Lord of the Rings is the second greatest story about retroactive continuity ever created. Only the New Testament of the Bible bastardizing and altering the original Old Testament is more well-known.
And even then there's an entire religious group who doesn't accept the retcon because it turns out when you tell a group of people that their book is incorrect and then you make a book based off of their book implying that everything they know is wrong, they tend to get upset with you.
So Mr. Frodo is a hobbit with a pretty simple life. He lives in the nicest place in all of Middle-earth with his hundred and eleven year old uncle in a lovely little hobbit hole. Smoking tobacco, drinking beer and doing whatever else Hobbits do. But then one day he comes home and makes the mistake of picking up this stupid little ring. He doesn't think much of it. Why would he. It's just a dumb little ring.
Now if this was The Hobbit Universe there wouldn't be anything to worry about. It's literally just an invisibility ring. Bobo Baggins got it from that Gollum guy after he won a riddle. And then he used it at one point to sneak around a dragon. I can't remember if the dragon found him or not. It's been awhile since I read The Hobbit. All I know is that this ring decides to become a lot more important in The Lord of the Rings books or all of a sudden it's a metaphor for some giant evil overlords ridiculously over sized ego.
Now Frodo in a few of his friends have to go on this ridiculous Adventure where they're going to get stabbed pushed harassed and hunted by all sorts of evil beings. And when you think things are going well for them one of their supposedly close friends will try to screw them over. It's a story of annoyance and paranoia.
Now if it was me I would look at a map and say; ''Hey anybody know where any other volcanoes are''. So it can't be destroyed at any old place and throwing it a different volcano means it's still going to be there. But I have hard time believing that even the dark lord himself is going to be able to fish for he's ring in magma. Maybe he could wait for the thing to a erupt or could get transferred back to Mount Doom via some sort of long the lava flow.
Although if that happened then it would be destroyed once it hits Mount Doom.
I also forgot just how happy Mr. Frodo was at the beginning of this film. For some reason you see 'The two towers' and 'Return of the King' on TV all the time. But you never really see 'Fellowship of the Ring' (at least by comparison). I kind of forgot just how much the ring affected Frodo over the course of the movies. He looks sleep deprived and absolutely miserable in the last movie where is in the first one he's all colourful and full of life. Even at his most dire moments he still has some form of humanity in his face.
Also food!
The only thing Sam or Frodo are eating in the Return of the King is this horrible bread. In the fellowship they have sausages, potatoes, an open fire and all types of little goodies. They may even have spices. I forgot just how many tiny details there were.
I made a mistake of watching the Extended Cut. I kind of wish there was a personalised option where you could go in and decide what extended Cuts he wanted. Because I like all the stuff in the Shire. All the references and little details going on about the hobbit adventure are kind of fun. But then you get extended crap with the elves. And not even the Good Elves, I'm talking that secondary group of elves you get after Gandalf the Grey dies.
Despite the extended edition this is still my favourite of the three Lord of the Rings films. I think it's the best acted, best designed, it's more colourful and overall has this nice flow to it. You get this sense of a magical world full of wonder and awe while at the same time still having to deal with dark undertones and evil creatures. The next two movies focus a lot more on just a flat-out darkness and this ever-expanding armies of Destruction that are supposed to destroy everything. This movie feels more simple. You're just focusing on the fellowship. The rest of the world's just kind of there and the only time they get involved is at the fellowship comes to them.
Watching this film back-to-back with any of the DC/Marvel movies really makes you think. You can see the amount of real effort that went in to the Lord of the Rings series. All the personalised small touches and extreme craftsmanship that goes to make a fantastic film. What is the Marvel movies feel more basic and almost stagnant. You don't really notice a big difference if you watch them individually but putting them next to each other you can really see the details.
Or really maybe a more realistic comparison would be the old Lord of the Rings movies vs The Hobbit. Those things feel even more minimalize than the Marvel movies. At least marval fils are colourful and intriguing. The Hobbit just feels kind of rushed, phony and dull.
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