Big and boring

Rating: 1/10 (25 December 2001)

This first installment in Peter Jackson's trilogy based on J.R.R. Tolkien's classic fantasy novels follows the adventures of the hobbit Frodo Baggins (Elijah Wood), who inherits a ring coveted by an evil being who hunts Frodo and his friends down as they team with a variety of protectors to journey to the only location that can destroy the ring. Whatever, something like that. I can't deny that this expensive film (all three together cost nearly $300 million) is dazzling on the eyes--sweeping photography, incredible sets, eye-popping visual effects--but it's all been directed with so much awe and self-reverence that it never engaged me on an emotional level (well, not until the last scene, which is a bit late). It comes across as nothing but a repetitious display of our heroes walking and running, mumbling gobbledygook I couldn't understand, and fighting ceaseless armies of rejects from Friday the 13th casting calls. And it goes on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and onÂ…. With all the swirling helicopter shots of moutaintops, I was hoping Julie Andrews would turn up for a much needed production number. No such luck; instead, we get Cate Blanchett inducing giggles as some kind of omniscient fairy (the only laughs in this dour, humorless film). The cast tries hard--it's commendable that they kept a straight face with some of the unintelligible dialogue. Also with Ian McKellen, Viggo Mortensen, Liv Tyler, Sean Astin, Ian Holm, and (the film's best performances) Sean Bean and Christopher Lee.