The impossible dream.

Rating: Null/10 (26 December 2001)

First comment: If this was a straightforward, easy story to convert to celluloid, the Hollywood dreck machine would have churned out 7 versions by now, and not one would have achieved what Fellowship Of The Rings has done; it has SUCCESSFULLY transferred the ultimate fictional story of our time into an enjoyable, watchable, engaging movie. Lord Of The Rings is infinitely more complex, textured and character rich than The Wizard Of Oz, and there's no cheesy song and dance routines to patch up what amounts to 10 minutes of script. It was never going to be perfect. It was never going to satisfy the hard core Tolkienists, nor win over the Schwarzenegger set (thank God). And of course, the chronic complainers, antagonistic afficionados, cool-cruel critics and pessimistic punters will have gorged themselves on enough pre-release hype and promotion to be able to take all the cheap shots they want at some of the movie's imperfections. "After all the expectations...blah blah blah..".
Those who think of "Star Wars" as a measuring stick stay away. Those who think for themselves, go and see a magnificent story brought to life as well as anyone could have done. Perhaps the body count boys and cheap thrill conjurors in California could take note. To make a GOOD film, first take a GOOD story.....