Enter the room, and it becomes clear that you are not in Boston anymore. An enormous cave troll glares down at you, frozen in time, as flailing orcs fall helplessly off its back. Over its shoulder, you can see the wise visage of a giant tree, while the spiraling tower of Sauron himself lurks ominously in the distance.
Thanks to the new exhibit at Boston's Museum of Science, it is no longer necessary to rev up your DVD player in order to get one last glimpse of Lothlorien. "The Lord of the Rings: The Exhibition" has taken up residence as the museum's special fall display, offering fans a chance to get up close and personal with the costumes, creatures and special effects from the trilogy.
In case you've been living in a troll cave, J.R.R. Tolkien's books were recently turned into an enormously successful movie franchise by Peter Jackson, but despite its $18 entry fee, the new exhibit (on display until October 24) is doing more than just cashing in on Jackson's success.
The "Lord of the Rings" trilogy is unique in that it has a broad spectrum of appeal. Novice movie-goers love hobbits even if they don't know the etymology of their name, while die-hard fans have spent hours on the Internet debating whether or not the mighty Balrog demon really has wings. With fans as diverse as this, the biggest challenge facing the curators was putting together a collection that would appeal to everyone.
Thankfully, they admirably rose to the task by coordinating an effort between cast, crew, and computer gurus to create an impressive collection of props, stories, and special effects showcasing the movie's highlights.
The exhibition is set up in an enormous, conference-scale hall in the museum's upper story. Props and costumes are arrayed throughout the room, grouped by character and species (you can find hobbits, dwarves, and elves), allowing visitors to take a close look at the physical results of the work that went into creating the movies.
Impressive though the costumes and extravagant weaponry may seem on film, they become even more so in person. Short anecdotes accompany each display, ranging from descriptions of the object and its place in Tolkien's elaborate mythology to stories about how the actors used and abused the props in the trilogy. Viggo Mortenson, for instance, insisted on repairing his Aragorn costume himself so that the hard leather would appear genuinely worn.
While the exhibit does includes a fair number of costumes, props, and set models- at least one outfit from every major actor and character-equally impressive are the pieces from the "unknowns," the faceless orcs and fighters who usually appear only a few seconds on screen before they go the way of the Balrog's wings. Visitors can examine elf ears, hobbit feet, and orc masks up close, under the watchful eye of the full-body suit of an Uruk-Hai. Lined up along the back wall is an eye-catching collection featuring one of every different sort of armor used in the film, from the prologue to the final battle.
Even those die-hard fans who have watched every feature on the Special Edition DVDs a dozen times will be able to find a new nugget of information. A series of video screens are spread liberally throughout the exhibition hall; visitors can choose from a number of short films that feature close-up looks at the concept art, special effects and interviews with actors and crew from the movie.
Videos range from an explanation of real-world influences on Tolkien's mythology to anecdotes about actors to other niche aspects of the production. Crew members walk visitors through the process of designing a town for hobbits and applying makeup to an orc; special effects are expertly explained and deconstructed, exposing tricks and computer-generated moments that would never have even been evident if the magician hadn't been willing to give away his tricks.
For those who want to get even closer to the films, there are a handful of hands-on opportunities spread throughout the display hall that allow visitors to try out the movie's special effects for themselves. Guests can experiment with camera angles that allow them to become as large as a human or as small as a hobbit, or take control of a digital "puppet" and attempt to guide it through the finer points of warfare. Those that might wonder what they would have looked like as one of the colossal stone statues guarding the river passage to Gondor can find out by scanning their faces into a computer using one of the three-dimensional scanners that recorded information for the movie.
"The Lord of the Rings" trilogy itself was a grand-scale project, and putting together a successful exhibit about the movies seems to have proven no less a task. But in spite of the expensive entry fee and the limited engagement, "The Lord of the Rings: The Exhibition" is well worth a visit by anyone who has ever dreamed of traveling to Middle Earth, be they passing fan or a lifelong dreamer.
