One of the greatest fantasy films of all-time...

Rating: 10/10 (7 October 2002)

The first installment had its moments and yes, I was wowed and thrilled by seeing one of my favorite novels come to the big screen. However, FotR didn't exactly leave a lasting impression on me unlike, for example, Platoon, where I would always remember the message it brought to me... sort of like a novel. FotR, to me, was more like a spectacular fireworks show.
The plot behind the story is simple and Jackson and his group did a very good job transmuting what was in the novel to a screenplay. I don't know why some people complained about the "complexity", or didn't understand the purpose of the characters or the plot. How much clearer can Jackson make it without smacking you all in the face and telling you to wake up? It's about a ring, a very powerful ring, crafted by a evil menace. That evil menace lost his ring, and now he's back to reclaim it, but it's now in the hands of an innocent Hobbit. That Hobbit goes to Place A for advice, meets a myriad of characters all of whom describe how evil and powerful the ring is, and now he must go destroy it. Jesus Christ, this isn't quantum physics here.
In any case, the movie does a more than adequate job portraying Tolkien's world in oh, 3 hours. It's a monumental task and I'm sure Jackson has spent many a sleepless nights pondering what he could use and what he had to throw out from the 600 pages of the original novel. The sets were done flawlessly (Khazad-Dum ranks as one of my favorite scenes) with the amount of CGI and excellent directing and lighting, and it provided a real and genuine fantasy feeling unlike the schlockfest from Attack of the Clones. My only gripe would be the characters themselves. All of them, decent acting, but the decision how they were going to be relevant to the story... well... that's my gripe. Examples, Jackson's poor handling of Boromir's death scene, the lack of the Broken Sword story with Aragorn, and Gimli's 180 of character from the novel. Regardless, it didn't detract me from thoroughly enjoying most of the movie.
I am eagerly anticipating for the Two Towers based on the second novel, IMO, the best of the trilogy, this winter.
9/10