Great film but problems with special effects

Rating: 7/10 (20 June 2006)

I've watched this film when it was broadcast in France. It's a very good movie and I really think that the actors, the sets, the artistic vision of the project are absolutely amazing. I really think that the actors were well cast (especially Elijah Wood who suits perfectly for the main role). The trouble is in the special effects. Sometimes, it's so weird and ugly that it's hard to realize that a film like this can have such bad special effects. I think about the faces of Elijah Wood and Hugo Weaving on a white screen. The limits of their faces are fading. It's very very ugly. I also think about the moment when you see a black horse rider facing a beautiful and peaceful landscape. It looks like the landscape is painted (it's sure that it is, it's so beautiful and impossible to built as a set) and in front of that painted landscape, you see a little grass, which is supposed to show that the rider faces this landscape and that he is on a hill. It's also strange to see that when you have shots from the sky (I don't know what is the name of that in English words) showing the hobbits running through the forests, the color of the trees is not the same as when you see closer shots. It's also the same thing when you see Gandalf, the Grey on the high tower (where he is kept prisoner by Saroumane) and you have an impressing shot which goes directly to Gandalf like a traveling shot (although it's in the air). The camera comes to Gandalf and the shot starts with an ensemble shot, you see that, at one moment, the digital effects come to reality and it's a little bit disturbing.
It really looks, according to me, like Star Wars : in fact, it's sometimes really ridiculous (the fight between Saroumane and Gandalf certainly is) but, you don't why, you like it and you can't prevent yourself from thinking that it's great. It's probably thanks to the actors and to the director who give a respectful and imaginative vision of the book.