Never fancied the book but loved the film!

Rating: Null/10 (6 January 2002)

The main problem of this film is that it was written as a book first, every reader will have there own mental image of what the characters are like and how the action will take place. The sceptics who said that this film could not be made really mean it can't fit their image of how they read the book. I'm glad not to of read the book, it might of spoiled my interpretation of the story which is the most important factor.
A lot of people who have commented on the film have missed the point, it is in essence a movie, a piece of entertainment for a few hours and not meant to mimic real life. It is a fantasy. And I'm glad that the director managed to resist the temptation in recent fight scenes of mimicking the Matrix. It work very well in the Matrix, another fantasy, but not well in Charlie's Angles, John Woo films or Jet Li films which just look daft.
After seeing the film I can see that George Lucas seems to be strongly influenced by LotR. Willow has a strong link in storyline as does the Star Wars trilogy, (ending of Empire similar to Fellowship), good vs evil etc, but Star Wars never had the problem of LotR as the books followed the film. I can also see that Peter Jackson was influenced by Star Wars. Couldn't help but see the similarities in the fight scenes, laser bolts replaced by arrows, lightsabres by swords. The whole inside the Death Star seemed to be copied, which is no bad thing.
All in all if your a devotee to the novel you may feel disappointed and cheated by the film but if your after a great looking film, with good action and great entertainment then you won't be disappointed, just as long as you remember that it is only a story and never really happened a long time ago in a galaxy far far away.....