I expected it to be great, and it was better

Rating: 10/10 (22 December 2001)

***SPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS*** Well, what can I say, other than I've pretty much been waiting all my life for this movie. I fell in love with Middle Earth when I was but a toddler seeing the Hobbit cartoon for the first time and have been a fantasy geek ever since. As soon as I heard they were making this movie, I was a little wary. It's a huge story, and I never thought the big screen could do it justice, but as soon as I heard it was going to be 3 hours each, and found out they were making them all at the same time, I knew it was going to be great.
Not only was it great, it was fantastic (literally). Everything I had hoped for and more. Yes there were changes, but they were all acceptable and many made the story flow better. Yes there were omissions, but it was made up for by the many great things added in this movie. What can I say, Jackson, the cast, the crew, everyone did a great job in this movie, and the 3 hours flew so fast I felt the need to reread the two towers all over again just to get to the next part of the story.
For those who are skeptical of any changes made, here they are:
spoiler alert
Firstly, To Bombadil was left out. I think Jackson felt the need to speed up the early part of the journey and get to Bree quicker, so this as well as Frodo and company's encounter with the elves in the woods near the Shire was left out. Unfortunately this also means that the conflict with the Whites on the Barrow downs was also cut out since there was no Tom Bombadil to save them. Although I kind of missed these scenes, there removal was understandable. The book starts out quite slowly and doesn't really start grabbing you until Strider is introduced at the Prancing Pony, and it probably would have been a little too sluggish in a movie. Hopefully we'll see these scenes on the DVD (if they even made it to the cutting room floor).
Bill the pony actually is in this movie, although he is only meantioned when Sam says goodbye to him. Glorfindel, however, is not in this movie. His scenes are replaced by Arwen. At first I wasn't too sure if I liked this or not, but realised, it is probably a good change for the movies since it better develops her character. In the books, she really didn't have a major role until the last book. With this scene, we get to know her a little more rather than just a passing introduction in Rivendel.
Minor omissions aside, everything else was pretty much intact. He really did a good job staying true to the book. I can't wait for the next movie. I guess we got Episode II this summer to fill the void.