Mr. Jackson's Opus...

Rating: Null/10 (24 December 2001)

Director Peter Jackson's ambitious opus is filled with grandeur and mysticism, horror and illusion, wizardry and trickery, yet it is not filled with enough wonder that sustains this film in its' dull moments. Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Rings' opens with a 15 minute narrative sequence that seemingly introduces us to what we may expect when viewing this film, an epic and colossal film that will leave us breathless. In this introductory sequence, our characters our revealed, motives are established, and the powerful evil that can bind man within this ring is thoroughly conveyed. An opening battle sequence revealing the discovery of the evil ring displays Jackson's affinity for scope in his battle sequences. Bodies clash, heads roll and our mysterious ring is interestingly introduced all against the backdrop of a massive battle in the hills of Middle Earth. As the viewers are enthralled in this battle, our imagination begins to wonder as to what this film will present to us, and thus our adventure begins. Yet, the adventure does not begin before we are introduced to two of our central characters. Sir Ian McKellen and Elijah Wood respectively play Gandalf and Frodo Baggins as our two antagonists who discover the true power of this ring. This mystical ring had been missing for many years and as illustrated in the opening sequence it belonged to the Dark Lord Sauron who if to re-claim the ring would mean the end of civilization. Gandalf is a great wizard who returns to a small village in the Shire to visit Frodo. While visiting, Gandalf encounters the evil ring and through a twist of fate, Frodo becomes entrusted with the ring and becomes the only one to destroy it. His quest is to deliver the ring to its' original point of creation, only there can the ring be destroyed Based on the Tolkien novels, the film traces this quest from its' beginning and leaves us with a somewhat unfulfilling, empty ending that makes no secret of making sure we understand there will a second film in this series. The film has many great attributes yet contains one detrimental characteristic that deters the film from ever progressing rapidly  pacing. The film does an excellent job at introducing, developing and maintaining our characters, yet this is done with an overwhelmingly great amount of detail which largely causes the film's178 minute running time. Our characters are deep, detailed and can be quite terrifying at times, yet all this is done with a fine paintbrush that Jackson pays careful attention not to apply too much information with one stroke. Jackson deliberately explains each facet of these mysterious characters and those who retain an aura of mystery are intentionally done so for sake of plot. Information is slowly unravelled, as do our villains throughout the course of the film. It seems as if every act has a different villain who is built up and then either vanishes for a return possibly in a later film or dramatically gets vanquished. Make no mistake; this is a massive film that will have loyal readers in awe at the sheer scope of the film. Those who have been used to crass editing and quick character development will not be entertained by this majestic film that encompasses us in its' complexity of its' characters.
Introduced individually, Frodo's protectors who compose of this fellowship are all devout followers who want the ring to be destroyed. Yet with all films there must be a point of conflict where tensions arise and this film is no exception. Even with this tension within the fellowship, we as the audience may feel unsympathetic to these characters that are undergoing such an arduous and terrifying journey. Composed of mystical creatures and humans alike, this fellowship pledges to guide Frodo to the point of destruction and deliver him from the terrifying encounters that await. Without giving anything away, I dare not speak for all but I am sure that many wanted the long and operatic death sequences of some members of the fellowship to stop dragging and simply to move on. If we examine this further, we can conclude that either our characters are undeveloped or Director Peter Jackson is attempting at milking every bit of our emotions. Certainly the latter is applicable in this correlation. I mentioned earlier that our characters were developed and that the film had duration of three hours, therefore I can only conclude that Jackson stretched out some parts when he shouldn't have. In addition, the film may also suffer from an excess of CGI shots that seemingly display Jackson's profound love to pass everything through a computer several times resulting in a congestion of drawn out sequences that serve no purpose than to make this film seem bigger than it really is. I am aware that I will lose the respect of some readers and certainly lose credibility by constructively criticizing the film, yet in all honesty; I could not get myself to care about the characters or the film. I simply sat in the theatre studying this tirade of seemingly apocalyptic attributes that further darkened this film than it already was. The film is a very noble and valiant effort that will please many loyal readers, yet to those of us unfamiliar with the territory, it simply does not possess the lustre that would retain our attention after an impressive introductory sequence. Despite the film's numerous villains, the fantastic make up and Jackson's' vision, this first film in a total of three does not seem to marshal all the elements of good cinema in order to make me anxiously wait for next Christmas' second release in this trilogy.
Giancarlo's Rating: ** (out of 4)