Lord of the Rings

CHICAGO – The First World War took place (1914-18) in conjunction with the early days of film, with enough cameras available to actually capture it. For years, that dusty and silent celluloid was used in documentaries, but never has it come to life the way that director Peter Jackson presents it in “They Shall Not Grow Old.”

CHICAGO – The talented New Zealand actor named Karl Urban has had a pretty decent run in some recent blockbusters – does the “Lord of the Rings” Trilogy and “Star Trek” ring a bell? He breaks out in the title role of the upcoming action flick “Dredd 3D,” portraying legendary comic book character Judge Dredd.

CHICAGO – There’s some incredible alternate universe in which Darren Aronofsky directed “Batman: Year One,” John Boorman made “The Lord of the Rings” (with The Beatles!!!), James Cameron filmed “Fantastic Voyage,” and Frank Darabont wrote the fourth “Indiana Jones” movie.

CHICAGO – The exciting trailers for next year’s blockbusters just keep coming. Only a few days after “The Dark Knight Rises” had its first full length trailer released, Peter Jackson’s long awaited prequel to the Lord of the Rings trilogy finally has a trailer.

CHICAGO – How does a filmmaker follow up the highest-grossing movie of all time? For writer and director James Cameron, the answer is simple: make the movie a trilogy.

CHICAGO – With the heralded release this week of Peter Jackson’s “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy on Blu-ray DVD, the opportunity to appreciate the epic scope of the visionary Middle Earth in the home theater has never been so highly rendered.

Video Game Rating: 1.0/5.0

CHICAGO – Instead of the strategy title that it could have been, “LOTR: Conquest” is just another button-masher, a game that banks off the goodwill of one of the most successful franchises of all time but does nothing worthwhile with it.