Wonderful movie.. Best adaptation of the fantasy world of D&D EVER.

Rating: 10/10 (21 December 2001)

This is just a perfect movie.. As a film, the directing, acting, the score, the scenery.. Everything is great. The story is a timeless one and the script is perfect.
For someone who has not read Tolkien's novel or someone who overall doesn't care about the D&D specifics, the movie is a marvelous adventure with great excitement and a wonderful "human" side to the story. It is a refreshing break from the shallow adventure movies of today which are basically collections of one neat 3-D computer generated effect after another. Much of the suspense and excitement of the movie is generated by good old fashioned action movie making. You are held to your seat with a wide stare in your eyes as the party fights an ogre simply because the damage is real, the agony is real and from the flow of the story, you KNOW that it is not beyond the writer to let on the members of the party die, so when the Ogre swings his club at one of the members, you find yourself wanting him to duck or dodge the blow. This is exactly what a good action movie should do. But if you sit there, all too sure of the outcome of the conflict, then an action sequence has failed.
Now, for those who DO know the story by Tolkien and who are familiar with the world of D&D.. The movie offers an added HUGE bonus. Perfect adaptation. I only have one complaint that I will list in the end, but the way the story is adapted is simply wonderful.
For starters, a GREAT deal of effort is put into making the world a REAL D&D world. Halflings are almost half as tall as humans. Elfs are fine and tall and agile, Dwarfs are shorts and grumpy. Elves talk in Elven language when talking to each other. A small detail, but meaningful. A dwarven city perfectly matches the concepts of D&D about dwarven cities.. The HUGE and massive architectures. The Elven cities also match the image that is held in the minds of D&D fans.
The culture of most of the D&D world is also depicted well. Elves despise dwarfs and look down on humans, Dwarfs naturally despise Elves. Orcs attack in HORDES. A demon (especially a Balrog) is not a monster that you pull a sword or a bow on, you have to be a GRAND hero to take on such a beast, this is why when the party encountered one, the only advice they had was RUN!!
Still, for the sake of perfection, I have one small remark.. Orcs were made to look scary. Which is fine, but the makeup made them look more like undead than orcs. There is a certain, stupidity and goofiness to Orcs that is missing.. Perhaps this was not a purpose for the director, but I personally thought their makeup was more of horror movie bad guys (Freddie Kruger) than actual Orcs.