A marvelous adaptation!

Rating: 10/10 (22 December 2001)

I was soooo afraid that this film would be lousy and ruin Middle Earth for me forever! But it's fantastic. The director has managed to accomplish the seemingly Herculean feat of adapting a beloved, epic story in a respectful manner, only omitting parts that really wouldn't work in a film. That's the tricky thing about adaptations; they are not merely one-to-one translations of the original; they entail a complete re-imagining of the story in order to tell it via a different art form. I'm amazed at how well this was done. I was so engrossed in the story that I didn't notice the missing parts until after the movie was over, and I found that I really didn't "miss" them. Plus, people I saw the film with, who had not read the books, also loved it. The filmmakers are obviously doing something right. I can't wait to see the next installment!
Long live Frodo!