A Film Made For Fans (I Think)

Rating: 9/10 (24 December 2001)

Allow me to preface this by saying I have never read the LOTR books. I am just a plain old moviegoer with no advance knowledge of the story. That type of moviegoer, however, is who a filmmaker must reach for a film to be commercially successful. That said, I found LOTR (part 1, apparently) a visually attractive (I won't say stunning) yet wholly maddening experience. This film does have some positive aspects: several of the characters are well-drawn and compelling, the production design (when actual SETS are used) is well-done, and parts of the story are interesting. Unfortunately, this film seems to have been made for fans of the books. The entire story of Bilbo (apparently told in The Hobbit) is glossed over, so his importance later in the film is not really that compelling. Many of the characters have little or no backstory, and although a complete personal history comes off as bad exposition, some kind of story helps to explain their motivations, specifically for the characters of Gimli, Legolas, and Boromir, but there are other examples as well. And then, there's the ending. In an ideal world, filmmakers would have many opportunities like this: to tell a sweeping story over several films and have a profitable, loyal audience back for every entry. This, however, is not an ideal world. Moviegoes will tolerate some unanswered questions, for example, Wolverine's backstory in X-Men, but audiences expect a complete screen experience. Even in the case of a series, each film should be its own complete package. Star Wars is a the first in a series, but it does stand on its own. LOTR, however, is an example of arrogant presumption. The assumption is that Episode, excuse me, Part 1, will be so good and so profitable, that it will justify a sequel worth producing before Part 1 is ever seen. I felt cheated and insulted by this presumption. So much so (and I'm sure my seven dollars doesn't matter a whit to New Line) that I may just blow off seeing parts 2 and 3. It's not that I don't care about the story, I don't care for how they chose to package it.