Now first let me say that I am and always have been a HUGE Star Wars fan, I wouldn't be helping out with this site if I wasn't, but I must admit that The Fellowship of the Ring was probably one of the best movies, if not THE best movie that I have ever seen. Some people are even calling Peter Jackson, the director of LOTR, the next George Lucas, and I totally agree with that comparison. Peter's vision and commitment to the making of these movies really shows up on screen and the visual effects are absolutely stunning. What is different and extremely unique about the way that the LOTR trilogy was made is that all three movies were made at the same time! So unlike the unbearable three year wait that us Star Wars fan have to go through, LOTR fans only have to wait a year to see the next installment. Jackson was definitely a pioneer in doing this because a filming process like that has never before been attempted, the cast and crew filming for 15 straight months in New Zealand and perhaps that is why the movie works so well. One advantage to filming all three movies at once is that the whole cast and crew is together throughout production every single day until the completion of filming. This allowed for the cast to grow together as, what Elijah Wood called, "a real fellowship", and you could feel their bonds of friendship through their performances on screen. The audience immediately becomes attached to Frodo and Gandalf after their first appearance together in the movie and that attachment makes the events that follow even more emotional and tragic. Sure, the movie "wastes" about an hour or so developing the background for the main characters in the story, and the really BIG action doesn't take place until about an hour and a half into the movie, but the time Peter Jackson spends on developing the characters, their families and friendships, emotions and conflicts, is what makes this movie so much more touching and memorable.That is the one thing that Star Wars lacks, character development, and that is what made Episode I, and even the original trilogy, so weak in the eyes of some people. We really don't connect with any of the characters because they seemed so devoid of emotion. Now that isn't QUITE the case in the original trilogy, as Empire and Jedi focus their attention on the relationship between Vader and Luke which brought out the humanity of the saga, but did anyone REALLY walk out of the theater with a lasting impression of any of the characters in Episode I, with MAYBE the acceptation of Qui-Gon Jinn? Hopefully Episodes II and III will fill that void by REALLY developing the relationship between Anakin and Padme, otherwise I think many people will be disappointed. I mean, how can we as the audience be emotionally affected when Anakin and Padme go their separate ways if we can't identify with them as characters? We need to feel some real attachment between these two and we need to become emotionally attached to them ourselves as we follow them through their journey of hardship and torment, or else we will leave Episode III the same way we left Episode I, unable to connect with any aspect of the movie.

Okay, so I will get back to the character development question in a later addition, but right now I want to focus on battle sequences. Now, I noticed on AAHA that some people were disappointed in ROTJ because of the Ewoks, and that Jedi Jen's response was that the Alliance would have lost the ground battle on Endor and possibly the war if the Ewoks didn't show up to help our heroes, but I don't think that is the real reason why people didn't like that sequence. Yeah, it is true that the Ewoks turned the tide of battle in favor of the Alliance when they showed up with their primitive little weapons to save the day, but that wasn't the kind of help or resistance that people were expecting from this movie. They wanted something more grand, not little teddy bears with rocks and arrows. The people complaining about the Ewoks aren't saying that they wanted to see Han and Leia fight all those storm troopers on their own, they are not saying that they didn't want anything there to help them, they are saying that they wanted SOMETHING ELSE there to help them, not Ewoks. The problem is not with what we got, but what we DIDN'T get. I'll explain that later.

Now the battle I most want to focus on in The Fellowship of the Ring is THE greatest battle sequence ever in a film, the opening battle of the film. Basically, you can take the battles in Braveheart and multiply the participants and coolness by a factor of 100. For those of you who haven't seen FOTR yet, a little explanation is in order to lead up to the fight. JRR Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings is almost like an alternative history of Earth, taking place in Middle Earth, a land filled with hobbits (similar to humans, but shorter and with big hairy feet...hobbits stopped wearing shoes a long time ago so as their race evolved they developed almost leather-like feet and hair to keep them warm), humans, elves, orcs, goblins, wizards, dwarfs, and every other fantasy creature you could possibly imagine. The story begins with the forging of the great rings, each ring containing the will and the power to govern each race: 3 were given to the elves, immortal and fairest of all creatures; 7 to the dwarf lords, miners and the crafters of the great dwarf halls; and nine were given to the race of men, who above all else desire power...but they were all deceived, for another ring was made in the land of Mordor, in the fires of Mount Doom...the dark lord Sauron crafted another ring, and into it he poured all of his evil, his malice, and his cruelty...one ring to rule them all, one ring to find them, one ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them. This one ring possessed the power to enslave the world, for no one could resist its power. One by one, each race was destroyed and enslaved by Sauron and his army of orcs...but one last alliance of men and elves united to resist Sauron, and there against the slopes of Mount Doom they fought for the freedom of Middle Earth. And here we come to the battle. As the scene opens, we see THOUSANDS of men in armor marching towards Mount Doom, and as the camera pans with the army, we see a HUGE rendition of Mount Doom, fire and smoke blazing from its core, and THOUSANDS of orcs charging towards the open field into battle against the alliance. The next shot is a moving aerial first focusing on the slope of Mount Doom showing orcs firing arrows from the mountain, then the camera pans in on the thousands of orcs charging full speed against a HUGE army of men and elves. Next we see a wave of archers in the back of the line firing shots at the charging orcs, and the camera then moves to show the orcs at the front of the line flying backwards as they are hit. Then we move to the front of the line with soldiers dressed in gold and armed with double-bladed swords...as the next wave of orcs approaches them, the soldiers in the back (farthest away from the camera) spin and thrust their swords in a circular upward motion to kill the orc approaching them, and this sword motion follows down the line up to the first man in front of the camera, kind of like seeing a sideways battle version of "the wave". I know I didn't describe that very well, but believe me, it is COOL. Then, of course, we see both armies go at each other for a few seconds and the alliance has victory within their grasp, until Sauron joins the battle. He has the ring on, and just strolls through the battle field as all movement from the alliance ceases, for they are hypnotized it would seem as they are drawn to the power of the ring. Once Sauron knows he has everyone under his power, he takes his scepter and knocks about five men down at a time with each of his powerful blows. He doesn't even need to touch them, the power and force of his scepter sends 10 men flying about 100 feet backwards. One of the men hit and killed is the High King of Gondor. Isyldor, his son, runs to his side but there is nothing that can be done. As Sauron approaches him, Isyldor takes up his father's sword and cuts off Sauron's hand. Without the ring, Sauron's power fades and he is at last destroyed, sending a "sonic wave" of light if you will through the whole battle field, knocking everyone to the ground. Isyldor took the ring off of Sauron's hand; he had this one chance to destroy evil forever, but the hearts of men are easily corrupted. He kept the ring but was eventually betrayed by it to his death, and over the next 2500 years (which are gone over very briefly in the movie) it finally ends up in the hands of a hobbit named Bilbo Baggins after a series of other events.

Now to set up the rest of the movie, Bilbo leaves The Shire (his homeland) to end his days in peace and quiet, and leaves everything to his nephew, Frodo Baggins, including the one ring (which, as we see in the film, possessed and corrupted his (Bilbo's) mind as well...it also unnaturally extended his life for 60 years and it looked as if, at 111 years old, he hadn't aged a day). At first, Frodo does not know the power and the evil that this ring possesses. A wise and powerful wizard, and longtime friend of all hobbits, Gandalf the Grey, finally finds out that this ring is the one ring of power, forged by Sauron. What makes this ring so dangerous is that it will corrupt the mind, heart and soul of anyone who possesses it for a long period of time so that in the end they merely become a shadow of their former self; it also has the power to render its wearer invisible and extend that person's life. Gandalf also discovers that in the land of Mordor, the army and fortress of Sauron is rebuilt, and that Mount Doom is once again alive with fire and fury...Sauron has returned, but he cannot yet take physical form. In the epic battle that took place 2500 years ago, only the physical form of Sauron was destroyed, but his spirit endured...his life force is bound to the ring and the ring survived. Sauron's forces (the 9 Ringwraiths...the great kings of men who were given the rings of power, but fell into darkness and are now slaves to Sauron's will) were dispatched to track down the ring and bring it back to Mordor. Eventually, after consulting the elves, it is decided that the ring must be destroyed, but it cannot be destroyed by any craft that any race possessed. It was made in the fires of Mount Doom, and only there can it be unmade. Frodo feels that he should be the one to take the ring to Mordor to destroy it, for he is now bonded to the ring. A fellowship made up of Frodo, Samwise (a hobbit), Merry (a hobbit), Pippin (a hobbit), Gandalf, Boromir (a human), Gimly (a dwarf), Legolas (an elf), and Aragorn (a human and heir to the throne of Gondor) decide to accompany and protect Frodo on his dangerous quest. The rest of the movie follows this fellowship on their journey and I will explain more of that in a later installment.

Now this is the kind of battle we expect from a epic movie of this sort, thousands of men fighting each other with swords and armor, etc., etc., and we didn't get that in ROTJ...we got teddy bears. I think what people REALLY wanted to see and what they expected, was a huge army of rebels fighting a huge army of storm troopers or something of that sort. They wanted a HUGE epic battle sequence. After all, that was the final battle to decide the freedom of an entire galaxy, so we wanted something big, something grand with tons of emotion and fury, blasters firing and men charging the battlefield and fighting in the name of freedom, but what did we get? Teddy bears. That should have been an emotionally charged battle sequence with thousands of fighters and lots of action; we wanted to see the Alliance openly defy the Empire not only in an aerial battle, but in an aggressive ground battle as well. I mean, the same storyline would have worked, but the Ewoks could've been replaced by rebel outcasts or HUMAN natives, anything else but teddy bears. Now, if George Lucas wants to end off the new trilogy on a good note, he'll make up for that in Episode III when we finally see the Clone Wars underway. And what do we want to see? What are we expecting? THOUSANDS OF JEDI FIGHTING THOUSANDS OF CLONES ON A HUGE BATTLEFIELD! We don't want to see Jar Jar tripping all over himself while fighting an army of droids. A huge battle sequence like that is what will make or break the expectations of Star Wars fans in the years to come. Now don't get me wrong, there is no way that any film will EVER beat or compare to the aerial (space) battle sequences in Star Wars films. My mouth still drops open whenever I see those so that is one extremely strong point that Star Wars has going for it. No other film can even come close to making aerial battles that well. It's just a given. George Lucas is a master at that, no doubt. But please, just give me lots of Jedi and lots of clones and I'll be happy.

Well, that is about it for now. Next time I want to talk a little bit about the character development issue and perhaps a bit on the love story aspect in Episode II and FOTR and what we are expecting from Hayden and Natalie. A big part of that is, of course, the dialogue that George and Jonathan Hales have conjured up for these two characters. Will it match the dialogue and chemistry between Liv Tyler and Viggo Mortensen in FOTR? I guess you guys will be the judge of that. Until next time, MTFBWY.

-Wizard (Nicole)