Overrrated but still great

Rating: 7/10 (21 December 2001)

The overabundance of 10 ratings shows the bias of the reviewers, who like me, were so excited to finally get this movie. But perfect? forget it. The movie has some major problems.
***Spoiler Alert***
First off, the technique of telling us all the information about the characters or items, ie that Strider is Aragorn the King-to-be, what the Pilatir are, the whole history of the ring, all at the beginning, is foolish. It takes away a lot of the great drama that was in the book. Second, the choice of scenes is too biased toward violence and not enough toward drama. The Nazgul are nowhere near as fearsome as they should be as a result. Third, what's with the arbitrary changes? Why have Frodo find the password instead of Gandalf? That makes Gandalf less important and therefore the drama of his death is minimized. Why does Gimli not know that the dwarfs of Moria have been detroyed? That makes him seem foolish. Why take away the entire Buckland drama and replace it with a chance meeting in a field? Merry and Pippen are portrayed as idle thieves rather than noble friends.
Please. Much of this could have been done better. But the scenery and casting is spectacular (though I thought Aragorn should be heavier), and the sound alone makes it necessary to see this on the big screen. a solid 7/10.