ten pounds of ---- in a five pound bag

Rating: 1/10 (20 December 2001)

I didn't hate this film, but I expected more.
At worse I found it overblown, hard to follow and felt like I never had a moment to catch my breath. After watching it I was left with a vague feeling similar to what you get from eating too much junk food, full but unsatisfied. Too many sweeping vistas, overkill on the Frank Frazetta-esque beasts and baddies, and very little characterization. Were it not for the very credible performances by the cast of top notch actors, there would have been none at all.
One feels that the director Peter Jackson felt that he needed to cover so much ground (literally and figuratively) that he needed to jettison the quieter moments that make up so much of the great story.
One of the best aspects of the Tolkien books was the reader feeling a sense of sweep and getting caught up in the quest, along with smaller moments of detail and quiet characterization. The latter was sorely missing from this film. All rush, rush, rush, with out any moments humor. These two elements were what made "STAR WARS" and "THE WIZARD OF OZ", so great. These two quest films, albeit in completely different milieus, were so much fun to watch, and ultimately so resonant for so many viewers because of moments of humor that allowed the audience a chance to reflect and also gave insight into the characters. This film , with the exception of a couple of cutesy moments with Sam, Pippen and Merry and one line from Gimli, was largely humorless.
I have a great deal of respect for Peter Jackson and his work. "MEET THE FEEBLES" and "DEAD ALIVE" were a couple of the funniest, most inventive bits of work to come out in a very long time and turned their genres (Muppet films and Horror) on their ear with a great eye to the absurd. Likewise, he did a wonderful job with "THE FRIGHTENERS" and "HEAVENLY CREATURES". I was hoping for the same here and was unfortunately disappointed. I hope, now that he feels that he has set the stage with "Fellowship" that he will offer more depth and humor in the next two outings.
One other thing, the film's design seemed to be just more of the same old Sword and Sorcery stuff. "CONAN" mixed with "NEVERENDING STORY." Blech!!! There was even a small film that I saw recently from Spain called "EL CORAZON DEL GUERRERO (THE HEART OF THE WARRIOR) that had far more interesting design for this genre. I have a feeling this ain't going to be the cash cow that New Line wanted.
Michael Escher