ho hum

Rating: 6/10 (24 December 2001)

Like a lot of fans of the "Lord of the Rings" i've been waiting on tenter hooks ever since the botched up animated version of the seventies to see a completed version,what we get here is the first installment just like the cartoon but less, we now have to wait a year until the next three hour episode and then another to the final three hour episode,this is where i have a problem in my opinion 75% of what is dramatically interesting in the book has already occurred how are they fill two more episodes? This is a decent film not "The Greatest" or even great the cast is made up of a good quality cast without any being particularly outstanding "none of the nine" bring a resume that would suggest they are amongst (perhaps Ian McKellen aside) the most sought after actors in film indeed most have found their fame in Television. Visually the film is stupendous but no one looks at a postcard for three hours,there is no real tension or character development,no real introduction of the members of the Fellowship who join later,here by the way the decision makers have blundered by casting Viggo Mortensen and Sean Bean as virtual twins playing the same role when in the book Tolkien has contrasting Characters in these roles. Perhaps this Ensemble will grow in later episodes and my comments will seem unfair,maybe one day after the third episode is finished a film buff will sit down an endure the whole nine hours or whatever in one sitting and will proclaim that it is "The Greatest" again but as of now after episode 0ne just like the cartoon i'm left hoping but still unsatisfied. 6/10 so far.