Excellent, but could be better

Rating: 10/10 (18 November 2002)

The movie is truly fantastic... especially the gloomy darkness that broods over the entire film, with islands of light and respite.
I'll talk about the good bits later, first let me talk about how the film could be better, and come closer to the book. The first part that establishes the hobbits, their lands and the starting out has been so telescoped that the film feels disjointed. The interaction between the hobbits is also very different from what Tolkien described. In the film the hobbits are more egalitarian, back-patting kinds, but we must remember that Tolkien was writing at a time when society was a lot more structured. Sam is a servant who goes on to become a very close ally, ie, from a servant to a personal attendant. In the film version, the relationship is a lot more casual, and that, to a diehard Tolkien fan feels odd. So too with Frodo's friends, Merry and Pippin. They are his equals, but always exercise a restraint in their relationship with the ring-bearer. Not so in the film. In fact, I find most of the 9 walkers except Frodoand Gandalf frightfully miscast. Aragorn, and Gimli are particularly bad. But Gandalf is truly fantastic! And the Moria sequence is actually better than the book! Peter Jackson has done a truly wonderful job of the story. But sometimes it is easy to lose the story, characters and flavour of a film when mind-boggling technique (as is there in the film) takes over. I quibble at the flaws as this is truly the once-in-a-lifetime film.