Simply Brilliant

Rating: 10/10 (4 January 2002)

Absolutely amazing. I'm almost lost for words. I find it very hard to imagine how this film can be topped - ever.
I've been a Tolkien fan ever since I read The Hobbit when I was 8. I then read the Lord of the Rings when I was 10, and have re-read the books pretty much every year since. So I was understandably concerned about how the film would stand up to my own imagination.
They couldn't film the whole book. The film would have been about 15 hours long if they did. But overall the feel of the books was maintained in fine style.
There were a few things I thought they should have left in? I think Sam looking in the mirror should have been there, and it was a shame to leave out the Barrow Wights. But I liked the way they managed to modify the Shire to Rivendell section to speed it up, but without losing too much of the feel of the books. If they'd done that part in it's entirety it would probably have been 3 hours long in itself.
I thought Galadriel was very good. I always felt she was quite a dangerous and powerful character, especially if you've read up on some of the history in the Silmarillion. The BBC radio production and the animated version didn't seem to touch on that at all which was disappointing, but I think Peter Jackson got it just right.
The Gandalf/Saruman confrontation was good. I think they had to beef up the threat of Saruman a bit, otherwise there wouldn't have been any significant bad guys to keep the masses (non-Tolkien readers) interested. Christopher Lee was excellent I thought.
Liv Tyler (Arwen) was better than I thought she was going to be, and it worked quite well with her replacing Glorfindel, as in the books he's hardly mentioned again apart from at the council.
I thought the humorous touches were very good as well. And Sean Astin was really good as Sam, it'll be interesting how he develops the character in the next two where he's more in the limelight.
Shame the next one's a year away. :(