Lord of the Games - Fellows Hip

I really expected more out of this film than what it is. I was hoping the characters were full on geeks and dressed as The Fellowship. I wanted the group to act more like The Fellowship and quote more from the book/film. Disappointed.

2/10.

Online games don't interest me, so I didn't expect to like Rise of the Fellowship. What a pleasant surprise! It's well acted and well written. As a Tolkien fan, I enjoyed the LOTR references, but there are other pleasures. Your kids will enjoy it, too.

Each of the lead actors does a very good job, especially Justin Moe, Jayme Bell, and Cole Matson. Wolf Sherrill's performance as Baba Melvin is a delight.

The sly humor of the script drew me in. These Tolkien fans don't take themselves too seriously in this affectionate play on the LOTR films. It's well paced and has charm. The resolution is neat and satisfying.

Disclosure: I only watched this because a friend is married to one of the writers. But as I watched, I moved from curiosity to pride. Who cares about 4 teen gamers? You will when you watch this well told tale.

Despite having spent somewhere around 3 years on playing Lord of the Rings Online and about 27 years of playing tabletop Dungeons & Dragons, then this movie wasn't really all that exciting.

There were some nice moments here and there, but in overall, there wasn't much enjoyable material to be found in "Rise of the Fellowship", despite all the references to the Lord of the Rings and also with all the outtakes from Lord of the Rings Online.

The storyline was predictable and basically just trotted ahead in a fairly slow and monotone pace, which really never enthrall or captivates the audience. There weren't any overall coherency in the build up of anything really, nothing lead up to anything climatic, and you knew exactly how the movie would end right from the very beginning.

The acting in the movie was one of the stronger aspects to the movie, as people were doing good enough jobs with their given roles, and thumbs up for that, because they had very little script-wise to work with.

I am sure that there are some fans out there who will find some kind of amusement and entertainment in this movie. However, I didn't really find much of anything in the movie, aside from some good chuckles and memories from back in the day when I spent countless hours playing Lord of the Rings Online. This movie, however, didn't really do anything for me.

If you are a gamer then your money is better spent on the movie "Zero Charisma".

I hadn't heard about this until a friend told me about it, and at first the information and trailers I'd seen had been confusing. was it called RISE OF THE FELLOWSHIP, or FELLOWS HIP? Was it, as the first title (and one of the trailers I'd seen) suggested, an Asylum ripoff of a certain bunch of Middle Earth and Hobbit movies? If so, then the synopsis I'd read, making it a contemporary story about a bunch of gamers playing at Lord of the Rings, was wrong. As it turned out, it was the latter, which I was much more inclined to watch. But I didn't get past the first thirty minutes. The direction and execution of it is very good, adapting the look of Peter Jackson's movies and music to reflect the experiences of the lead characters, reminding me of the D&D episode of NBC's Community, one of their best episodes. But the acting was poor throughout, all Over The Top effusive projection, reminiscent of some bad kid's show (the guy who played the store owner was particularly guilty of this). The writing is a bit too expository (there must be better ways of showing that the lead character has a brother rather than the brother having to pretty much say "I'm your brother"), and the idea of the entire universe being against you might have been more appealing when I was a teenager, but it seems more trite now. In comparison, I preferred the movie Zero Charisma, also about a gamer but not painting him as a paragon of good, and when the world seems against him, there's actually some legitimate reasons for it.

I may return to it and give it another go, but not now.

Rise of the Fellowship is a glorious love letter to both the Lord of the Rings and the world of gaming, with just a touch of John Hughes for seasoning. We are introduced to a quartet of dedicated young geeks who go to school and play Lord of the Rings Online together while trying to avoid the typically abusive jock squad. This and other tropes such as our hero Randall being hopelessly In love with the lead cheerleader will be very familiar to anyone who grew up watching movies in the 1980's. Things take an interesting turn though when a Lord of the Rings Online competition is announced and the jocks attempt to beat the geeks at their own game. They seem to do so but only through the use of trickery and in order to right this wrong, Randall, Stacy, Squirelly and Nate set out on an epic quest for truth, justice and the gamer way. Astute fans of the Lord of the Rings trilogy will notice that Rise of the Fellowship plays homage to many elements from those movies and even crafts its own storyline to roughly follow that of the trilogy. Since this is only one movie and not three, that mechanism leads to certain things getting a bit muddled and hurried at some points but overall, it works. The acting is surprisingly good, especially considering that it is a small independent film, with the standout being the film's director who plays Randall's older brother Stan. The character development is also handled well, with one possible exception. But as that is tied to a significant plot twist others may find it justified. Finally, the film also gets high marks for its sound track and topnotch production values. All of these elements combine to make a film that will be appreciated by many for the light-hearted homage and geek rallying cry that it is. Definitely give it a look!