More talk-talk, less clang-clang

Rating: Null/10 (24 December 2001)

Fighting odds as large as Sauron himself, Peter Jackson has weaved a masterful film on a wide canvas. And yet, as others have pointed out, once the titled Fellowship finally forms, we don't get quite enough of the party traveling together, and we don't get enough time with Gimli, Boromir and Legolas. Instead, the progression of battles does tend to grow a little long (even for this adventure lover's taste), especially since all the clanging robs us of character-based screen time. As well, the nightmarish evil of the Nazgul was fabulously done, but we really didn't need that puffed-up computerized cave troll. As Jackson is still compiling parts II and III, let's have a hair more of the natural beauty and even some of the poetry and fellowship of the books. Keep the fights as well, but just keep 'em shorter.