Hello friends! We apologize about the sound issues in this video. We had issues uploading it & wanted to get this out as soon as possible. Thanks for letting us know & we’ll be sure to fix this issue in part 2🫶✨
In 1978 or so I was given his complete works at that point. LotR, Hobbit, Silmarillion and a couple of others. I was told the same thing that it was a 'hard read' with the most common comments being "Soo many similar sounding names, similarly sounding places. A lot of characters." All of which made me want to read it more. I finally came up with the idea to read the Appendices! Not just one of them, all of them that were available in the books! Read them 2 and a half times and I couldn't take it anymore! The people, the things, the places where beyond anything I expected! So I dove into "The Silmarillion" - please note that if you read it - it is a collection of stories! I read the Silmarillion, The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings at least 20 times now, but haven't read them since 1986. The Rankin-Bass animated ones 'movies' are the best; saw them in 1979. Loved them till Peter Jackson brought LotR to life! Please note that for the first movie the characters say some of the titles from the book! Awesome touch! FYI: When the Ring Wraith is above the hobbits, with the insects crawling away from him and onto the hobbits, it's supposed to convey the fact that they are soo evil that not even insects want to be near it. UGG! You're job is to link us to you to the movie through your reactions. Trying to figure out who actors are is 'some what normal' but not necessary to the reaction. Adding graphics from other movies breaks any link you have with your audience; needless to say any emoji's etc. has the same effect. Each and every movie is a universe unto it's own; your reactions should be fixed on this movie. Why? Most of us have seen this countless times and seen tonnes of movies! Yes Bilbo AKA Sir Ian Holm Cuthbert was Ash from "Alien" (1979)... Innately 'we' (97.248197 percent of us) know that fact and how good an actor Ian is, but now you've brought a hated character into beloved 'mostly peaceful' character and thereby breaking any link you may have had. UGG! A clip of someone hitting another with a mop? YIKES! UGG! Another one... It may seem fine and/or fun for you and that's your choice. Itself is making me not wanting to watch part 2 and no like.
I read the trilogy to my boys as bedtime stories, along with The Lion Witch & Wardrobe, The Earth sea trilogy, etc. I was the daughter of a military father. Books were my constant friends growing up. No matter what country, language or culture surrounded me I always had a best friend in a book, until I made human ones at the new posting. 😊
At 17:35 you ask, "Are those safe to eat, though? They're foodies--they would know!" Tolkien writes, "Hobbits have a passion for mushrooms, surpassing the greediest likings of Big People." The corresponding chapter in the book is titled, "A Short-cut to Mushrooms," which explains the dialogue here.
19:15 that full-sized horse was not about to attempt a jump onto a wooden hobbit sized raft floating away from it. There's no possible way that ends well.
That, and also the fact that the Nazgul are most definitely wearing armor under those cloaks. Imagine if the horse jumps, misses, and plunges straight into the water? It's gonna be REAL hard to swim in all that armor.
As a horseman, you are totally right. The horse might refuse the jump as they are pretty sensible about such things. Might have been fun to see the hobbits on the opposite end of the raft get launched into the air though.
@@rimasmuliolis1136 The Nazgul are averse to water and fire, which is why they shied away from the rivers and the torches. They can force themselves against it, but they don't like it. Water is the stuff of life, and fire destroys, both good and evil.
@@wawaweweb1811 Honestly I think even very bold eventers (both the horse and human halves of the equation, lol) would be hesitant to tackle that jump, especially in the dark with wet planks underfoot... and I somehow doubt the Ringwraiths are schooling that kind of water question often enough for their horses to be confident even in full daylight with dry footing. Now that you mention the possible catapult effect that almost seems a shame!
At 35:50, the words of the Black Speech Gandalf is chanting is the inscription on the One Ring. Tolkien writes, "The change in the wizard's voice was astounding. Suddenly it became menacing, powerful, harsh as stone. A shadow seemed to pass over the high sun, and the porch for a moment grew dark. All trembled, and the Elves stopped their ears." The movie's version is spot on.
They “invented” a lot of the CGI that was used, particularly the battle scenes. Because of that they understood the limitations and worked within them. Nowadays they use CGI to cut back on practical effects and this shows in films. The art of Peter Jackson was in knowing when “less is more”, letting his technicians and his actors work in reality, rather than sending it off to the computers as soon as his imagination ran out.
I mean, you're right in that lots of practical effects were used, but I think saying that CGI was at a minimum is a bit of a disservice. There's still a LOT of CGI to create the illusion of Middle Earth
That’s not true at all. Weta DIGITAL is the name of the effects company that was actually created for this franchise. They pioneered a lot of CGI techniques that are still currently used in modern films. There’s a TON of CGI in these movies, it’s just done well
I read the hobbit when i was 7 and the lord of the rings when i was 8. The book of the fellowship of the ring is a bit of a slow read so i abandoned that and read the two towers and the return of the king before returning to the fellowship of the ring. Now, as an adult, i reread the books regularly and the fellowship is my favourite. None of the lord of the rings books are a hard read but fellowship is a little bit of a slog - until you realise the importance of everything in the first book. The hobbit is really a kid’s book and you can knock that over in a day, easy. The number of rings for each race was based on how many kingdoms each race had. 7 kingdoms of dwarves, 9 of men, 3 of elves (important elves, anyway - wood elves didnt really count because they were a bit wild).
I first read The Hobbit in 1st grade & immediately moved to FotR. I gave up after a couple of chapters & reread the Hobbit. After a second reading of The Hobbit I tried FotR & made it all of the way through the LotR. It took me a couple of goes to get through The Silmarillion, as well. I reread The Silmarillion regularly.
"The CG is really good in this." That's because it's not CGI. Almost everything, except certain backgrounds and large armies and large battles, was literally hand-crafted from practical effects to actual gear made by actual blacksmiths. Peter Jackson and his WETA workshop partners were adamant on a trilogy based in a "believable world" on a scale that will possibly never happen ever again which meant hand-crafting everything. They had hundreds of swords, armour parts and medieval combat gear made by artisans for years. Like 75%-80% of what you see in the movie is practical effects and legitimate gear. Even the Nazgul are just costumes. Gollum, the Balrog and a handful of other very specific characters are the only fully CGI entities in the trilogy. I really wish they made a movie about the war of wrath and Morgoth with this level of insanity though.
The majority of the film was shot in New Zealand. It was a HUGE thing for the country. Additionally, the hobbit village of Hobbiton is still standing and you can visit it and see the homes and fields.
CG and CG! were in their infancy when The Fellowship of the Ring was made. It was mostly live locations and large-scale miniatures. The orcs were not CGI; they were actually practical makeup.
Saruan, in the guise of an elf, taught them the art of ringmaking. The elves made the nineteen rings, but found out Saruans evil plans and snatched three rings before he touched and corrupted them. Saruans plans for the rings was largely a bust, the elves' rings were clean and not corrupted at all. The dwarfs rings didn't corrupt them so much as made them greedy and distrustful of others. They caused the destruction of Dwarfish civilization by attracting dragons. Only in men did the plan truly work.
I love the novels, they are so poetic and gives a very Old English epic feel. Honestly some of the passages are very beautiful and still bring tears to my eyes when listening to them on audio books (Which I try to do once every few years). The movie is quite different in a few regards but did a great job of capturing the emotional bits and major themes.
Some *very* brief background on the rings. The 16 rings for the Dwarves and Men were created first, although they were originally meant for the Elves. Sauron eventually distributes them to the leaders of the Seven Dwarf clans and nine kings/leaders of Men, trying to corrupt them into becoming his slaves through the One. This works with the Men, who become the Nazgul - the Ringwraiths, the greatest of Sauron's servants. The Dwarves do become corrupted - they become greedier, but they prove too hardy and stubborn to be completely bent to Sauron's will. The Three Elven Rings were created separately, after the other 16. So while Sauron knows about their existence, he doesn't know where they are or who has them. It's also worth noting that Gandalf likely DID know Bilbo had a magic ring, but he probably didn't suspect it to be a Ring of Power, let alone the One Ring. He only started to suspect it might be a Ring of Power when he comments how Bilbo hadn't "aged a day." Then Bilbo's comment about it being "my precious." By the time he comes back to the Shire and throws the ring in the fireplace, he probably already knows it's the One, but only when Frodo confirms seeing the script on the band does he truly confirm it.
My parents gave me The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings for Christmas in 1965. I've read them many times since (as well as every other book by or about Tolkien that I could find). The movie is great. The books even better.
When Isildor refuses to throw the Ring into the chasm of Mt. Doom, Everyone says: "Just Kill him". 1) That's a pretty stupid response to almost every problem. 2) Not even Elrond could have thrown it into the fire. Tolkien said no one could have voluntarily destroyed the Ring. 3) That's not the situation that Tolkien wrote about in the book. In the book Isildor has decided to take the Ring to Elrond for him to keep it safe, on the way he is waylaid by orcs and put's it on. The Ring then does betray him and slips off his finger and he is killed.
At 26:05, the Morgul-knife turned to dust in Strider's hand. In the book, the point was broken off. Later in the story, Gandalf explains to Frodo, "They tried to pierce your heart with a Morgul-knife which remains in the wound. If they had succeeded, you would have become like they are, only weaker and under their command. You would have become a wraith under the dominion of the Dark Lord, and he would have tormented you for trying to keep his Ring, if any greater torment were possible than being robbed of it and seeing it on his hand."
Hobbits have more resistance to the lure of the Ring. Maybe because they were not one of the races that were given the lesser rings, Men, Elves, Dwarves. Maybe because they tend to desire more simple things than power.
The more power you have, the more the Ring has an advantage to corrupt you. The humble resist its powers best. No surprise hobbits are the best at carrying it.
Wow, at the end, you grazed something only covered in the book. The nine companions of the fellowship were indeed chosen to mirror the nine ring wraiths. Very astute observation.
@@Wae2Reel Oh no, not at all. what you get in the Lord of the rings movies is highly abridged and reshuffled a bit. But we are talking about a book series that is 1,178 pages long, not to mention the Hobbit which the lord of the rings is the sequel to. or the Silmarillion which is another 900 pages there are so many characters that are not even mentioned like tom Bombadil, Glorfindal, and several cut adventures like escaping the barrow wrights. personally i have never actually finished reading the books myself, It's difficult for me to follow Tolkien's writing style and sometimes i just get bored reading it. For example, the longest chapter in the book "The council of Elrond" Is 15,000 words and consists of catching up with what everyone has been doing so far, lore dumping about he one ring and then deciding what to actually do with the ring. It is in my opinion NOT for novice readers.
On my computer, to my old ears, there was too great a discrepancy in volume between your voices and the characters in the movie. One cannot follow along in the movie if one can't hear the dialogue. Otherwise a very nice reaction.
He does in the book. Yet, the outcome is a little different. Frodo falls off of a table while he is singing and the ring maneuvers itself onto his finger as he falls.
"He turned him into a horse?" I laughed out loud when I heard this. But looking at it now, I'm wondering if that was intended. Showing the silhouette of Gandalf, Frodo, and the horse, but not Sam, seems like an obvious misdirect. A brief bit of humor after the tense exposition scene.
The books are not difficult to read. The Silmarillion is, but not LotR. Also, you don't become instantly corrupt once the ring is 'yours' you have to wear it all the time for that to happen...
2:42 The reason they needed to just cut off the ring from Sauron is, that Sauron already lost his physical form in past, the ring was sustaining his physical existence.
This was the most enthusiastic and funniest reaction of LOTR I've ever seen 😂 thanks for this entertainment) Subscribed and looking forward for more of middle-earth reactions!
The book "The Similarians" was a very hard read. The lord of the rings and The Hobbit are great reads and many of us had to read these books in junior high for school.
The "seeing stones" corrupt more than just Sauramon, Denethor (in chapters 2,3) has one (not shown in the movie) and goes completely mad from the mind control of Sauron.
The cast and crew all lived in New Zealand for more than 18 months to film the whole series, despite the 3 chapters being released a year apart from each other.
Yeah, love the book, but its a hard pivot from LOTRs to "and thou, Melkor, shalt see that no theme may be played that hath not its uttermost source in me". He went full biblical with that one, lol
The Silmarillion reads like the mythology books I used to love as a kid, or the Bible. Written in a very archaic style that fits. Modern people aren't patient enough for such writing, though.
@@rikk319 Honestly, I found the Silm a way easier read than the Bible. It's in the _style_ of the Bible (i.e. short episodic recountings of the mythological origins of the earth) but the writing itself isn't all that difficult... maybe except for "Of Beleriand and its Realms" lol
Aw, what a fun reaction! Putting the puzzle pieces together without trying to guess every little thing that comes next! I love it when it seems like reactors get drawn in and just enjoy the adventure...
At 23:10, in his Prologue, "Concerning Hobbits," which we saw Bilbo writing, Tolkien writes, "Their faces were as a rule good-natured rather than beautiful, broad, bright-eyed, red-cheeked, with mouths apt to laughter, and to eating and drinking. And laugh they did, and eat, and drink, often and heartily, being fond of simple jests at all times, and of six meals a day (when they could get them)."
"All they had to do was cut off his finger?" Actually, no. In the book Sauron is slayed by the combined efforts of those Kings and Elves you see him fighting - also, he is not a giant but he is a powerful evil wizard and taking him down was no easy task. It killed Isildur's father. However, as the now destroyed body of Sauron lay on the battlefield, Isildur went over and picked up his father's broken sword and cut the ring from Sauron's lifeless hand. Only Elrond saw him do this and only Elrond knew that Isildur had taken the One Ring for himself.
Rings are less powerful the more of them they are, the eleven rings were made by the elves and never held by anyone else. Sharon helped with the making of the dwarf and men rings, when he disguised himself as the Lord of gifts. You get to see all three elven ring bearers in fellowship
Looking forward to this! I will say that the books aren't to everyone's tastes but they're also not necessarily hard to read, or follow, either. I know fans who fell in love with them during bedtime story time at ages as young as five or six. Irrelevant but fun fact about Hobbits: for girls' names, flowers and gemstones are popular... but their tastes are meant to be a little weird to English readers, so along with Rose, Lily, Daisy, Rowan, Ruby, Pearl and Esmeralda, the family trees in the books' Appendices are full of names like Diamond, Asphodel, Celandine, Eglantine, Lobelia and Amaranth!
The novels were harder to read and seemed rather dry and unemotional. However, after watching the movies, then I really love the books because they have much more detail, and in my imagination I have the feelings from the movies, so it works well. I love the movies!
Kind of disagree with watching extended edition. As a first time watcher imo I think it’s best to watch it as it was shown in the theater. Not a huge deal but I think the first experience is a bit better watching as is.
@@Wae2Reel You'll like the details, then: Viggo and Jane Abbott had become friends, and he found out she wanted to buy Florian. It wasn't going to happen because he was going to be expensive, and anyway, another production member with a lot more sway wanted him. Viggo was already buying his own horse anyhow, so he offered to try to use his influence to get Jane's horse too. He broke the good news with a voicemail: "Florian's yours! You can pick him up at the farm any time". Jane understandably assumed Viggo had been acting as her agent so she asked what she owed him and he went "No, I told you I'd try to get him for you and that's what I did. He's yours." He'd seen the two of them work together a lot and he felt, given the horse's personality, that it was in Florian's best interests for Jane to have him long-term. Viggo being, well, Viggo, he just... went ahead and made it happen. (Of everyone interviewed for the DVDs' special features, Jane Abbott gets by far the most emotional... and it's when she talks about Viggo and Florian.)
In defense of Isildur: The ring was bloating his ego calling him master and he literally did just watch the big bad explode into a pile of coal and armor. Not to mention the level of desperation that the ring had when it was right on that cliff over the fire.
Ok Dwarves and Elves have had an animosity dating back 10k years, the elves used to hunt dwarves for sport then every time the two races tried to mend the fences Dwarvish greed would destroy it.
I'm with those who admire your association of the actors with other roles and I don't blame you for not recognizing John Rhys Davies, who played Gimli the Dwarf. His other big role was Sallah, Indiana Jones' friend. Can you believe he's 6'1"?
The One Ring definitely corrupts its wearer; it has a "partner in crime," too -- the Palantir, the Seeing Stone. Through it, Sauron has been able to corrupt Saruman! Those Nazgul are already dead; they cannot die further ... or did Tolkien kill them off again "in the books"? Arwen got cut on the cheek by a tree bough. Nazgul NOT "afraid" of water; river is boundary to Elven territory, so the Black Riders were being "cautious."
The seven palantiri were not a creation of Sauron--they were made in Valinor, probably by Feanor. They were gifts to the Faithful of Numenor by elves who were friends of those loyal humans. Elendil was their chief, and he ended up using them in strategic places in Arnor and Gondor, for observation of the two kingdoms.
As others have already commented, there is an annoyingly large difference in sound volume between your voices, and the movie itself. In your subsequent videos, could you try to balance the sound levels please?
23:31 is the love story of an elf maiden luthian and the a mortal man beren this was the first ever elf and man couple in middle earth beren was badly wounded in a fight against a werewolf of sauron named gorgorath and he later died of his wounds and gorgorath was also killed in the same fight by a hound named Huan who was a loyal friend of luthian and beren luthian also died in the sorrow and grief of her beloved beren
if the novel was difficult to read, it would not have achieved success and subsequently become the foundation of the fantasy genre. someone has fed you a lie - a common thing on the Internet.(and the terminator horse line was super funny! 😅 )
Trilogy The Lord Of The Ring Extended Edition: (1) The Felloship Of The Ring Extended Edition (2) The Two Tower Extended Edition (3) The Return Of The King Extended Edition Trilogy The Hobbit Extended Edition Of The Adventures Of Bilbo Baggin: (1) An Unexpected Journey Extended Edition (2) The Desolation Of Smaug Extended Edition (3) The Battle Five Armie Extended Edition
@ianarnett 😂 too stuck on a word and not on $$$... PRIORITIES...get the coins...psssh I'll be in studio TOMORROWWWW TOMORROWWW MY HOUSE IS BOUGHT TOMORROW
The Lord of the Rings books are a challenging ead, true. But Audiobooks has versions that are very listenable. You guys sund like you're from SoCal; you probably spend quite a bit of time in cars. Audio books are a natural for you.
Um, no. Goldberry in the book is Tom Bombadil's wife, and he calls her "River-man's daughter"...that is, a spirit of the Withywindle River, which flows through the Old Forest, and thence into the Baranduin (Brandywine).
The orcs r real not CGI. These extend editions r great! But not all extended editions unrated cuts r good. For example dumb and dumber unrated is terrible. The jokes go on for too long.
Not telling u how to edit your stuff but just voicing that I had a hard time watching because I was not able to watch along with you guys.. important lines are cut to your reactions plus cant hear the movie. If only there was an easier way to avoid demonetization.
The extended edition is not for first time viewers! The extra scenes were taken out of the theatrical release because they were unnecessary, redundant, or referenced obscure book lore. The movie is already super long so keeping it lean is incredibly important for maintaining a story momentum. Save the extended edition for your third watching if you really want some bonus content.
1:36 Hahaha CGI ? :D What CGI? They are all real make-up and real shots..Thousands of people did make up and tons of costumes Not much CGI :D You guys dont know anything about the productions of this trilogy
1000% agreed. Yells everything in the most high-pitched whiny voice I've ever heard out of an adult. Can't finish a sentence without dragging out the last syllable and whining. Un-freaking-bearable. First and last watch.
Hello friends! We apologize about the sound issues in this video. We had issues uploading it & wanted to get this out as soon as possible. Thanks for letting us know & we’ll be sure to fix this issue in part 2🫶✨
In 1978 or so I was given his complete works at that point. LotR, Hobbit, Silmarillion and a couple of others. I was told the same thing that it was a 'hard read' with the most common comments being "Soo many similar sounding names, similarly sounding places. A lot of characters." All of which made me want to read it more. I finally came up with the idea to read the Appendices! Not just one of them, all of them that were available in the books! Read them 2 and a half times and I couldn't take it anymore! The people, the things, the places where beyond anything I expected! So I dove into "The Silmarillion" - please note that if you read it - it is a collection of stories! I read the Silmarillion, The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings at least 20 times now, but haven't read them since 1986. The Rankin-Bass animated ones 'movies' are the best; saw them in 1979. Loved them till Peter Jackson brought LotR to life! Please note that for the first movie the characters say some of the titles from the book! Awesome touch! FYI: When the Ring Wraith is above the hobbits, with the insects crawling away from him and onto the hobbits, it's supposed to convey the fact that they are soo evil that not even insects want to be near it. UGG! You're job is to link us to you to the movie through your reactions. Trying to figure out who actors are is 'some what normal' but not necessary to the reaction. Adding graphics from other movies breaks any link you have with your audience; needless to say any emoji's etc. has the same effect. Each and every movie is a universe unto it's own; your reactions should be fixed on this movie. Why? Most of us have seen this countless times and seen tonnes of movies! Yes Bilbo AKA Sir Ian Holm Cuthbert was Ash from "Alien" (1979)... Innately 'we' (97.248197 percent of us) know that fact and how good an actor Ian is, but now you've brought a hated character into beloved 'mostly peaceful' character and thereby breaking any link you may have had. UGG! A clip of someone hitting another with a mop? YIKES! UGG! Another one... It may seem fine and/or fun for you and that's your choice. Itself is making me not wanting to watch part 2 and no like.
The first person I've EVER heard say, "Oh I know him from GoldenEye" instead of Game of Thrones. My man ✊🏼 lol
I read the trilogy to my boys as bedtime stories, along with The Lion Witch & Wardrobe, The Earth sea trilogy, etc. I was the daughter of a military father. Books were my constant friends growing up. No matter what country, language or culture surrounded me I always had a best friend in a book, until I made human ones at the new posting. 😊
A familiar story can be like a warm blanket at bedtime.
At 17:35 you ask, "Are those safe to eat, though? They're foodies--they would know!" Tolkien writes, "Hobbits have a passion for mushrooms, surpassing the greediest likings of Big People." The corresponding chapter in the book is titled, "A Short-cut to Mushrooms," which explains the dialogue here.
19:15 that full-sized horse was not about to attempt a jump onto a wooden hobbit sized raft floating away from it. There's no possible way that ends well.
That, and also the fact that the Nazgul are most definitely wearing armor under those cloaks. Imagine if the horse jumps, misses, and plunges straight into the water? It's gonna be REAL hard to swim in all that armor.
As a horseman, you are totally right. The horse might refuse the jump as they are pretty sensible about such things. Might have been fun to see the hobbits on the opposite end of the raft get launched into the air though.
The Nazgul are undead and would walk underwater to the other side but without the horses.
@@rimasmuliolis1136 The Nazgul are averse to water and fire, which is why they shied away from the rivers and the torches. They can force themselves against it, but they don't like it. Water is the stuff of life, and fire destroys, both good and evil.
@@wawaweweb1811 Honestly I think even very bold eventers (both the horse and human halves of the equation, lol) would be hesitant to tackle that jump, especially in the dark with wet planks underfoot... and I somehow doubt the Ringwraiths are schooling that kind of water question often enough for their horses to be confident even in full daylight with dry footing. Now that you mention the possible catapult effect that almost seems a shame!
At 35:50, the words of the Black Speech Gandalf is chanting is the inscription on the One Ring. Tolkien writes, "The change in the wizard's voice was astounding. Suddenly it became menacing, powerful, harsh as stone. A shadow seemed to pass over the high sun, and the porch for a moment grew dark. All trembled, and the Elves stopped their ears." The movie's version is spot on.
CGI was at a minimum … most of what you saw was done with practical effects, including costumes
They “invented” a lot of the CGI that was used, particularly the battle scenes. Because of that they understood the limitations and worked within them. Nowadays they use CGI to cut back on practical effects and this shows in films. The art of Peter Jackson was in knowing when “less is more”, letting his technicians and his actors work in reality, rather than sending it off to the computers as soon as his imagination ran out.
I mean, you're right in that lots of practical effects were used, but I think saying that CGI was at a minimum is a bit of a disservice. There's still a LOT of CGI to create the illusion of Middle Earth
That’s not true at all. Weta DIGITAL is the name of the effects company that was actually created for this franchise. They pioneered a lot of CGI techniques that are still currently used in modern films. There’s a TON of CGI in these movies, it’s just done well
And a lot of green-screen, particularly on sets dramatically smaller than they appear in the movie.
"Minimum" ... disagree
25:24 "Oh, it's the king with the nice hair."
one way to describe The Witch-king of the Nazgûl. 😆
Angmar had the best hairdressers, it seems.
Sam is the best character his evoltion from a random gardener to the end of return of the king is so epic and true character development
I read the hobbit when i was 7 and the lord of the rings when i was 8. The book of the fellowship of the ring is a bit of a slow read so i abandoned that and read the two towers and the return of the king before returning to the fellowship of the ring.
Now, as an adult, i reread the books regularly and the fellowship is my favourite.
None of the lord of the rings books are a hard read but fellowship is a little bit of a slog - until you realise the importance of everything in the first book.
The hobbit is really a kid’s book and you can knock that over in a day, easy.
The number of rings for each race was based on how many kingdoms each race had. 7 kingdoms of dwarves, 9 of men, 3 of elves (important elves, anyway - wood elves didnt really count because they were a bit wild).
I first read The Hobbit in 1st grade & immediately moved to FotR. I gave up after a couple of chapters & reread the Hobbit. After a second reading of The Hobbit I tried FotR & made it all of the way through the LotR. It took me a couple of goes to get through The Silmarillion, as well. I reread The Silmarillion regularly.
"The CG is really good in this."
That's because it's not CGI. Almost everything, except certain backgrounds and large armies and large battles, was literally hand-crafted from practical effects to actual gear made by actual blacksmiths. Peter Jackson and his WETA workshop partners were adamant on a trilogy based in a "believable world" on a scale that will possibly never happen ever again which meant hand-crafting everything. They had hundreds of swords, armour parts and medieval combat gear made by artisans for years.
Like 75%-80% of what you see in the movie is practical effects and legitimate gear. Even the Nazgul are just costumes. Gollum, the Balrog and a handful of other very specific characters are the only fully CGI entities in the trilogy. I really wish they made a movie about the war of wrath and Morgoth with this level of insanity though.
The majority of the film was shot in New Zealand. It was a HUGE thing for the country. Additionally, the hobbit village of Hobbiton is still standing and you can visit it and see the homes and fields.
As far as I know, the entire film was shot there.
Oh that’s awesome!
Nice to see people recognise all the previous work these actors have done.
@ don’t forget Sharpe, he was awesome as Sharpe! If you haven’t ever watched it, there is plenty knocking around in YT.
@@genevievenoble8120 it was a pleasant change!
@@alundavies1016 Now that's remembering.
I've just realized here also that Bilbo was Ash😄
but they left out most famous character, Sean "Always Die" Bean aka Ned Stark.😄
CG and CG! were in their infancy when The Fellowship of the Ring was made. It was mostly live locations and large-scale miniatures. The orcs were not CGI; they were actually practical makeup.
Saruan, in the guise of an elf, taught them the art of ringmaking. The elves made the nineteen rings, but found out Saruans evil plans and snatched three rings before he touched and corrupted them. Saruans plans for the rings was largely a bust, the elves' rings were clean and not corrupted at all. The dwarfs rings didn't corrupt them so much as made them greedy and distrustful of others. They caused the destruction of Dwarfish civilization by attracting dragons. Only in men did the plan truly work.
Sauron
I love the novels, they are so poetic and gives a very Old English epic feel. Honestly some of the passages are very beautiful and still bring tears to my eyes when listening to them on audio books (Which I try to do once every few years). The movie is quite different in a few regards but did a great job of capturing the emotional bits and major themes.
Some *very* brief background on the rings.
The 16 rings for the Dwarves and Men were created first, although they were originally meant for the Elves. Sauron eventually distributes them to the leaders of the Seven Dwarf clans and nine kings/leaders of Men, trying to corrupt them into becoming his slaves through the One. This works with the Men, who become the Nazgul - the Ringwraiths, the greatest of Sauron's servants. The Dwarves do become corrupted - they become greedier, but they prove too hardy and stubborn to be completely bent to Sauron's will.
The Three Elven Rings were created separately, after the other 16. So while Sauron knows about their existence, he doesn't know where they are or who has them.
It's also worth noting that Gandalf likely DID know Bilbo had a magic ring, but he probably didn't suspect it to be a Ring of Power, let alone the One Ring. He only started to suspect it might be a Ring of Power when he comments how Bilbo hadn't "aged a day." Then Bilbo's comment about it being "my precious." By the time he comes back to the Shire and throws the ring in the fireplace, he probably already knows it's the One, but only when Frodo confirms seeing the script on the band does he truly confirm it.
My parents gave me The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings for Christmas in 1965. I've read them many times since (as well as every other book by or about Tolkien that I could find). The movie is great. The books even better.
When Isildor refuses to throw the Ring into the chasm of Mt. Doom, Everyone says: "Just Kill him". 1) That's a pretty stupid response to almost every problem. 2) Not even Elrond could have thrown it into the fire. Tolkien said no one could have voluntarily destroyed the Ring. 3) That's not the situation that Tolkien wrote about in the book. In the book Isildor has decided to take the Ring to Elrond for him to keep it safe, on the way he is waylaid by orcs and put's it on. The Ring then does betray him and slips off his finger and he is killed.
At 26:05, the Morgul-knife turned to dust in Strider's hand. In the book, the point was broken off. Later in the story, Gandalf explains to Frodo, "They tried to pierce your heart with a Morgul-knife which remains in the wound. If they had succeeded, you would have become like they are, only weaker and under their command. You would have become a wraith under the dominion of the Dark Lord, and he would have tormented you for trying to keep his Ring, if any greater torment were possible than being robbed of it and seeing it on his hand."
Hobbits have more resistance to the lure of the Ring. Maybe because they were not one of the races that were given the lesser rings, Men, Elves, Dwarves. Maybe because they tend to desire more simple things than power.
The more power you have, the more the Ring has an advantage to corrupt you. The humble resist its powers best. No surprise hobbits are the best at carrying it.
@@rikk319 that too!
The version is extended, my subscription is expected.
As if the "find me" feature of the Ring wasn't enough the Hobbits had to throw in the smell of bacon...
😂 they need to eat!
Wow, at the end, you grazed something only covered in the book. The nine companions of the fellowship were indeed chosen to mirror the nine ring wraiths.
Very astute observation.
Thanks! Do you think the movie did the book justice?
@@Wae2Reel Oh no, not at all. what you get in the Lord of the rings movies is highly abridged and reshuffled a bit. But we are talking about a book series that is 1,178 pages long, not to mention the Hobbit which the lord of the rings is the sequel to. or the Silmarillion which is another 900 pages there are so many characters that are not even mentioned like tom Bombadil, Glorfindal, and several cut adventures like escaping the barrow wrights.
personally i have never actually finished reading the books myself, It's difficult for me to follow Tolkien's writing style and sometimes i just get bored reading it. For example, the longest chapter in the book "The council of Elrond" Is 15,000 words and consists of catching up with what everyone has been doing so far, lore dumping about he one ring and then deciding what to actually do with the ring.
It is in my opinion NOT for novice readers.
On my computer, to my old ears, there was too great a discrepancy in volume between your voices and the characters in the movie. One cannot follow along in the movie if one can't hear the dialogue. Otherwise a very nice reaction.
We had some issues but will work on the volume for the next one. Thanks!
No one ever told Pippin not to use the name "Baggins."
Yeah, Frodo definitely should have told them or at least let them know to be inconspicuous
@Wae2Reel Indeed, he should have.
He does in the book. Yet, the outcome is a little different. Frodo falls off of a table while he is singing and the ring maneuvers itself onto his finger as he falls.
Arwen can summon water just because that river is the Rivendell's magical border to fend off the enemy of the Elves.
"He turned him into a horse?" I laughed out loud when I heard this. But looking at it now, I'm wondering if that was intended. Showing the silhouette of Gandalf, Frodo, and the horse, but not Sam, seems like an obvious misdirect. A brief bit of humor after the tense exposition scene.
😂 yeah it had to be intentional
Turn him into a horse, putting the ring on is find my phone and a Sin City reference to Frodo is pretty good work.
😂
The books are not difficult to read. The Silmarillion is, but not LotR. Also, you don't become instantly corrupt once the ring is 'yours' you have to wear it all the time for that to happen...
One thing about the Ring: No one other than Sauron can possess it. It possesses them.
Oh ok, so the ring makes the person want to put it on
@@Wae2Reelyes. Consider it a character of the story that is a part of Sauron.
2:42 The reason they needed to just cut off the ring from Sauron is, that Sauron already lost his physical form in past, the ring was sustaining his physical existence.
This was the most enthusiastic and funniest reaction of LOTR I've ever seen 😂 thanks for this entertainment)
Subscribed and looking forward for more of middle-earth reactions!
Thank you! We really appreciate it!!
The book "The Similarians" was a very hard read. The lord of the rings and The Hobbit are great reads and many of us had to read these books in junior high for school.
The "seeing stones" corrupt more than just Sauramon, Denethor (in chapters 2,3) has one (not shown in the movie) and goes completely mad from the mind control of Sauron.
The cast and crew all lived in New Zealand for more than 18 months to film the whole series, despite the 3 chapters being released a year apart from each other.
Yeah, love the book, but its a hard pivot from LOTRs to "and thou, Melkor, shalt see that no theme may be played that hath not its uttermost source in me". He went full biblical with that one, lol
The Silmarillion reads like the mythology books I used to love as a kid, or the Bible. Written in a very archaic style that fits. Modern people aren't patient enough for such writing, though.
@@rikk319 Honestly, I found the Silm a way easier read than the Bible. It's in the _style_ of the Bible (i.e. short episodic recountings of the mythological origins of the earth) but the writing itself isn't all that difficult... maybe except for "Of Beleriand and its Realms" lol
Aw, what a fun reaction! Putting the puzzle pieces together without trying to guess every little thing that comes next! I love it when it seems like reactors get drawn in and just enjoy the adventure...
Thank you!
At 23:10, in his Prologue, "Concerning Hobbits," which we saw Bilbo writing, Tolkien writes, "Their faces were as a rule good-natured rather than beautiful, broad, bright-eyed, red-cheeked, with mouths apt to laughter, and to eating and drinking. And laugh they did, and eat, and drink, often and heartily, being fond of simple jests at all times, and of six meals a day (when they could get them)."
What a great life that would be!
"All they had to do was cut off his finger?"
Actually, no. In the book Sauron is slayed by the combined efforts of those Kings and Elves you see him fighting - also, he is not a giant but he is a powerful evil wizard and taking him down was no easy task. It killed Isildur's father. However, as the now destroyed body of Sauron lay on the battlefield, Isildur went over and picked up his father's broken sword and cut the ring from Sauron's lifeless hand. Only Elrond saw him do this and only Elrond knew that Isildur had taken the One Ring for himself.
Oh ok, that makes more sense!
Rings are less powerful the more of them they are, the eleven rings were made by the elves and never held by anyone else. Sharon helped with the making of the dwarf and men rings, when he disguised himself as the Lord of gifts.
You get to see all three elven ring bearers in fellowship
Them: "No offence to Sam but I don't think he could help much."
Me:"Frodo wouldn't have gotten far without Sam."
The Witch King of Angmar will henceforth be known as the "king with the nice hair". Loved the reaction you two. Thanks for sharing it with us.
😂 thanks for watching!
I cracked up at that line!
Looking forward to this! I will say that the books aren't to everyone's tastes but they're also not necessarily hard to read, or follow, either. I know fans who fell in love with them during bedtime story time at ages as young as five or six.
Irrelevant but fun fact about Hobbits: for girls' names, flowers and gemstones are popular... but their tastes are meant to be a little weird to English readers, so along with Rose, Lily, Daisy, Rowan, Ruby, Pearl and Esmeralda, the family trees in the books' Appendices are full of names like Diamond, Asphodel, Celandine, Eglantine, Lobelia and Amaranth!
30:53 Elves are immortal.. They can die with wounds etc. But they cannot getting old or they cannot die because of sickness.
The novels were harder to read and seemed rather dry and unemotional. However, after watching the movies, then I really love the books because they have much more detail, and in my imagination I have the feelings from the movies, so it works well. I love the movies!
Kind of disagree with watching extended edition. As a first time watcher imo I think it’s best to watch it as it was shown in the theater. Not a huge deal but I think the first experience is a bit better watching as is.
Fun reaction, love how excited you guys are. You are in for a ride.
Thank you!
Viggo (Aragorn) bought the horse that Arwen's stunt double rode in the chase to Rivendale and gifted it to that stuntwoman!
Love that!
@@Wae2Reel You'll like the details, then:
Viggo and Jane Abbott had become friends, and he found out she wanted to buy Florian. It wasn't going to happen because he was going to be expensive, and anyway, another production member with a lot more sway wanted him. Viggo was already buying his own horse anyhow, so he offered to try to use his influence to get Jane's horse too. He broke the good news with a voicemail: "Florian's yours! You can pick him up at the farm any time".
Jane understandably assumed Viggo had been acting as her agent so she asked what she owed him and he went "No, I told you I'd try to get him for you and that's what I did. He's yours." He'd seen the two of them work together a lot and he felt, given the horse's personality, that it was in Florian's best interests for Jane to have him long-term. Viggo being, well, Viggo, he just... went ahead and made it happen.
(Of everyone interviewed for the DVDs' special features, Jane Abbott gets by far the most emotional... and it's when she talks about Viggo and Florian.)
Enjoyed watching your reactions--you are both very enthusiastic viewers! Looking forward to the next part...
Thank you! It was a fun watch and hope you like the next part!
Great reaction, hopefully a louder soundtrack from the movies in part two. Have fun with this trilogy!
In defense of Isildur: The ring was bloating his ego calling him master and he literally did just watch the big bad explode into a pile of coal and armor. Not to mention the level of desperation that the ring had when it was right on that cliff over the fire.
True! One slice did it
Ok Dwarves and Elves have had an animosity dating back 10k years, the elves used to hunt dwarves for sport then every time the two races tried to mend the fences Dwarvish greed would destroy it.
33:02 Killing him would be complicated. It would spark an unnecessary war between Elves and Men
Merry and pippin are actually Frodo 's cousins, pull In isn't even an adult in hobbit years,
I'm with those who admire your association of the actors with other roles and I don't blame you for not recognizing John Rhys Davies, who played Gimli the Dwarf. His other big role was Sallah, Indiana Jones' friend. Can you believe he's 6'1"?
Thanks for letting us know! Now I can hear his voice!
Largest man in the cast plays one of the smallest...and later one of the largest, boom baroom.
I'm pretty sure Sam is not going to be of help at all... Mark my words.
Really! He had never left the Shire before going on this "quest ... thang." How much assistance can he provide?! He's only a gardener, right?
1:37 not CGI :) they are actually masks. CGI orcs are mostly in the Hobbit trilogy
The One Ring definitely corrupts its wearer; it has a "partner in crime," too -- the Palantir, the Seeing Stone. Through it, Sauron has been able to corrupt Saruman! Those Nazgul are already dead; they cannot die further ... or did Tolkien kill them off again "in the books"? Arwen got cut on the cheek by a tree bough. Nazgul NOT "afraid" of water; river is boundary to Elven territory, so the Black Riders were being "cautious."
The seven palantiri were not a creation of Sauron--they were made in Valinor, probably by Feanor. They were gifts to the Faithful of Numenor by elves who were friends of those loyal humans. Elendil was their chief, and he ended up using them in strategic places in Arnor and Gondor, for observation of the two kingdoms.
Nazgul were averse to water and fire. Water because of Ulmo, Lord of Waters, one of the Valar.
As others have already commented, there is an annoyingly large difference in sound volume between your voices, and the movie itself. In your subsequent videos, could you try to balance the sound levels please?
Yeah we had some issues uploading this, but will definitely try to raise the volume
Wow, seeing her reaction is beyond sweet! Great reaction! And u are one lucky man. ^^
Thank you!
16:43 "no offense to Sam, i dont think he can help much!"
Welcome to Middle-Earth. I'm looking forward to your reaction to the second half of FOTR.
Thank you!
Sauron on a twitch stream with one viewer in a cave for 500 years.
23:31 is the love story of an elf maiden luthian and the a mortal man beren this was the first ever elf and man couple in middle earth beren was badly wounded in a fight against a werewolf of sauron named gorgorath and he later died of his wounds and gorgorath was also killed in the same fight by a hound named Huan who was a loyal friend of luthian and beren luthian also died in the sorrow and grief of her beloved beren
Obligatory old fan comment: Read The Texts
Why does everyone always recommend the Extended Edition?
For someone who hasn't read the books, the normal edition is perfectly adequate.
Hello best friends great reaction 😊
Hey Nono!
I believe "Agent Smith" actually loves men very much. 😆
Hugo Weaving has been with the same woman since 1984, and they have two kids.
@@rikk319 Wow. This whole time I've been wrong. Oops.
The movie does not give a good sense of the passage of time. Frodo is 33 on Bilbo's 111th birthday and does not leave Hobbiton until he is 50.
50?!
if the novel was difficult to read, it would not have achieved success and subsequently become the foundation of the fantasy genre. someone has fed you a lie - a common thing on the Internet.(and the terminator horse line was super funny! 😅 )
Trilogy The Lord Of The Ring Extended Edition:
(1) The Felloship Of The Ring Extended Edition
(2) The Two Tower Extended Edition
(3) The Return Of The King Extended Edition
Trilogy The Hobbit Extended Edition Of The Adventures Of Bilbo Baggin:
(1) An Unexpected Journey Extended Edition
(2) The Desolation Of Smaug Extended Edition
(3) The Battle Five Armie Extended Edition
"he turned him into a horse" that was funny lol gandolf isnt that mean lol
I enjoyed watching along with you. Looking forward to the next part.
Thank you! We had a lot fun watching this!
Movie volume is too low. Please raise for next reaction. Or lower your voice volume. If you do, thanks
We had some issues uploading. Will definitely raise the volume
Omg she MUST become a voice actress her voice is SO UNIQUE AND CUTE and has Pixar make em cry written ALL OVER IT 😆😊
Agghhhhhhh ! Cute 😖😖😖😖😖no!
TF You Mean ?! She's ANNOYING As Hell.
@ianarnett 😂 too stuck on a word and not on $$$... PRIORITIES...get the coins...psssh I'll be in studio TOMORROWWWW TOMORROWWW MY HOUSE IS BOUGHT TOMORROW
@@brandonj7458 what on Earth does that mean?
Was about to say the opposite.
Timeline in the movies is all wrong. Gandalf where away from the shire for 17 years, before returning.
The Lord of the Rings books are a challenging ead, true. But Audiobooks has versions that are very listenable. You guys sund like you're from SoCal; you probably spend quite a bit of time in cars. Audio books are a natural for you.
Oh boy, reading these comments, I really hope y'all avoid reading them for the rest of the series. Some people can't help spoiling stuff apparently :\
not sure what's up with sound, but i turn the volume up to hear the movie a bit then your voices when u talk just blast out of the speakers.
19:14 the brandywine river, in the books, is alive. An ancient water elemental named goldberry. those wraiths DID NOT WANT THAT SMOKE.
Ohhh that makes sense! Thanks for this!
Um, no. Goldberry in the book is Tom Bombadil's wife, and he calls her "River-man's daughter"...that is, a spirit of the Withywindle River, which flows through the Old Forest, and thence into the Baranduin (Brandywine).
@@rikk319 so you are saying... the river... runs through it
@@MrGaleanon Nice
The orcs r real not CGI. These extend editions r great! But not all extended editions unrated cuts r good. For example dumb and dumber unrated is terrible. The jokes go on for too long.
Not telling u how to edit your stuff but just voicing that I had a hard time watching because I was not able to watch along with you guys.. important lines are cut to your reactions plus cant hear the movie. If only there was an easier way to avoid demonetization.
The extended edition is not for first time viewers! The extra scenes were taken out of the theatrical release because they were unnecessary, redundant, or referenced obscure book lore. The movie is already super long so keeping it lean is incredibly important for maintaining a story momentum. Save the extended edition for your third watching if you really want some bonus content.
22:49 Not even her best role. 🙂
21:41😅😅😅
1:36 Hahaha CGI ? :D What CGI? They are all real make-up and real shots..Thousands of people did make up and tons of costumes Not much CGI :D You guys dont know anything about the productions of this trilogy
I'm staying tuned for Part 2. Bring it on.
So bad cuts
Esa mujer es insoportable con tantas voces y tanta sobreactuación
I think it's really a really cute voice.
1000% agreed. Yells everything in the most high-pitched whiny voice I've ever heard out of an adult. Can't finish a sentence without dragging out the last syllable and whining. Un-freaking-bearable. First and last watch.