Great Movie - Still, you need to read the book

Rating: 10/10 (30 December 2001)

I've been waiting for this movie with a combination of anticipation and dread. Now that I've seen it I'd have to give it a 9 as a Tolkien reader and a 10 as a movie viewer. If you really love Tolkien, you will be somewhat dissapointed. There are some scenes that just don't cut it. Galadriel is way way over the top, and misses what I though was the book's best line ("Wise the lady galadriel may be, but she has met her match in courtesy..") and one of it's best scenes; sam looking into the mirror ("I'll go home with master frodo or not at all"). However, the cinemetography is excellent, and I think that any reader of LOTR will be thrilled with the views granted them. The charactures? Well I was somewhat dissapointed, but I'll be honest with you. None of them will overcome my own visualisations of them (ok ok, Gandalf probably will, but the portrayal is sooooooo close to what I'd imagined, there's little difference...). My only real beef is that Gandalf is not quite the lore master the book had him as (the door of Moria for example, where he was the one who figured out the riddle). **************** OK... Here are some SPOILERS!!!! If you haven't read ALL of the books yet, go away now!!!!!!! ********************** I was a bit concerned with the doing away of Tom Bombadil's chapter. Not because I'm a huge Bombadil fan, but because of the chapter in the Barrow. My big questions was how would the hobbit's get a Numenourian Sword?? Well, when Aragorn gave them to Pippen and Merry, I was satisfied. Not that I was pleased to do away with a critical chapter of the book, but at least the shortcut made sense.. Aragorn should have access to such swords, one would think. I will withold judgement on Awren. Now mind you I think Liv Tyler is an excellent choice ( I still have her role in That thing you in mind). Getting rid of Gorfindel is a bit of a bummer from a Simarillion sense, but honestly, he's not critical to the story line. I also thought her actions at the river with Frodo will come up later (when she gave him her "life's grace"), and was a clever move on Peter Jackson's part. Boromir I though was done very well, considering the constricts, but the slight change in his outlook (considering Gondor above his himself) will cause some changes in the rest of the story.