In defense of the fighting

Rating: 10/10 (22 December 2001)

I have read Lord of the Rings only once, about ten years ago, but am quite familiar with the whole realm of Middle Earth from childhood readings of The Hobbit and so forth... so for me it was great to see the whole thing brought to life. Even the CGI, unlike recent installments of Star Wars, didn't let it down. Die-hard fans of the novel have their own issues - if you can't handle the fact that it doesn't adhere to every single punctuation mark in the book, simply don't go and see it - but for those people who had previously believed that the book was the preserve of fey hippies, Stonehenge types and spotty schoolboys, this adaption shows it to be a much earthier and gutsier (and darker) tale than many of its fans may let on.
In defense of the fighting, to compare it to The Matrix or Crouching Tiger is to miss the point. Those two films are centred around the grace and fluidity of very precise martial arts skills; they're show-cases for almost balletic action. Lord of the Rings is closer to films like Braveheart or even, in a different context, Saving Private Ryan. You are not supposed to gasp at the skill of the fight choreographer, you are supposed to *feel* the fighting - confusion and half-seen glimpses are a well-worn technique for portraying a combatant's-eye-view of battle which the protagonists have no control over, the terror and mayhem of warfare rather than the grace and skill of martial artists in full control of the game.
Apart from a slightly slow bit in the Council of Elrond, a great piece of cinema - can't wait till Christmas 2002!