Good, but could have been great

Rating: 8/10 (26 December 2001)

I found myself frustrated with the film, because with just a few small changes it could have been great rather than merely fairly good. My objections are based on failures of editing and storytelling, not on lack of faithfulness to the book.
The acting was nearly uniformly very good. I was least satisfied with Hugo Weaving; when he talked about the decline of men, he came across to me as crabby and sour about it rather than with the noble sadness I get from Elrond in the book. Other character portrayal problems were more attributable to the script. E.g., Gimli was more skewed towards comic relief than in the book.
My chief objection was that a number of important characters are not given sufficient reasons for being there, or for doing some of the things they do. Merry and Pippin' relationship to Frodo should have been established first - then they'd have proper motivation for joining the trip. Similarly, we are given no reason why Gimli, Legolas, and Boromir are along for the ride except for Elrond's commitment to racial diversity.
If the movie's opening scenes had been moved to the Council of Elrond, with Gandalf and Elrond giving the narration, Gimli and Legolas at least could have interrupted briefly with their reasons for coming to Rivendell. It would have been just a matter of a few extra seconds to establish their motivations. (Gimli would only have mentioned the offer of dwarf rings just as the history of the dwarf rings was given; it would have been reasonable to save time by omitting mention of the loss of contact with Moria. Boromir would have required a minute or two.)
Saruman's screen time could have been used to give him the full complexity he possesses in the book. Time could have been made by omitting the dialog-free visual parts of the encounter with Gandalf and the industrialization of Isengard.
The only omission that seriously annoys me is the meeting between Gimli and Galadriel. Quite aside from its importance to later events in the trilogy, it would have given us a lot more reason to care about Gimli for the rest of the story - and by extension, about Legolas, as their friendship grows.
In a nutshell, I wanted more dialog and less action and scenery. One can only hope that at least a few of the problems will be fixed when the DVD comes out, and stuff left on the floor to get the movie down to three hours can be re-inserted.