Peter Jackson has really done it!

Rating: 10/10 (4 January 2002)

I know that some people really and truly hate the fantasy genre. Others only like films that are incomprehensible - "if I can't understand it, it must be true art". But I have yet to speak to a real live human being that hasn't loved this movie. He has managed to craft something that brings a great and complex world to life with images and words and people and creatures and sounds. I have seen it twice now and I was even more impressed the second time. Did it follow every exact incident from the book? - no and nor did it need to. The Harry Potter film was cute and clever, but in trying to be exactly faithful to the written word, lost some of the wit and heart that the book possessed. Peter Jackson brought the spirit of Middle Earth to the screen, not just the characters. Thank heaven that New Line had the wisdom to choose this director and the guts to give him the resources. I watched David Lean's Lawrence of Arabia again recently, and I truly believe that Jackson's work will make the same kind of impact and be as deeply respected twenty-five years from now. For those of you who are unable to enjoy Lord of the Rings, I pity you.