Incredible cinematic "realization" of an ineffable vision . . .

Rating: 10/10 (23 August 2006)

As a longtime fan of this Tolkien epic, flaws and all, I found it, against all odds, scarce believable that Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh and their ANZAC contingent could, in truth, IMPROVE on the original. All but the details and "words," that is. But as those heathen Chinee say, the "pictures" equate the tens of thousands of words they imply. Tolkien was, in my estimate, far superior to the likes of C.S. Lewis and his "Narnia," but he, too, was a "victim" of the Victorian Brit sublimations of parent and family. Tolkien's villains are far too 'swarthy' and 'southron' and 'eastron,' and his gender isms far too pro to-'masculine.' But, I must, in all 'honesty' admit, the Jackson/Walsh trilogy on screen is, in a word, OVERpowering, not to mention mesmerizing. AND entertaining. Beyond Sir Ian's royals' honors and beyond his considerable gifts and moxie, his "Gandalf" on screen is inutterably persuasive. Ditto Viggo Mortensen's epiphany of an elfling princesses' dreams of mortality, never mind those of us who dig him for himself. And, wonder of wonders, almost every single other element in this unlikely melding of talents and technicalities DOVETAILS. As in the closest humankind can approximate "perfection," that ill-conceived notion of desirability. And, finally, incroyable, the succeeding two chapters not only maintain the pace and the quality and the viability, the final segment, once more, IMPROVES on the original. All hail the designers and technicians. Bully for the scripter and director, and God bless the casting crew. Now, if only the producers can venture BEYOND their focus on the unlikely likes of supergorillas, that were, in their "original" incarnation, less than interesting. To adults, that is.