Impressive, flawed

Rating: Null/10 (27 December 2001)

There are several problems with this film.
First, structurally it is a nightmare. I can imagine persons unfamiliar with the book being downright confused by it. The reason is that, basically, "Fellowship of the Ring" was not originally a self-contained story, but part of a larger "epic". Hence the peculiarities of the film's structure, which is unengaging and seemingly sloppy.
Second, it is corny. I just wanted to laugh at the ridiculous orcs, the excessively long cave-troll scene, the bits where Gandalf and Galadriel go into a sort of acid-trip shapeshift for no readily apparent reason. The most corny bit is Gimli the Dwarf's part. He sounds like the Cookie Monster, with none of that particular gentleman's style. Along with corniness is a descent into fantasy-cliche. The orcs have such poor vocal chords that it is impossible to tell what they are saying. Same for the Nazgul. Tolkien's bad guys always clearly enunciate their syllables. Besides, even if they didn't, the film was obscure enough before. Why not make the orcs speak in good Queen's english?
Thirdly, the characters are poorly presented. This is unsuprising for a film that is already struggling at three hours' length. There was a limit to how much exposition could be put into a film already seriously crammed for space.
HOWEVER
I do admit this film has its moments - it really does. For someone who has read the Silmarillion, the scenes from the epic past are magnificent. (possible spoiler) Sauron's epic Battle of Dagorlad, three thousand years before the film's story, is jawdropping. Sauron's hammer (is that what it is?) is particularly impressive; and Sauron's helmet is the evillest bit of constume design I have seen. It is really spooky.
The bits where the Elves speak in good Elvish are (as far as a non-Tolkien fanatic can tell) accurate and enthralling. It's a little like a foreign film made by a culture that doesn't actually exist.
Rivendell is nice. So is Hobbiton.
Bilbo Baggins looks the part.
Most enthralling is the effect the Ring has on the characters in the story. Even Aragorn and Gandalf are severely tempted by the Ring, and its infinite power. Frodo's continuous temptation to put on the ring is strong here; and presumably will get stronger as he gets closer to Mordor. When he puts on the ring (spoiler) he enters a shadow-world just as described in Tolkien. Very impressive, and not over-done.
The Eye of Sauron, which appears often when people get near the ring, is impressive. I am wondering if people unfamiliar with the book will actually recognise it as an Eye, however. At first, I thought it was a burning stick...
Anyway, in conclusion the film is seriously flawed, but it must be admitted that it has its moments. Its structural problems and lack of character development were probably inevitable, given the source material. It would be better to wait until the other two parts of the trilogy come out before making a final judgement on both these points.
Jonathan Lim