Good adaption, great sets but not a great film

Rating: 7/10 (4 January 2002)

Peter Jackson and his set designers should win oscars for the visual brilliance of this film - it looks wonderful. Jackson should also be congratulated that by and large he has stayed faithful to the book - it is notable that there are some similarities to Bakshi's animated version though - Gollum and the beginning sequences spring to mind. However to claim that this is the greatest movie ever made is ridiculous - the film is shackled by its faithfulness to the original text - this does not allow it to flow and in some cases it drags. If you have not read the books it also does not really explain the significance of some of the places or people. Another casualty of the need to try and set things up for the sequels was that most of the characters have not really been fleshed out - only Ian McKellen and Viggo Mortensen bring depth here. Probably the greatest failing of the film is that there does not feel any great emotional connection with Frodo or the other Hobbits - you can only show so many close ups of Elijah Woods wide eyed look. Having said that easily the worst thing about this film is the music - it has the subtlety of a sledgehammer and really begins to grate with its attempts to capture the mood. Perhaps the Tolkien family had a point when they stated that they did not believe that LOTR was suited to being shot as a film ???