Believe in the One Ring

Rating: 10/10 (23 December 2001)

What can be said about a story upon viewing only the first third of it? Certainly one can grasp the feel of the story, the characters, the locations, and the overall feel. Upon viewing the FoTR the first time I must admit that I was overwhelmed. There was so much to review after the credits had rolled, so much that was laid before us that it was hard to gather an impression of the film upon the first viewing. And I also made the mistake of taking the film and comparing it to the book, which I know and love. I kept pointing out to myself things that the production had missed, things that I loved but were not in the movie, or worse yet, were changed in the movie. I had to go see it again, and again, and still again to really gather an opinion. I have done this, and this is my conclusion: Peter Jackson has managed to capture the heart and soul of the LoTR and bottle it into a neat little package for the viewers. The movie does not go word for word from the book, that would be impractical and impossible, but he takes the elements from the book and puts them on the screen to be felt. To be felt. A rare experience in the cinema today. After stewing the LoTR:FOTR in my head for a few days, I can happily attest that it survives on it's own merits as one of the greatest works of fantasy (Scifi is included in that) to come out in twenty years. The scenes I think of when talking about the film will be with me the rest of my life: the entire Mines of Moria sequence, Hobbiton, Weathertop, every scene with Boromir and/or Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas fighting, the statues of the Kings, the Uruk-Hai captain's fate and the ending. All done to perfection. If this is a glimpse of what is to come, then next two installments can't come soon enough....I haven't said that about a movie ever. While the movie isn't a word for word transition from Tolkien's works, it is still the LoTR and Peter Jackson has done the best the can be done within the confines of the film medium. He has done it justice.