I loved it!

Rating: Null/10 (14 December 2002)

but I have to admit, it's hard to be objective. I read the books for the first time in high school in the 70's (please, no jokes) and about a half dozen times since. I thought the movie was a pretty faithful adaptation but was a little disappointed in the hobbits; they were too young and not serious enough. Other than that, I thought most of the other changes worked well. Fantastic visuals - Hobbiton, Weathertop, Rivendell, Isengard, the Mines of Moria, the Golden Wood and the little teases of Mordor and Gondor weren't quite as I had pictured them, they were far better. Ian McKellen, Viggo Mortensen, Sean Bean and Cate Blanchett (thank you for a few more minutes of her on the extended DVD) were great and I really had no problems with anyone except for Hugo Weaving as Elrond (Welcome to Rivendell, Mr. Andersen). Way too much attitude for an elf (or half elf). The extended DVD is much better as the longer scenes really keep the movie closer to book. Gimli especially benefits from the additional material. It says they added 30 minutes, but it seems like far more. I enjoyed the heck out of this, but am going to refrain from giving it a rating until I see the next two. A slightly tentative 10 out of 10.