Worth watching, read 'The Hobbit' first.

Rating: 8/10 (27 December 2001)

Based on Irish cinema release As viewed by adult and 10 year old nephew.
Best film of the year? Maybe. Worth watching? Definitely.
OK, the film makes concessions to people who have not read the novels that many would disagree with but over all it does a more than adequate job of getting the basic story on screen. Many; 10 year olds included; may be confused as to why some of the characters behave the way they do, why was Frodo able to resist the power of the ring while Boromir fell so easily to its persuasive powers or was Saruman ever a good wizard and how did he come so under the sway of Sauron.
Perhaps, given the scale of the original 'Fellowship of the Ring' it is inevitable that a good deal of story and character compression has to be done - for the most part the film does a very good job of presenting the core of the story to the great unread, hopefully it will encourage more than a few to read Tolkiens' original work before Christmas 2002. Young and old alike may benefit from reading "The Hobbit" before accepting Hollywoods vision middle earth.