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Reviews
The Lord of the Rings: Conquest (2009)
The Battle for Middle-Earth Begins!
As a massive fan of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, I've played almost all of the games relating to the films and this game is up there with the best of them (maybe the 2nd best - behind Lego Lord of the Rings). In Conquest, you can play on both the good and bad sides, wage war for the one Ring and see what happens when either side win. The music from the original LOTR trilogy is a great addition as is Hugo Weaving reprising his role as Elrond to narrate the story for both sides. When doing the good or bad campaign, you choose to play as either a Mage (basically a wizard), archer, warrior or scout and eventually get to play as a hero character (Aragorn, Gandalf, Sauron, Saruman, etc), as well as other game options like instant action (which I absolutely love playing) that consists of team deathwatch, conquest or capture the ring, all of which make this game so damn fun. However, the game does feature a frustrating combat system where enemies can gang up on you and strike you multiple times as well as the game's AI where characters wonder off cliffs or just stand around doing nothing only to be attacked and killed almost instantly. Overall, the graphics recapturing Middle-earth are phenomenally fantastic and beautiful to look at (especially Minas Tirith - which is my favourite level on instant action). Overall, the game is a ton of fun and is great on multiplayer where you and friends can hours of time conquering in Middle-earth and I definitely recommend Lord of the Rings fans to play this game and see if you loved it like I do.
Pros: the graphics are absolutely undeniably gorgeous to look at and beautifully capture Middle-earth, playing hero characters (Gandalf, Aragorn, Saruman, etc), you can play either good or bad side and see it from the heroes and villains' perspectives, multiplayer is fun as are the other game options (instant action, team deathmatch and capture the ring), you can ride on various creatures (horses, wargs, mumakil, etc - unfortunately no fell beasts) into battle, the music from the LOTR trilogy is great and the scope and scale of the maps (i.e. Minas Morgul, Minas Tirith, Helm's Deep, etc) are incredible.
Cons: the fighting can be frustrating as you can hit multiple times by enemies, the game's AI with some enemies walking off a cliff and allies just standing around doing nothing, needed more locations to fight in (Edoras, Lothlorien, Cirith Ungol, Amon Hen and Fangorn Forest), some of the voice acting and dialogue isn't very good and need more hero/villain characters to play (Sam, Pippin, Merry, Theoden, Eomer, Gollum, Galadriel, Boromir, Arwen, and Gothmog - the last three you can play only with the DLC which has unfortunately gone)
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
You Shall be the Fellowship of the Ring - 16 Years Ago I entered a Magical World that had me hooked and enhanced ever since
16 Years ago when I was 9, I bought a VHS of Fellowship of the Ring and as soon as I watched it, I was enhanced with the world, the characters, creatures and visuals and my mind was blown - I had not seen a film like this. The movie is more than sheer brilliance - its phenomenal and undeniably passionate movie-making on a flawless scale - from the unforgettable and fantastic acting from a brilliant ensemble to the splendid writing that develops the character, kick- starts a great story with thought-provoking themes and builds a glorious fantasy world to the intense and impressive action set pieces.
Based on the book with the same name and set in the world of Middle- Earth, The Fellowship of the Ring sees young hobbit Frodo Baggins inherit a magical ring from his uncle, Bilbo, that is revealed to have been created by the Dark Lord Sauron, who was destroyed during a battle with the forces of Men and Elves. If Sauron regains the ring, he can regain physical form and bring destruction to Middle- Earth. As Sauron's forces desperately seek the ring across the land, Frodo and a group of eight companions - comprising of the wise wizard Gandalf, mysterious ranger Aragorn, Frodo's loyal companion (and love interest) Sam, Frodo's mischievous cousins Merry and Pippin, elf prince Legolas, fearsome dwarf Gimli and the troubled, but heroic warrior Boromir - set out from Rivendell to the fires of Mount Doom where the ring can only be destroyed.
So where can I start? The film perfectly captures Tolkien's world from the books by using beautiful sets and using New Zealand landscapes to visualise it, backed up by fantastic performances from the entire cast (including the creatures), the use of brilliant CGI with prosthetics & practical effects and big-atures, an intriguing script to bring a monumental story to life and the unforgettable action scenes (intense and thrilling fight in Balin's Tomb, Gandalf's stand against the Balrog, the prologue with Sauron as a bad-ass and the heart- poundingly stirring fight at Amon Hen). The film, like its successors, is epic in every way - from cinematography to costumes to its music score to its flawless directing - setting the standard from filmmaking and being the most revolutionary films in the fantasy genre. Even though The Two Towers is the best installment (and my preferred favourite) in the Rings Trilogy, I'll admit that Fellowship is the most flawless in the trilogy. Overall, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring is an undeniably outstanding achievement in cinema and a fantastic start to the greatest trilogy of all time and all three films are utterly phenomenal.
Pros: The script & story, the cast & characters, flawless direction, action scenes, beautiful cinematography, Howard Shore's stirring score, practical effects/prosthetics with great CGI, the use of on- location and Boromir's death is the most emotional (and possibly the best) death in the entire trilogy
Cons: Frodo is a bit stiff in a few scenes, I didn't care for how the characters make Boromir look untrustworthy when he's a deeply troubled individual, Galadriel and Arwen could have been more developed as characters and Sam crying out for Frodo in the cornfield is the most cringiest moment in the entire LOTR trilogy
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
There's only one return and that's of the King - Here We Are at the End of All Things
After two spectacular, mind-blowing and breathtaking installments of the epic Lord of the Rings Trilogy, we finally get to the most emotional and darkest chapter - The Return of the King. Packed with incredible and extraordinarily epic battle scenes with unforgettable, powerful performances and undeniably emotionally resonant with beautiful visuals, The Return of the King brings the epic and emotional conclusion to the greatest trilogy of all time.
After triumphing against the fallen wizard Saruman at Helm's Deep and Isengard, Gandalf rallies the troops of Minas Tirith against the shadow of the Dark Lord Sauron's vast army of Orcs, Trolls and Mumakil that are setting off to conquer Gondor and Middle-earth. Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas seek help from the cursed army of the dead in the haunted mountains to vanquish Sauron's outnumbering forces as King Theoden rallies his huge Rohirrim army to ride to Gondor's aid and Frodo, Sam and Gollum continue their journey to Mount Doom through a treacherous route.
The Return of the King is the big pay-off to the monumental story that started in Fellowship and continued through the Two Towers and this film doesn't disappoint. Peter Jackson's direction is flawless - from directing strong, towering performances mixed with heartbreaking emotion to swooping and out-of-this-world, intense battles from Rohirrim clashing with Orcs to enormous elephants to the armies of Rohan and Gondor charging to Mordor's army at the Black Gates to give Frodo more time to destroy the Ring. The battle scenes are so much bigger in this film - from Ringwraiths swooping men on flying beasts to a gigantic army of Orcs and Trolls besieging Minas Tirith to giant elephants clashing with the Rohirrim to the stirring battle at the Black Gates - and the film has the most emotional moments in the entire trilogy - from the Rohirrim's charge, Frodo sending Sam away, Faramir's near-suicide charge, Theoden's heroic end, Aragorn's speech to the final shot in the film followed by 'The End'.
The Lord of the Rings is a once-in-a-lifetime experience, an amazingly powerful visual experience and an unmissable phenomenon that should be watched by all film buffs and fantasy fans at least once just to experience the outstanding filmmaking and breathtaking battles. Unlike many trilogies (Godfather, Matrix, Star Wars), there are no disappointing chapters in the Lord of the Rings Trilogy as each film gets better and better and in many capacities outdoes what the other film achieved. As for the endings, I understand people's complaints - however in my opinion they were earned, but we also needed to see what happened to the other main characters such as Gimli, Eomer, Aragorn, Faramir and Legolas (I know they were filmed and will hopefully be present in a future edition of the film) and another problem that I have with this film which is the film's biggest blunder is the omitting Saruman. The two films perfectly built him up as the main active villain (while Sauron is the ultimate antagonist) and in the theatrical version, he's absent and it leaves a very big hole in the film (he is present in the extended edition, but he should have featured in the theatrical cut too).
Pros: The unbelievably monumental epic battles (especially Pelennor Fields with the giant Mumakil), emotionally resonant, flawless direction, towering performances from an excellent ensemble cast, remarkable special effects, amazing characters, fantastic cinematography, the outstanding production & costume designs and the emotionally breathtaking story & script
Cons: Cutting Saruman out of the theatrical cut, some parts of the action scenes could have been cut, we should have seen what happened to the other main characters like Legolas, Aragorn, Eomer and Gimli, the Easterlings (the bad-ass looking warriors at the Black Gates) were not utilised very well (we only get to see them very briefly when the Trolls breach the gates of Gondor), we could have found out the reason why Denethor dislikes his son Faramir and Eowyn's war-cry when she kills the Witch-King is cringey & cheesy
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
The Best of the Rings Trilogy and the Best Sequel of all Time!
As the middle chapter in the greatest trilogy of all time, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers successfully continues the journeys of the recently broken Fellowship by focusing on the characters' story lines: Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas travel to the aid of the troubled country of Rohan and help defend the Rohirrim against the corrupted wizard Saruman and his terrifying Uruk-hai army, Frodo and Sam encounter the mentally deranged Gollum, the former owner of the One Ring, who helps them on their path to Mordor, and Merry and Pippin meet a new ally in the tree-shepherd Treebeard. For me personally, The Two Towers is not just the best of the Lord of the Rings series, its also the best second sequel and best sequel of all time - and I've seen Terminator 2, Captain America: Winter Soldier, Aliens, The Dark Knight, Godfather 2, Toy Story 2 and Empire Strikes Back - and it's certainly better and stronger than all of them. It extends the world building from Fellowship and deepens the relationships of the characters (and does it better than Empire), it's also darker, intense, undoubtedly exciting and more involving, defying viewers expectations by taking the series to heightened emotional levels and leaving the viewers satisfied and also wanting more. Mind-blowing, stronger and the most thought-provoking of the trilogy, The Two Towers is a sequel that is better than the original and is the best sequel of all time and is a must-see for fantasy fans and film buffs.
Pros: It features the best battle of the entire franchise (Helm's Deep), acting, characters, a brilliant script that flawlessly handles three story lines and develops more characters, beautiful production & costume design, action scenes, fantastic special effects, amazing stunts and the gorgeous cinematography.
Cons: Eomer could have been more developed, the Treebeard scenes were slow-paced and interfered with the battle at Helm's Deep, Legolas jumping on top of his horse was stupid, there should have been a resolution with the Dunlendings (the Wild Men) and Eowyn's cringe-worthy singing at Theodred's funeral (extended edition)
Immortals (2011)
One of 2011's best films
With its glorious visuals, an intriguing story, stellar cast and exhilarating, spectacular action, Tarsem Singh succeeds completely in bringing the violent, dark age of ancient Greece and balancing the Greek myths of Theseus and the Minotaur with the Titanomachy (the war between the Olympians and Titans) to visceral life, resulting in Immortals becoming a cult classic and one of the best films of 2011 as well as one of the greatest action films of all time.
Pros: Fantastic action scenes, stellar performances, a fascinating take on Greek mythology, intriguing story, flawless pacing, gorgeous set/production design and great visuals.
Cons: Not enough character development, script could have been better, needs a few more action scenes and some scenes are to dark to see anything.