Comics & Literature

9 Reasons Why The Lord Of The Rings Is The Best Movie Trilogy Ever Made

Published

3 years ago

August 13, 2020

9 Reasons Why The Lord Of The Rings Is The Best Movie Trilogy Ever Made — _{New Line Cinema}

Some of the best movies of our generation come in threes. Think Star Wars, The Matrix, Indiana Jones, The Hunger Games: all hugely successful and spectacularly entertaining films in their own right. But by a clear mile (and then some), The Lord Of The Rings trilogy is the best ever, hands down. Here’s why:

1. Despite being turned down by every major Hollywood studio, all 3 LOTR movies were filmed back-to-back

Given the success we now know LOTR for, it’s hard to imagine Peter Jackson struggling to find anyone interested in it. But he did. In fact, the films were almost never made. After a blip with Miramax and then being turned down by all of the major Hollywood studios, only two smaller studios considered it: PolyGram Filmed Entertainment and New Line Cinema.

New Line ultimately bought the rights and all three movies were filmed back-to-back – a first for any filmmaker.

2. Jackson’s attention to detail – even before filming began – is second-to-none

Director, Peter Jackson, wanted everything to look as realistic and believable as possible. Hobbiton was built a year in advance of filming to give the impression of real growth and age.

This included planting a vegetable garden and moving 5,000 cubic metres of earth to create roads.

3. Over 70 “miniature” sets were produced for the films, taking over 1,000 days to build

Weta (a special effects and prop company based in New Zealand) coined the term “bigature” for the 72 not-so-miniature sets produced for the films.

As the cameras were filming within inches of them, each of these “bigatures” had an extreme amount of detail so that post-production could make them look as real as possible.

One example is the white city of Minas Tirith – the largest set ever built in the Southern Hemisphere – which functioned as a small working city.

Due to the amount of detail each set required, the miniatures unit worked for over 1,000 days – more than any other special effects crew.

4. Every single prop was made from scratch

That’s right. Every. Single. Prop. In another first for any filmmaker, Jackson decided that every item in Middle-earth should be made from scratch. “I had to create the most believable world I could.

The decision was to make it feel very historical, with the levels of detail creating the illusion that the viewers were immersing themselves in a real world.”

Props included 900+ suits of hand-made armour, 20,000+ household/everyday items, and over 1,600 pairs of individually-sized prosthetic feet and ears.

5. The film score is a masterpiece on its own, taking 4 years to compose

Most composers spend around 10-12 weeks working on the music for a film. John Williams spent around 14 weeks on each Star Wars movie, and approximately 40 weeks for the entire original trilogy.

But Howard Shore spent almost 4 years composing, orchestrating, conducting and producing the recordings for the LOTR trilogy. Another reason why The Lord Of The Rings is the best trilogy ever.

6. Jackson’s eye for detail even extended to the costumes, with over 19,000 created

Ngila Dickson was hired 6 months before filming started to begin creating thousands of costumes. She and 40 seamstresses worked on over 19,000 costumes for the trilogy. 10 versions of each costume were made, with 30 more for stunt, scale, and other doubles. All in all, each design had 40 versions.

Jackson also wanted the costumes to have the same amount of realism as the sets and props, so they made the costumes look “lived in” by wearing away colour and dirtying them for authenticity.

They even added to the story and enhanced characterisation by giving each race their own unique style and special touches. If you look closely, the buttons of Aragorn’s tunic are embellished with the tree of Gondor, giving a subtle nod to this part of his history.

7. The trilogy used – as well as invented – ground-breaking special effects

The technology and artistry that brought Gollum to life is something that LOTR took to a whole new level. In fact, Gollum was the first photo-realistic movie character created using performance capture.

Weta visual effects supervisor, Eric Saindon, said, “when we did Gollum, no one had really done a CG creature mixed with live-action that you were supposed to believe was just a creature in the scene […] the detail made him an actor on screen, rather than just a scary monster, which is what a lot of the CG creatures up to that point had been.

And because we were inventing technology as we were doing it, it was a huge challenge”. But they didn’t just live up to the challenge, they smashed it, and it won them an Oscar for Best Visual Effects.

8. Although some actors were Jackson’s second choice, none of them were second best

Aragorn, Eowyn, Galadriel, Gimli. These are just some of the characters who were almost played by someone else. But perhaps the biggest shock of all is Gandalf. Both Jackson and New Line’s first choice for the role was Sean Connery…

Thankfully, Gandalf and all the other roles went to their respective actors and actresses. After all, a Gandalf without Sir Ian McKellan wouldn’t be Gandalf at all. The Academy Awards agreed, giving him an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.

9. The critics loved it too, and it cleaned up at the Oscars

While Return Of The King is tied with Titanic and Ben Hur for the ‘most Oscars for a single film’ record (11), it was the only one to win all the Academy Awards it was nominated for. Neither of the other two did. It was also the first-ever fantasy film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture and was the only one up until 2017.

Yes, The Lord Of The Rings trilogy is – without a doubt – the best trilogy ever made. We could list many other reasons why, but something tells us we’re in good company with a fellowship of 9.

Are there any we missed out that you would like to have seen on the list? If so, leave us a comment below.

Check out more of our movie lists HERE.

Read IMDB information about The Lord of the Rings trilogy HERE.

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Comics & Literature

DC Fandome 2021 – Revelations, Trailers and the future

Published

2 years ago

October 18, 2021

Sarah Casserley

At the recent virtual DC Fandome 2021 over 66 million fans tuned in across 220 countries. They listened in 12 different languages. All to find out the scoop on what’s to come for the comic book franchise, new DC revelations and even watch trailers of soon to be released films and TV shows.

But, if you weren’t one of the millions to be watching from home, below is the Film, TV and Gaming announcements and revelations that would interest any DC fan.

FILMS

Black Adam

DC Fandome 2021 started with a world exclusive trailer of Black Adam! The man himself Dwayne Johnson. Along with a host of the films other stars including Pierce Brosnan, Aldis Hodge, Quintessa Swindell and Noah Centineo. They introduce themselves and the exclusive trailer.

During the 4-minute intro below, you see Johnson excitably launch his passion project. He explains how much the Black Adam universe means to him. We are also told that the film is currently in post-production with the film being released on the 29th of July 2022.

We don’t get much information or storyline from the trailer. But Dwayne’s enthusiasm for the character and the gritty darkness of what we do get in the trailer is enough, for now, to keep us excited about this Movie.

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom

During the day’s events, Jason Momoa was on hand to give fans an in-depth dive into the world of Aquaman. Firstly, apologising for the four-year wait. However, Momoa and director James Wan appeased fans with a host of behind-the-scenes clips. Plus a glimpse of some unusual conceptual art. Which included quirky looking desert creatures and giant grasshoppers.

We have also been promised by Wan that we are going to be getting a film that’s more mature, giving the audience something new, exciting and an experience we haven’t seen before. The 2-and-a-half-minute look into the sequel, below, was enough to make any fan excited for its theatrical release in December 2022.

DC’s League of Super-Pets

A fun animated adventure was also announced. DC’s League of Super-Pets will bring super-pets like Krypto and Ace the Bat-Hound to life for the first time.

In an exclusive trailer, fans were introduced to the two pups, voiced by Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart, in a light-hearted look into the film. The full movie voice by the comedy pairing along with some other famous names such as Keanu Reeves and Vanessa Bayer is set to be released next November.

The Flash

Another film trailer to hit the DC Fandome 2021 screens was The Flash. Portrayed once again by Ezra Miller and directed by Andy Muschietti. Fans were introduced to the trailer and the concept of the film, where the Flash unlocks the DC cinematic universe. He time hops back to the ’90s where Michael Keaton, reprises his role, he originated in 1989’s ‘Batman’ and 1992’s ‘Batman Returns’.

We’re elated that we get another film with Michael Keaton as Batman. Even if the storyline does sound a little farfetched. We’re sure Muschietti will get the narrative across perfectly and the film will be an instant hit. The film is due to hit cinemas in November 2022.

The Batman

The DC Fandome 2021 team knew exactly what they were doing when they left the release of the second Batman trailer to the very end of the day. Like fans around the world, we also couldn’t wait to see more of Patterson, fully suited up, showcasing his gritty take on the hero. Director Matt Reeves, Robert Pattinson (Batman) and Zoe Kravitz (Selina Kyle/ cat woman) were there to lead the trailers release.

Granted the jury is still out if Patterson can pull of the dark knight or not but we have to admit we are excited to see him in action. We also have a sneaky suspicion that for the first time in a film setting since Michelle Pfeifferthey may have nailed the casting for Selina Kyle with Zoe Kravitz. We don’t have long left to find all this out though, as after a few Covid related interruptions Batman is now set to be released in theatres on March 4th, 2022.

Injustice and Catwoman: Hunted

If some of these DC film releases seem a little far away, fear not because we were also made aware that two animated films will be released quite soon. With Injustice’s release this October and an anime-inspired animated DC offering in the form of Catwoman on February the 8th 2022, both the feature-length animations will be available on digital, 4K and Blu-ray. To take a sneak peak of Catwoman: Hunted you can watch the trailer below.

RETURNING TV

When it came to the TV side of the DC world there were a lot of announcements and trailers mainly around continuing shows such as, Titans, Supergirl, Legends of Tomorrow and Stargirl along with the more anticipated trailers for:

Batwoman

Has been renewed for another season, despite the departure of Ruby Rose. The new trailer showcased its new Batwoman – Ryan Wilder played by Javicia Leslie.

Doom Patrol

Is set to be returning for a fourth season. During the announcement followers of the show were treated to a wonderfully odd and endearing mid-season trailer.

The Flash

Is set for yet another inter-universe team up as The Flash team takes on a deadly mission against the ‘Armageddon’ villains. Which could decide the fate of humankind. The villainous gang is headed up by Tony Cuttan as Despero, Arrowverse’s Tom Cavanagh as Eobard Thawne/Reverse Flash and Neal McDonough as Damien Darhk.

NEW TV

Peacemaker

First seen in this summer’s ‘The Suicide Squad’ Movie, John Cena’s comedic take of the Peacemaker is set to have its own HBO Max show. The fun and quirky trailer to the first series premiered at the event. Along with a behind the scenes look at the making of the series. It shows that director James Gunn is staying true to his unique, comedic style. The Trailer also shows the other great actors involved in the series including the hilarious ‘Orange is the New Black’ star Danielle Brooks, Christopher Heyerdahl, Robert Patrick and Jennifer Holland. This eight-episode series is set to be released on 13 January.

The Sandman

Viewers of the event didn’t find out much about this Netflix offering. But we did get glimpses of Gwendoline Christie as Lucifer Morningstar. Wwhich let’s be honest along with the announcement that this is actually happening, is enough to get most of us DC fans excited about its release. There is no release date yet but I’m sure over the coming months there will be more announcements about this extraordinarily dark and forbidding series.

NAOMI

Based on the comic book series of the same name created by Brian Michael Bendis, David F. Walker and Jamal Campbell. The TV adaptation of the story was announced with a one-minute ten-second trailer. This superhero drama is based around a comic book-loving teenager who discovers she has superpowers. Her curiosity leads her onto a journey into the Multiverse in search of answers. We haven’t got a definitive release date yet, but we have been promised it will be in 2022.

GAMES

Suicide squad: Kill the Justice League

Since the announcement of this game at last year’s Fandome we haven’t had much information or even any gameplay footage. However, at this year’s event, we did get quite an in-depth trailer and a little look at the storyline. In this game, the player gets a choice of playing Harley Quinn, King Shark, Captain Boomerang or Deadshot. As they take on a new mission against an alien threat that has brainwashed the Justice League. There is still no hint to a release date or even a gameplay trailer, but we have been assured 2022 will be full of hints about the game and hopefully a conclusive release date.

Gotham Knights

Another game trailer that was released at the Fandome, that excited fans across the world was Gotham Knights. Continuing its Arkham-style adventures, Games Montreal has been working hard on the narrative and gameplay functions of this game. This game, in particular, was supposed to be released sometime in 2021 but it was delayed and we have now got a 2022 release time frame.

In this game you get to play a number of characters including Batgirl, Nightwing, Robin, and Red Hood in an open-world action online RPG in order to uncover secrets and take down the Court of Owls.

So there you have it, some of the top DC new from the Fandome 2021. What do you think about all the new announcements? What are you most excited about? Let us know in the comments below..

Read our review of DC’s The Suicide Squad HERE.