The most perfect film experience in decades

Rating: 10/10 (25 December 2001)

First of all, this is the best film I've seen since Titanic. Secondly, this is the best "event" film I've ever seen in my life. Third point, this film is the greatest, most accurate, and most beautiful novel-to-movie transition ever created in the history of cinema. Every actor did an amazing job with their performance. Actually, every character from Middle-Earth was transported wholly and completely from their realm into ours to film these movies. And last of all, the scenery, direction, and the soundtrack are honestly gorgeous. Just a sight to behold.
Everyone in the theater shuttup immediately as the New Line Cinema logo came on the screen and sat there for a full three hours completely absorbed in the movie. Even the BABY that was in the theater didn't make a word during the film.
Surprises that truly made me smile and almost even cry in sheer delight included the prologue at the very start of the film, and how jaw-droppingly gorgeous the war was, especially how Sauron flung entire legions of men from the earth with a blast of his sword. The fireworks in the Shire, just how funny the interactions between Pippin and Merry could be, the butterfly that helped Gandalf, Gandalf's and Saruman's fight ontop of Orthanc, how the one ring was truly a living, sentient character, Arwen and Aragorn's very well handled love-story, the amazing Watcher-in-the-Water's sequence, Boromirs redemption, how everyone in the theater APPLAUDED when Aragorn killed Lurtz, the decision to leave the singing boy out of the last score on the film during the breaking of the fellowship, and the very end of the film when Frodo and Sam depart together. Truly beautiful film-making.
This film is a touching, magnificent, emotional masterpiece, one that is definitely in my top-10 films of all time, and a film that will live on in my heart for the rest of my life. I am absolutely in love with it. To sum it up:
Words fail me.
But, alas, this film isn't perfect. (Honestly, no film is) I adored this film, with reservations. And since there are literally 23 billing gushing reviews on the internet from critics and movie-fans alike who praised the film for being spectacular, I'm going to be the jerk that talks about the things he didn't like in the movie and would've done differently if he directed this awe-inspiring epic trilogy.
First off, I agree with Peter Jackson's decision to exclude Tom Bambodill from the beginning of the movie, although I resent him for doing so. Admittedly, including him would only mess up the pace of the movie. Jackson made it so that Frodo and his hobbit friends had to get to Rivendell as fast as they could, to escape the ever present menace of the Ringwraiths. But see, in the novel, I don't remember the Nazgul being on their trail quite so early. The hobbits could've still been attacked by the Barrow Wights, slowly devoured by an ancient tree, and saved by Tom Bambodill in the very beginning. Okay, FINE, I know they couldn't do this. Not only cause it would defeat the sense of urgency and threat, but because it would make this already incredibly long movie even longer. I, for one, did not mind the length of the film at all. In fact, I could've sat through six more hours and finished the entire trilogy, I was ~that captivated~. But I'm very perceptive, and I could feel the energy's of everyone around me, and how . . even though they loved the movie. . .they were getting restless because of it's length. Anyway, if I was Peter Jackson, I still would've filmed the Barrow Wights/Evil Tree/Tom Bambodill sequences and left them out of the movie, only to add it to the deleted scenes in what is sure to be an ~amazing~ DVD.
Okay, so leaving Tom out wasn't really an issue with me, so why did I just waste a paragraph ranting about it when I could really sink my teeth into the things that bothered me? Let me give you an example. I loved the effects when Frodo put on the ring. His appearance in that dark world, where the Ringwraiths were the actual spirits of the nine kings, was amazing and totally called for; on Weathertop anyway. When they were off of the hill, everytime Frodo put on the ring seemed like they were revealing too much too soon. You know what they're doing, don't you? They're spoiling us. Spoiling us in the first film, of what is to a be an intricate and fascinating trilogy. Why ruin everything so soon? Don't show us so much this early in the story! Granted, I ~loved~ seeing Frodo put on the ring and enter the nether realm where the Eye of Sauron was watching him, and I ~loved~ how it zoomed him into the very heart of Mordor. But still, these are scenes and visuals that should be saved for the Return of the King, or at the very least the Two Towers. Frodo's eventual descent into darkness, due to the corruption of the ring, must be presented in gradual steps. I was really into what they did in the Fellowship of the Ring, but I truly believe that bringing this issue out so early in the narrative will just cause problems in the emotional structure of both of the following movies. But I'm praying it won't, and I trust Peter Jackson, so . . . onto my next little problem.
Bilbo freaking out about the ring in Rivendell. And I don't mean freaking out in the good way. His face changed and distorted itself into a hideous grotesque. . THING. I don't remember that in the novel. Of course he was tempted by it's presence and wanted to hold it again, but they didn't need to do that weird face thing that they did. He looked like one of the demon's in the Devil's Advocate. You know how their faces went all evil and whatever!? Craziness. In Ralph Bakshi's truly horrible animated Lord of the Rings film which went through the first book and half of the second one, they handled Bilbo's scene in Rivendell much better. Frodo allowed him to see the ring and his hands went all jittery and his eyes were fixed upon the ring in a look of pure madness and desire. And if a god-awful cartoon can get that right, why can't the genius of Peter Jackson?
While we're talking about Rivendell, I loved the scenes outside of the Council of Elrond, and even the council itself had it's moments, but. ..ugh, they could've at least MENTIONED Tom. And, and, they could've discussed ulterior motives for disposing of the ring, such as flinging it into the depths of the ocean, and how they couldn't do that since it was in their hands now and it was their responsibility, and simply disposing of it for future generations to be subjected to would be selfish and wrong. And where was Bilbo's little speech about how he'd take the ring himself into the cracks of Mnt. Doom? Leaving that out kinda hurt his character's development, in my eyes.
Lothlorien . . Why couldn't they be blind-folded into the depths of the forests? Why couldn't Sam accompany Frodo to the mirror and look into it for himself, as in the novel? Another complaint, and possibly my biggest one, is Galadriel's temptation by the ring. Where the heck did that come from? Who's permission allowed this scene to exist? It wasn't at all like that in the novel. Far more subtle and less intense and, well, silly. C'mon, Galadriel's good, her temptation was supposed to ellude to her desire for the elves to remain the predominant race on this planet instead of fading into the west. But no, they had to go and conjure up some scary, loud visuals and film the scene while taking huge amounts of LSD. For shame. While we're at Lothlorien, why couldn't Galadriel have given Frodo the magic rope as well as those star tears? They're gonna need it in the Two Towers, darn it!
And now for the Balrog. . . ugh, I'm NOT going to say he was a disappointment. I refrained from looking at his picture online for months before seeing this movie, just so I could be surprised when one of the ~greatest demons in existence~ appeared on the silver screen for the first time.
Listen, I loved his look, I did. He was truly frightening and he cast a real presence of evil. My only beef (?) is with just how big he was. That's not right folks. I can understand Peter Jackson's decision here. We had just seen an unbelievable battle with a Cave Troll, and now we needed something to TOP that. Fine. You can do that. Just do that without having to make your next monster 75 feet tall. As I remember Balrogs, in my books, in my video games, and in my imagination, they're supposed to be represent the deepest, darkest of dark places with their mere presence, not because they were giants, but because they were EVIL. They're supposed to be huge, sure, but not ENORMOUS. Not King Kong, smack you in your face with my pinky-toe, gigantic. If he was a dozen feet, I'm absolutely positive he would've resonated with me on more levels and disturbed me in ways that only little school girls should be disturbed.
And while we're at the Bridge of Khaza Dum, why couldn't the fellowship help Gandalf?? He was hanging there for what seemed like a minute. Surely they could've reached out and helped him back up. You see, in the novel, this wasn't even an issue, because Gandalf fell immediately as the whip wrapped around his ankles. No holding on for dear life there.
Finally, in some scenes, the CGI looked too. . . CGI. I hate that. Not in the battle scenes, nah, I'm talking about in the camera zooming and shit. For example....Isengard, the trenches in the caves where Saruman bred the Urak-Hai. First of all, this breeding was only insinuated in the novels, never discussed in great detail. Why include it? It just slows down the plot. Secondly, all the camera movements, in heavily-laden CGI environments looked kinda....fake. Totally unnecessary, just take out the scenes altogether.
In closing, I would like to stress just how much I truly love this instant classic. It's so good that it's literally tied with the Labyrinth as my favorite fantasy movie ever, and this is all on the first viewing. I'm definitely going to see it again this weekend though, and I truly believe it can't get anything but better under repeated viewings.
Peter Jackson, from the bottom of my heart thank you. You made this Christmas the most memorable one since my childhood when I was actually happy.