The good, the bad and the reason for not overdoing the music

Rating: 9/10 (27 March 2002)

The movie follows the book pretty well, although naturally some parts are missing. I particularly missed Tom Bombadil and I think that part could have given the movie extra flavor. Some things are added; Arwen, played by Liv Tyler, quite successfully increases the female part of the otherwise male dominated story. All in all, I was positively surprised of how the difficult script was handled. From a movie point of view the story is not a perfect one, since there are many similar parts where the book is able to add something new while the movie is locked repeating the same theme; They are traveling and suddenly they're hunted by evil of some kind and they barely make their way to a free haven. This cannot be helped without rewriting the story and I don't find it annoying. However, I have problems with the following issues:
The music - Why not let it be quiet sometimes, silence can really build tension and suspense. Especially when you have good actors giving an excellent performance, why cloud a good dialog with strings? Is it not possible to let the viewer develop his/her emotions or do directors need to
aid us with sentimental music. This is a major problem for american movies that accelerated during the 90's and it unfortunately got to Jackson. Check out all the classics from whenever and you will miss silence in contemporary american films.
I'm not too content with Legolas and Gimli, but it is not the acting. Legolas looks carved out of plastic and silicon and he has the same stupid look on his face the whole movie through (like he is trying really hard to look attentive). Gimli, played by usually excellent John Rhys-Davies, simply don't get through to me, but I cannot put the finger on the reason. Ian McKellen (Gandalf), Elijah Woods (Frodo) and Sean Bean (Boromir) are excellent as well as the brief appearances of Cate Blanchett(Galadriel) and Christopher Lee (Saruman). I have no major complaints on the acting.