STOP COMPARING THIS TO STAR WARS!

Rating: Null/10 (30 August 2002)

ok i am a huge LOTR fan and really enjoyed this film. I half agree with hard core fans and non LOTR fans that it had flaws (but hey what movie doesn't?) i don't have a problem with people disliking LOTR. that would be ignorant. but i've read several reviews and i am sick of it being compared to star wars...from hard core star wars fans. all of you need to get lost we're not picking on your movies. they have nothing to do with each other. and also, i'm sick of everyone whining that it's #4 on the IMDB list. who cares? it's only gonna change every time a new film comes out. plus the list is based on a select group of people...it doesn't represent how every single person on the planet feels. if it moved to #15,000 i wouldn't care. just one more thing. to everyone who says this was a horrible film and the story can never be made into a great film i'd like to see you do it better. no one said it's a piece of cake to take a colossal epic and make it into a movie. i think it was as good as it could be as a whole. GO LOTR cast & crew.
Ok, now that that's off my chest here's my review on the film itself.
possible SPOILERS
many people wrote the same thing over and over again so i'll just skip most of that so this comment page isn't a broken record. i agree that it starts off promising and slows down quickly. as a fan of the book, my only complaint is that they changed the characters roles. in the book Strider doesn't want to go to moria and in the movie it's Gandalf....ummm why? why was that done? a lot of lines were direct quotes from the book which i loved...BUT they were said by different characters at different times and it made the story choppy. other than that i thought it stayed very true to the novel. scenery was of course beautiful. the Shire and Rivendell were perfect. FX were good. costuming and weapons were excellent. acting was...hmmm...ok i don't really blame them. i blame the script. Ian Mckellen was wonderful as Gandalf. and Bilbo was fabulous...really the only character who grew...of course the reference to 'the hobbit' in the beginning helped that along. that and Sam's devotion to Frodo was endearing. there were many good moments like 'drums, drums in the deep...' that part gave me the chills. i was frightened. as far as the story...well people have said that it should stand on it's own...uh hello! it's one VERY large story that can't be compressed into a standard size film AND do it true justice. since i've read the story i look at 'Fellowship' as the opening to the actual climax of the story.
to me the 1st installment shows that something tiny can destroy everything and yet something just as small can conquer that and save everything.
it has been released in a unique time because most audiences won't understand the concept, but oh well you can't win them all.
i give it 8 out of 10