Thrilling and disappointing..

Rating: Null/10 (24 January 2002)

I waited some time to see this film, preferring to see it in a less than packed cinema. Maybe this was a mistake, building hopes up too high...

Going straight to the disappointment : who on earth do the makers of the film think they are, Tolkien?! This book is often voted the book of the century yet they assume they can "improve" on it by modifying the story at every twist and turn. I haven't read the book for, hmm, 15 years but every 10 minutes or so I felt something was wrong - not how Tolkien told the story. Very frustrating in places - characters introduced, or not given the importance they were in the book or just plain re-writing of the story! Whilst I am not a huge fan of the unfinished cartoon version of this film I certainly appreciate it more now as whilst it misses so much (like the end..) it, at least, doesn't modify the story so much.
I guess, unlike some reviewers, I could stand the film being a bit longer to support the original story better, and somehow a little less disjointed.
The good bit, which fortunately there's a lot of, is that the actors are well cast, the settings magnificent. I thought the Orcs were a bit too overdone in the horror dept.
Boromir didn't fit my image of how he should look, but more or less everyone else did.
I liked the bit where Bilbo met Frodo in Rivendell and saw his ring, and wanted to "hold" it... A nice touch which was more or less true to the story but improved through the use of special effects.
Can't wait for the next film which, unortunately, is a year away!