This is IT!

Rating: Null/10 (20 December 2001)

I've got plenty to say about the movie(this post will be long I'm sure)
well, I was very very happy with the movie, but I'll start with the negatives (SPOILERS HERE):

I wanted Rivendell and Lorien to be happy places. Where was the singing and the feasting? I don't think they captured the fact that the elves are both joyful and somber.

I thought the wizard duel was a bit much, and the whole telepathy thing with Sarumen making the snow fall was completely fabricated. Gandalf's escape was great though.

We all miss Tom Bombadil :(

We weren't given the impression that the Council took all that long. In the book, it went on for hours. I think it would have been more effective if they used the camera/editing to indicate time passing.

I thought Galadriel was a little too mysterious and creepy, and the part where she got all special-effected about the Ring was also an overstatement. Arwen also seemed a bit too otherworldly, but the language part was cool.

I know the second two points are matters of interpretation, and certainly work better in a movie context, so they are forgivable. All those points are really minor complaints, and anyone who hasn't read the books wouldn't notice at all.
NOW for the good stuff. I had a big stupid grin on my face for the first hour of the movie. The opening sequence with the war and Isildur was absolutely stunning.
A professor of mine was hoping that the director would capture the friendship between the hobbits, as this is a very important theme in the stories. I think he should be happy. From the second that Frodo runs to hug Gandalf for the first time, I knew that the warmth was there. Frodo and the other hobbits, including Bilbo, had great chemistry on screen, and that was carried through to the very end when Sam goes after Frodo to follow him.
Gandalf, Boromir, Bilbo, Aragorn and Frodo were the best acted characters IMO. Legolas and Gimli were badass. Other characters like Sam, Merry and Pippen will be developed further in the next too movies, so if they seemed flat, it's because the story isn't finished. For the material, everyone did an incredible job.
Rivendell was gorgeous. I literally wanted the movie to stay there longer just so I could look at it. Same with Lorien and the Shire. I was amazed at the hugeness of Moria. I was terrified at the Balrog, and ugliness of Isengard and Mordor. The cinematography around Isengard and the networks of orcs underground was phenomenal.
For every one thing they did wrong, they did a hundred things right. I'm so glad that a movie I've dreamed about since I was twelve has finally come to be.