Bravo Peter Jackson!

Rating: 10/10 (20 December 2001)

As a die-hard fan of the book I was prepared to be disappointed, I couldn't visualize Elijah Wood as Frodo and was highly sceptical of an enhanced role for Arwen. However, most of all I was fearful that it would end up being 'Disneyfied', the darker undertones sanitised, leaving only a sickly sweet potboiler.
Thankfully I was wrong, the film isn't perfect but it is so close! Peter Jackson and his team deserve the highest praise for their boldness of vision, their determination to make the fantastic appear commonplace and the unbelievable as possible.
The acting is top notch, with Sean Bean snatching the honours, from my point of view, giving a very rounded and polished performance to perhaps the most complex of all the initial characters. The special effects, fight sequences, costumns and locations are all generally excellent. However, I would reserve the greatest accolade for the screenplay itself. Jackson has taken tremendous liberties with his source material and yet it all works. Every change is justified and helps the narrative flow or the visual style. In fact I would go so far as to say that I actually prefer the screen interpretation of Aragorn to the one in the book.
Downers - yes, there are a few cheesy lines, but most of these are lifted straight from the book, but at no point does it get overly sentimental as so many Hollywood blockbusters do. The hobbits overly quick acceptance of Strider is a little rushed and the failure to convey that significant periods of time are elapsing between the events that unfold on screen are minor quibbles. Personally I think the movie is too short and hope that the web rumours of an extended unrated directors cut prove to be true one day.
In summary this is a must see film and personally I am envious of anyone who sees this film with out any knowledge of the book, to be swept along by Peter Jackson's vision without knowing what comes next must be close to cinematic bliss.