Rise of the Fellowship Review

Rise of the Fellowship is a parody of The Lord of the Rings with a twist.  It involves LOTRO!  The movie contemplates the idea of a national LOTRO PvMP gaming competition.  It follows the journey of Randall Dooley and his three friends in an attempt to clear his name and win the competition.  The group faces opposition at nearly every step of their real world journey.

Rise of the Fellowship reminds me why I love LOTRO and Lord of the Rings.  The intro gives the film a great start with its great use of parody of the opening of The Fellowship of the Ring.

The parody is strengthened by the way the film implements footage from LOTRO efficiently.  There did seem to be a little less of LOTRO than what I would have liked, but the film is about much more.  It is a parody of Lord of the Rings with a great plot that is different enough to cause the audience to have no idea when to expect one of the many amazing parody moments that fill this film.

When the group plays LOTRO together in the flim, the audience members who play the game will be reminded of some of their favorite group moments in LOTRO.  Early in the film there is a well edited sequence that shows the faces of all four group members and footage of all four’s games.  This conveyed the ties of the group very well and reminded me of my groups over the years in LOTRO.

My favorite part of Rise of the Fellowship is that it is a film.  It goes above and beyond the normal indie work using high quality, well-planned shots that evoke the parody-driven journey that the film is trying to convey.  The film goes out of its way to present moments that remind the audience of the Lord of the Rings trilogy.  These moments are presented in creative ways that will keep the audience laughing throughout and, at times, provide real tension.

The sound design is what truly brings this film to the next level.  With use of horse sounds when a character starts a car to the screeches of black riders, it pulls the audience into the film and makes the moments of parody stand out.  The moments of parody stand out even more when the film actually shows the audience the day dreaming of the main characters.  It transports the audience into moments of the source material but with the characters in mind to help along the story the film is trying to craft instead of simply being for the sake of parody.

The only negative with the film for me is that it can be hard to watch when it takes the audience through the high school drama.  Luckily, these moments do not occur that often and are worth the cost for the development of the characters.

If you are solely a LOTRO fan, I am not sure if you would like this flim.  However, if you are a fan of the lore or films then I would highly recommend Rise of the Fellowship.   If you also like LOTRO in addition to the lore or films then all the more reason to see it.

 

If you are interested in buying Rise of the Fellowship, it is available for purchase on Amazon.

If you did not like our review or just want more information, you can go to the film’s official site or see other reviews on IMDb.

If this film sounds familiar, it might be because you heard about it on A Casual Stroll to Mordor when it was called The Fellows Hip: Rise of the Gamers.