Special effects of The Lord of the Rings film series Later on, the scenes were merged using digital effects. Besides Weathertop, many of the other scenes in the Lord of the Rings trilogy were shot in this way, first by filming the scenery or set miniatures, then the actors on a studio set, and merging the two together. An example of this is in the Mines of Moria, when the Fellowship was fighting the Cave-troll in Balin's Tomb, and again when the Fellowship is on the Khazad-Dum stairs and bridge. Gandalf has his own particular scene with computer graphics as he grapples with the Balrog as they fall to their
The Lord of the Rings that "the English-speaking world is divided into those who have read "The Lord of the Rings" and "The Hobbit" and those who are going to read them". The "New York Herald Tribune" also seemed to have an idea of how popular the books would become, writing in its review that they were "destined to outlast our time". W. H. Auden, an admirer of Tolkien's writings, regarded "The Lord of the Rings" as a "masterpiece", further stating that in some cases it outdid the achievement of John Milton's "Paradise Lost". "New York Times" reviewer Judith Shulevitz criticized the "pedantry" of Tolkien's