A Nice Story, But Not the Tolkien Classic

Rating: 4/10 (9 November 2011)

In making the movie, the creator decided he did NOT want to make a movie to please loyal fans of The Lord of the Rings. Rather, he was more concerned about maximizing its commercial appeal. In that regards, the three movies - The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and Return of the King - are successful. It tells a tale loosely based on the Tolkien classic. However, so many of the most basic facts are either eliminated or changed that by the time the Fellowship is formed -- beyond the names of the characters there is little resemblance to the trilogy created by J.R.R. Tolkien.
The most egregious distortion is how Sauron was vanquished and The One Ring acquired - yes, the basis of the entire movie. The last alliance of Elves and Men came about after Sauron's forces had finally been driven back from dominion of Middle Earth and back to Mordor. A long and brutal siege of the evil wizard's tower, Barad - Dur ensued. In the end, Sauron himself came out.
Perhaps the director had a problem envisioning what kind of battle must have transpired, but the greatest of the alliance battled Sauron up the slopes of Mount Doom, the volcano which forged The One Ring - Elendil, Isildur, Elrond among them. The director belittled the magnitude of the battle by having Isildur make a lucky swipe with a sword that cut off Sauron's fingers, thus separating him from the ring and making victory possible.
Of course, if that were the case there would not have been a resurgence of Sauron. As anyone who has read the book knows, Sauron was beaten by force of arms, will, magic the full essence of what made the combatants great. Elendil's sword was broken when he fell upon it. Indeed, had it been shattered as they showed it would never have been reforged. Which is why Aragorn was able to carry it with him -- but that is among the more minor liberties the director took with his perversions.
Isildur then cut the finger with The One Ring from Sauron's hand. The nature of the ring was that, in order to gain dominion over very powerful races, Sauron allowed the greater part of his strength flow into the Ring. Without it, he was diminished, but not killed. If being separated from the Ring vanquished him, then how was he able to come back? And wouldn't it have a much greater impact even on such a being as Sauron, to face the heir of the man who actually "slew" him, than the one who got a lucky shot.
From that one major and totally unnecessary change, the connection between the movie and book was altered to such an extent that it was no longer the same.
The other travesty was the failure to show the passage of time. It seemed that from the opening scenes of the party and Bilbo's farewell, and Frodo learning the secret of the Ring and his flight from the Shire, that perhaps a few months had passed. Quite the contrary, it was about 20 years that passed and Frodo used the Ring frequently. It's difficult to understand why the Ring had such an incredibly powerful hold.
The list of unnecessary changes, omissions, senseless additions (Elves at Helm's Deep?) goes on and on. The director wanted to make the movie his own and capitalized on a popular title to do so.
In and of itself, I suppose the movies do weave an acceptable yarn. However, for anyone who truly loved The Lord of the Rings, it is an unwatchable obscenity.