DVD Review - the Lord of the Rings

It has been a while since I watched this series, and my family has never seen it so we decided as a family to sit down and watch the 3 movies.  While we didn't do it back to back, we did watch them all over the span of a few days.

Even though it has been at least a year since I watched them I have to say that I'm still incredibly impressed with these movies.

Not only that, but my wife who isn't a big scifi/fantasy fan really enjoyed them as well.  In fact it was at her urging that we finish these off this weekend, which we did.

In case you don't already know, this trilogy is based on the three books in the series of the same name.

They are about one hobbit's trek through foreign, often dangerous, lands on a quest to destroy the "Ring of Power."

A lot of people didn't think that the Lord of the Rings could be made into movies.  After all, we're talking of over 1,000 printed pages of a mythical and magical land where Elves, Dwarfs and Orcs interact with humans and each other.

If you've ever read the books then you know how detailed the book's Author, JRR Tolkein gets in describing what the various characters see around them.

And this isn't lost in these movies.  In fact, as I was watching them these past few days, a thought occured to me - both the musical score and the scenery found in these movies should be considered characters in the movies as they are essential to our appreciation of the scale of this story.

Not only that, but I also found something else.

You see, when I first saw this trilogy it was on my 27" TV at home.  We recently upgraded to a much larger screen and I found the movies much more entertaining.  Not that they weren't before, but I found myself immersed that much more into the stories.

The other impressive thing about these movies is the special effects.  You generally can not distinguish between what's real and what's manufactured.  From Hobbit homes embedded into the hillsides to impressive large statues carved out of stone that look so old, you'd believe not only are they real but they've existed for thousands of years.

One thing about these movies which could be a detractor for some viewers is the length of them.  They all top out around 3 hours a piece.  The extended director's cut versions are even longer.

But they have to be for you to appreciate the depth of the stories involved.

Despite that, I give this trilogy a very enthusiastic 2 thumbs up and rate it a 10 out of 10.