THE BACKLASH IS FINALLY HERE!!!!!

Rating: 1/10 (2 January 2002)

Well it was bound to happen after nearly 6 months of speculation and intrigue surrounding the film before its release. Along with much media exposure documenting the novel approach of the director to adapt a 3-book epic into a trilogy format and release each segment a year apart. And finally after the spawning of countless websites and discussion rooms on the internet in order to help fan the flames of hype for this film, The Fellowship of the Ring is now receiving a critical backlash from its audiences within two weeks of its release. Although the film is largely admired by fans of the book, it is the great unread of the Tolkien trilogy (like myself!!) who feel greatly disappointed by this much hyped film.
The blame lies with director Peter Jackson who decided to adapt the books with a one-tracked mind that was focused on being too faithful to the text. The rule to filming adaptations of books is to try and appeal to both the reader and non-reader alike, even if it means condensing the storyline of the books to the disdain of the Tolkien purist. Now Jackson's workmanlike translation to the screen has isolated the unread newcomer from, instead of introducing him to, the mystical world of Middle Earth. Thanks to Jackson's over appeasement to the demands of the Tolkien cult, the film of FOTR can only be objectively seen as a semi-success in light of its interpretation. Though much of what made the book great is spun to the screen as indicated here in the reviews of the Tolkien fans. But unfortunately all this was done with the omission of what makes a fantasy film great such as slick pacing, interesting plot twists and great action.
Very many of the unread viewers have been left disappointed not only with the film itself but also with the biased film critics that have so lavishly praised the film on its press screenings. After viewing FOTR, I felt that the critics should not have let their love of the original books cloud their judgement, and instead produce a more sobered analysis of the movie itself. Because of this, most of the critical acclaim that the film has garnered cannot be seen as wholly objective. And so basically what the average viewer is left with is an overlong, rather plotless film with too many characters and no characterisation. Some of the fight scenes are good in places but are too brief such as opening battle and the fight between the fellowship and the cave troll. But overall there is no true sense of grandeur in these battles and they are certainly not as cinematically sweeping as those seen in Braveheart, Gladiator and Star Wars saga. The biggest fight scene in FOTR is at the end which I feel should be awarded the most boring fight scene in cinematic history with the loss of only one of the protagonists of the Fellowship to a few dozen badly costumed Orcs. The special effects and some of the sets are very good though I felt that the movie did not have enough budget to stretch over its 3 hour running time. And so beacuse of this, some of the special effects just appear adequate yet uninspiring in their appearance. There are also many scenes in the film where there seems to be no special effects at all. And the much acclaimed visual depiction of Middle Earth in this film appears to be nothing more than stock footage of New Zealand with the odd CGI matte shot of an ancient building in the background. I kept expecting Hercules and Xena to suddenly jump into the fight scenes with all their TV restricted glory!! It is a pity that ILM did not take control of the visual effects of this film as there is a terrible lack of fantastical wildlife in this depiction of Middle Earth that detracts from the supposed wonderment we are meant to feel when viewing this film.
It is also a pity that one director decided to adapt all three books at once when it would have been better if a different director tackled each book and released them a year apart. That way each film would have a sense of completion within them, along with some plot device to get you ready for the next sequel film (like in Episodes IV and I of the Star Wars saga!). Instead what we have with FOTR being under the reins of one director (Jackson) is a chunk of the Tolkien epic that fails to shine as a standalone movie. Thanks to the focus of this director on the story of the whole trilogy and not on the story of each book within that trilogy. And because of this there IS NO ENDING TO FOTR!!!, the screen simply fills with credits after 3 hours of the film's running time!!!. And before any Tolkien fan gets caught up in premature Oscar fever over the probable nomination of FOTR as best picture, they should remember that a similar sword-and-sandals film, Gladiator, won that accolade last year. It would be unlikely that the Academy would award best picture to such a similarily themed epic just 1 year apart.
One final comment that I have to make about FOTR to the non-reader of Tolkien's books is that the cinematic trailer that had been gracing our screens for months before the release of this film, literally contains all the best effects shots and scenes in this film. And some of those scenes are as brief in the film as they appear in that trailer.
So a word of advice to the unread of Tolkien is that this is really only appealing to either the total (and I mean total!!!) fanatic of this type of fantasy genre, or to the devout Tolkien reader. I would also like to make clear that one of the biggest naysayers of this film so far is the grandson of Tolkien himself, who stated that his beloved grandfather would have hated this adaption if he had been alive to see it today.