Everything I expected and more

Rating: 10/10 (4 March 2002)

Since I had known of the production of 'The Lord Of The Rings' back in around 1998, I had made a promise to myself that I would read the book before seeing the films. In mid-2001, I finally went around to reading 'The Hobbit' and the trilogy that has taken the world by storm for nearly fifty years. I was sent on a rollercoaster of over a thousand pages of wild beasts and mystical places. It truly was an amazing experience, and I doubted that anything the film could do could equal this amazing book.
I was delighted to see that it did not leave me disappointed and hollow. Leaving the cinema I felt I had experienced an historic moment in film history, and cinema would not be the same again.
This is a film that has amazing special effects without them being all the film has to offer, like in Independence Day or Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. It was faithful to the book without leaving the feeling that the director had little to do with the film itself, like in Chris Columbus' Harry Potter And The Philosopher's/Sorcerer's Stone', and most importantly it was a blockbuster that lived up to its expectations, unlike Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace.
I would recommend everyone see this film at the cinema, because it must be viewed on a big screen. You don't need to like fantasy, or have back-knowledge on Middle Earth, you just need to enter the cinema without preconceptions of what you will see, like many critics had.
I promise you, you will not be disappointed when you see this film, and the sequels just promise more thrills and spills as we see Gollum properly for the first time and many wild battles.
10 out of 10 and the best film of 2001.