Brilliant

Rating: 9/10 (19 December 2001)

It is, one would think, impossible for a movie with this level of anticipation and expectation associated with it to actually achieve any sort of respect. How can it but fail? Making a movie from one of the deepest, most intricately woven stories of the last century seems like a effort in futility. You cannot possibly fit everything in, and without everything, the film will be less and the experience will disappoint. Right?
Maybe not. A perfect example of how this film plumbs the depth of Tolkien's masterpiece can be found in the short introductory sequence at the start of the film. We see a shot of Bilbo, upon finding the ring, or putting it in his pocket. All things considered, to someone who has not read the Hobbit, this might seem like an odd waste of 3 seconds of film. Why show it?
But to those of use who know the tale, that briefest of shots is enough to incorporate the entire riddle game that Bilbo and Gollum played, and freshens your memory of Bilbo's all important POCKET.
The story has been altered somewhat. The time line in particular undergoes a rapid acceleration. Those 17 years from Bilbo's party to Frodo's departure? Not there. In essence though, the tale is there in all its grandeur. The characters I've known most of my life simply step off the page and onto the screen. The only character with any significant change is Arwen, and her changes make her, frankly, a more interesting character than she was. Well, at least more interesting from the point of view of a film.
My only minor (very minor) complaints are with the elves and the appearance of Rivendell and Lothlorien, which somehow come off looking a little too much like an outlet mall in a trendy resort area. Otherwise, the film is as close to perfect as I could have imagined it being without being 9 hours long.