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John Horde
Hello film fans! Firstly, may I thank Jimcalagon for asking
me to write up these synopses. In an effort to find out
exactly what we can expect in terms of plots and characters,
I spoke to a number of people who have actually seen the
books that Peter Jackson is basing his movies on and, in one
case, someone who had actually read large sections of the
book! There are, apparently, three books (and PJ is making
three movies - coincidence? I think not!). Each of these
books contains thousands of words and very few pictures,
making reading them a difficult task; my thanks go to the
people who managed to stick with it and bring us these exclusive
plot outlines. Because of the large and complex nature of
these books, I have decided to break the synopses down into
three parts, one for each of the books. What follows is the
plot for the first book - Fellowships Of The Rings.
WARNING - DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER IF YOU WISH TO AVOID MAJOR
SPOILERS
Book 1 -
Fellowships of the Rings
In the third age of a world called Middle Earth, which resembles
our Earth but is slightly different, live creatures called
Hobbits who are like small fairies who live in holes. One
hobbit, Frodo Baggins, inherits a magical Ring from his mad
Uncle Bilbo who diappeared eleventy-one years ago (that's one
hundred eleven in the Hobbitish language). When Frodo puts on
this ring it makes him invisible and allows him to see ghosts
that no-one else can see.
One day, a Wizard called Gandalf mysteriously appears in the
land of Middle Earth and tells Frodo that the original owner
of the ring, an evil wizard called Sauron, knows that he has
the ring and has sent four ghostly horse riders to steal it
back. Gandalf tells Frodo that the only person who can help
him is the King of the Elves, Elrond, and Frodo should take
the ring to him. Gandalf then asks Frodo's friends, Merry and
Poppin to go with him to the Elf Kingdom of Rivendale, along
with a Hobbit slave, Sam.
Gandalf disappears and the Hobbits set out for Rivendale. (In
the book there are some more adventures here, apparently, but
they aren't in the movie so we can ignore them). On the way,
the ghost riders chase them and they have to hide in the
kingdom of Bree which is populated by a strange half-human/half-hobbit
people. In a barroom, they meet a strange hooded pipe-smoking
human called Strider who tells them that he is the only
person who knows the way to the secret Kingdom of Rivendale
and the Hobbits let him travel with them.
On the way to Rivendale, they have to cross the Weathertop
Mountains and the ghostriders attack them on the top of
Amonsul mountain. Strider chases the ghosts away with a
flaming branch but the King of the Ghosts stabs Frodo with a
magical dagger. The wound from the dagger slowly starts to
turn Frodo into a ghost and the party hurry on to Rivendale.
On the way they meet an Elf who agrees to let Frodo ride on
his horse across a river. As he is crossing the river, the
ghost riders appear again but the current is too swift for
them and they are washed over a waterfall and killed.
Frodo faints but wakes up in the King's palace in the magical
Kingdom of Rivendale. King Elrond heals Frodo and stops him
from becoming another ghost rider. In Rivendale, Frodo meets
his mad Uncle Bilbo and also Gandalf who both live there. He
also discovers that Strider is really called Aragon and is
the rightful King of a land called Gondor, which is now ruled
by the mad King Denethor.
After a big meeting with the ruling council of Rivendale,
Frodo decides to destroy the magical ring in a volcano.
Unfortunately, the nearest Volcano is a great distance away
in a land called Mordar which has been taken over by the evil
ghost-wizard, Sauron.
A number of people agree to travel with Frodo - the three
other Hobbits, Gandalf, Aragon/Strider, Gimli (a Dwarf prince,
the son of King Glion), and an Elf Prince called Legolas.
They are also joined by the mighty warrior Borimor, the son
of King Denethor, who has agreed to help Aragon regain his
throne.
To get to Mordar, they have to travel through a mine. On
their way into the mine they are attacked by a giant squid-like
monster and Gandalf falls down a mine-shaft and is killed.
The party are then attacked by evil cave-dwellers called Orks
led by their King, Balrog. One of the orks attacks Frodo with
a spear but he is unhurt because he was wearing a magical
shirt given to him by his mad Uncle Bilbo.
At the other end of the mine, they find themselves in another
elf-kingdom called Lorien, ruled by the magical Queen
Galadriel. Galadriel has a magic pond which shows visions of
the future and she sees that the evil Sauron has been looking
for the party and that they should travel along a river to
avoid him.
The party set out from Lorien and find a group of Elves
having a picnic feast next to a great river. The Elves agree
to let the party have some of their magic boats and cloaks
and the party take to the water. The party travel down the
river until an argument breaks out. Borimor doesn't want to
go to Mordar, he wants Frodo to give him the ring so that he
can go home to Gondar and help his father, mad King Denethor,
to kill the evil Wizard Sauron.
In the argument, Frodo puts
on his magic ring, becomes invisible and takes his slave in a
boat across the lake towards Mordar. Two other hobbits, Merry
and Poppin, run away, are captured by Orks who kill Borimor.
The only ones left of the original party are Aragon and the
dwarf and the elf.
My first thoughts. Well, there isn't much action and there
are an unnecessarily large number of characters and locations
which will almost certainly be too confusing for your average
popcorn-muncher. I expect that Peter Jackson will have some
trimming to do - at least two of the Hobbits should go. The
section about the second Elf Kingdom is also superfluous. It
does nothing to advance the plot and I think PJ will have to
lose it somehow; it's a pretty clean lift.
One major flaw this book has is that there are no female
characters (apart from the Elf Queen). Peter Jackson has
wisely decided to add a love interest in the shape of Arwen,
an Elf princess who will appear about halfway through the
movie and fall in love with Aragon. She will then accompany
the Fellowship to protect Aragon and the rest of the party
from various monsters and Orks. Whilst this is a move in the
right direction, I feel that Peter Jackson is making a major
mistake by leaving the introduction of Arwen until halfway
through the movie - most of the audience by this stage will
have either left the theater or be soundly asleep!
Also, more action is needed, preferably giving the chance to include
some state of the art special effects. One suggestion I would
make is to change one of the minor characters, for example
King Balrog of the Orks, into some kind of giant demon
wreathed in fire, possibly with wings. If this is done
correctly, it could be quite frightening.
Also the character of Gimli, the Dwarf is cool but he is wasted - there should
be more scenes with dwarfs, perhaps a visit to a dwarf
village, a la The Wizard of Oz?
So, Peter Jackson has his work cut out but, if he can trim the unnecessary
characters and add enough interesting scenes, I think he
could have a minor hit on his hands.
Work permitting, I hope to have the synopsis of the second book of the trilogy - The
Two Towers - complete in a day or two. Stay tuned folks!
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