Lord of the Rings has scope; no other fantasy film does

Rating: 9/10 (23 January 2002)

Well, I saw the film again and I've read the books again. My earlier review's tag-line was: disappointed but not disgusted.
There were very few new disappointments in the second viewing and I noticed a lot of great stuff that I'd missed the first time: like the horse-shapes in the flood which sweeps aside the black riders, and many nuances of expression from the actors (Aragorn's face when he moves to fight the Urak-hai on the hill top! wow). If you really like this sort of stuff, I'd recommend a second viewing, even if you were disappointed the first time through.
But the film isn't the book. The director doesn't appreciate epic music - there is only workman-like music throughout the film until the credits roll and Enya sings. Jackson, for whatever reasons, didn't try to make the elves bright and attractive.
It's not the great film I think it should be. But when I tried to think of better high fantasy films, I was stumped.
Too often, fantasy turns into really disappointing stuff like Krull (1983) or Legend (1985) or Labyrinth (1986). Dungeons and Dragons (2000) was happy, but simply felt thin (and WHAT was their idea in the utterly unbelievable comic-relief Snails character, wonderfully acted by Marlon Wayons who almost made an impossible role human). Conan the Destroyer is great (1984), is the best sword-swinger to date, but I don't really identify with mono-sylablic, burly sword-swingers. Dragonheart (1986)? What a forgetable show. Dragonslayer (1981) does almost everything right. Ralph Richardson is a great wizard. The lead characters are OK, and the sense of an ordinary guy with hidden strength faced by big troubles is handled well. It only lacks scope; it's plot would fit easily into about 35 pages of Lord of the Rings.
And that is what makes Lord of the Rings the best high fantasy film to date: scope. Tons of stuff is left out from the book, muddled from the book, yet still, you have the feeling that something really big, and really important is being played out, and that evil is being defeated. And that's wonderful. I wish they'd released the films closer together. I'm ready for the next one NOW.