Wait For The Book To Come Out

Rating: Null/10 (3 January 2002)

LOTR is not a bad movie. It is fantastic and exciting, colorful and scenic. The main characters are charming and well played by Elijah Wood and Ian Mckellan. The action scenes, though there are too many of them, are thrilling and heroic.
But the story is not all that intriguing. Said and done, this is nothing more than the tale of a perilous journey. The hero treks toward a somewhat contrived destination, encounters multiple bad guys and large monsters. And that's about it. This is merely Jason, Sinbad and Ulysses recycled through the 21st century special effects system. The actual plot is minimal and the story plays only on a superficial level. I suspect the book is more detailed and more stimulating. But that didn't help me as I sat in the theatre wishing for a third course to round out the meal.
Even the aforementioned action sequences could have been handled more efficiently. For the most part, they do work. But the visuals are cluttered so that it's not always easy to tell who's doing what to who. That's the very last thing a fight scene needs.
There is an appealing fairy tale flavor to this first installment of the popular trilogy. A sense of mystical, other worldliness that makes for pleasant entertainment in spite of the film's many shortcomings. But from a genre that knows no limitations, I expected more.
My own fantasies are much better.