Plot Details: This opinion reveals minor details about the movie's plot.

Get comfy folks, this is bound to be a very long review! Sorry, but this set just has soooo much great stuff in it, I have to cover it all.

First, for those who don't know, the Fellowship of the Ring is the first book in the Lord of the Rings trilogy by JRR Tolkien. This trilogy (and it's predecessor, The Hobbit) is second in sales only to the Bible. That's quite an accomplishment! A book of such massive popularity is bound to be hard to bring to film, and it was. There have been previous attempts to do it via animation, but they just didn't cut it all. This time, they got it right.

The Plot
Frodo Baggins (nephew to Bilbo of The Hobbit) has inherited a ring. This ring is an ancient magical ring that belongs to the massivley evil guy Sauron. The ring has lain idol for many many years, but now Sauron's minions have detected it's presence and poor Frodo must destroy it before it falls back into Sauron's hands. If Sauron gets it, all bets are off! End of Middle Earth as we know it! *cower*

This is a mighty task for someone such as Frodo. He is, after all, a mere Hobbit..or Halfling if you will. A little guy, but with a very big heart. Luckily for Frodo, he has help along the way. A Fellowship is formed of Frodo, 3 other hobbits, Aragorn (a very studly heir to the thrown of Gondor, living as a ranger), Legolas (an Elven archer), Borimor (current rep of Gondor, human), a dwarf named Gimli, and, of course, Gandalf the Grey (wizard).

Along the way to Mordor to destroy the ring at it's origins, our Fellowship will encounter a myriad of mean nasty uglies... orks, a Balrog, Ring Wraithes, Gollum, and a host of other scary folk. All in all, an awesome fantasy adventure!

~~~~~~~~~~Spoiler Alert!!!~~~~~~~~~~~~

I will warn you, however, that if you have not read the books you will find yourself at the ending going what the hell? as it does end abruptly. There is no closure here..you have to wait for the next two movies to continue the story. So do read the books!

~~~~~~~~~~End Spoiler Alert~~~~~~~~~~~

For a much more in-depth review of the movie itself, I offer you an excellent one written by Vormancian:
http://www.epinions.com/content_54254407300

This is Rated PG-13 for violence, but if you watch it with them I don't see why any age couldn't see this.

Now, part of what makes this particular gift set special is that it is not just the theatrical release of the film..it's the extended version. They put over 30 minutes back into the film that had been cut to make it a managable theatre length. These additions make the movie even more spectacular. I especially loved when Gandalf got up at the Fellowship forming and began to speak the language of Moria. Very dramatic scene! No, I'm not going to tell you the other added scenes. I'm stubborn that way. Go buy it!

Also, this extended edition new music scored by Academy Award®-winning composer Howard Shore. The music is just absolutely breath-taking. I mean it was in the theatrical version too, but this is just more so.

The movie is presented on two DVDs in Widescreen (2.35:1) format with Dolby Digital EX 5.1 Surround Sound, DTS ES 6.1 Surround Sound, and stereo Surround Sound

But wait! that ain't all!
Included in this set are four audio commentaries from Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen and Academy Award winners Richard Taylor, Andrew Lesnie, Howard Shore, Jim Rygiel, Randy Cook and more! The movie itself, with all 4 commentaries, spans 2 discs and runs about 208 mesmerizing minutes.

Disc 3, From Book to Vision, includes features on
*Adapting the book into a screenplay
*Designing and building Middle-earth
*Weta Workshop visit
*Guided tour of the wardrobe department, and more.

In these extras you will see the many year process they all went through to get this book to the screen. The screen-play was never written in stone and changed daily as the actors came to 'own' their various roles and make suggestions. They even actually story-boarded every single scene a year before they were to start shooting. They made all kinds of miniatures to test various camera angles so they would be ready to roll with it when shooting began.

Disc 4, From Vision to Reality has features on
*Bringing the characters to life
*A day in the life of a hobbit
*Creating the illusion of size
*Sound design demonstration, and much more

There is just quite a bit of very interesting stuff here. In fact, it's a full 6 hours of extras. This set is not just a movie, it's an event! So far, between the movie itself and the extras, we have almost 10 hours of viewing enjoyment...and that's not counting all the commentaries!

But that's still not all
In addition to the aforementioned, you also get the National Geographic - The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring disc. This is selling for $20 by itself at the time of this review. This disc will walk you through how the locations were picked for the movie, Tolkiens tour of duty in WWI, and his son Christopher's participation in WWII. This one also tells of how the Elven language came into being. You will learn about Tolkien's Literary club, The Inklings, which he formed at Oxford with CS Lewis; The Language and Landscape of Middle-earth is about the things that influenced Tolkien when he came up with the detailed maps of Middle-earth.

This Disc has a bit of blatant commercialism too though, as in two of the special features on the National Geographic dis have to do with promoting their other products. Still a very good and informative disc..just skip the last two special features on this one.

You sold yet? Let me toss in a few more things!

This set also includes a gorgeous set of "Pillars of Argonath" bookends from Sideshow and Weta (the same team that created the special effects for the film). Now these bookends are very nice, but I do have to say they are not as heavy as I usually like my bookends to be. Still, I love the look of them. You will recognize them from the scene where the Fellowship is in the canoes and comes to a point on the river where it is banked by two enormous pillars...thats these. The Bookends are made of Polystone.

You also receive 3 exclusive Lord of the Rings foil trading cards available only thru this boxed set. I got Legolas, Gimli, and Aragorn in mine. Yay! I woulda been dissapointed if I hadn't gotten Aragorn. Score! If you are into collecting cards at all, you know that the foils are usually the most collectable and go up in value the fastest.

Last but not least, you get a hobbit-sized edition of the LOTR fan club movie magazine, complete with an exclusive interview with Director Peter Jackson. Lots of interesting little tid bits in this, and of course an order form to join the Fan Club if you wish.

Final Thoughts
Now, before my fingers begin cramping from all this typing, I'll leave you with my final recommendation. Buy it. We ended up with a pretty good deal... I had originally bought the first release of the theatrical version, which happened to have a coupon for $10 off this boxed set... then we waited til this set went on sale for $58 at WalMart.com. I Scored again! Go Me!

Now shoo! I have to watch another commentary, go get your own!

The Two Towers Gift Set:
http://www.epinions.com/content_122447826564

The Lord of the Rings Tarot Deck and Card Game:
http://www.epinions.com/content_117771243140


Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older