring.”
Tolkien’s original “Two Towers,” the midsection of his vast mythical tapestry, is divided into two parts (or books)–and the movie collapses them together. The first part followed two quests: the adventures of hobbits Merry (Dominic Monaghan) and Pippin (Billy Boyd) among Treebeard and the Ents (ancient beings which resemble walking trees) and the bloody travails of Aragorn and fiery warrior dwarf Gimli (John Rhys-Davies) at the court of Helm’s Deep and silver-haired Theoden (Bernard Hill), climaxing with the grand, furious battle between the Fellowship’s partisans and the vicious orc legions of Saruman. The second tracked hobbit hero Frodo and sidekick Samwise Gamgee (Sean Astin) on their ominous trek to Mordor (the dark mountainous fortress where they can destroy the Ring), led by their spindly-limbed, devious and hate-wracked guide Smeagol/Gollum (a masterful CG creation voiced by Andy Serkis).
Jackson has woven the threads tightly together, a narrative strategy that keeps the three-hour sequel racing along with maximum drive and tension. C.S. Lewis, in his original remarks on Tolkien’s “Two Towers,” called it “good beyond hope,” and the phrase fits here, too. Increasingly, “Lord of the Rings” seems a popular film entertainment that can be ranked with the very best ever made–and “Two Towers,” with its teeming, glorious landscapes and dark, bloody battlegrounds, makes the astonishing midpoint of an epic movie fantasy journey for the ages.
