A good effort

Rating: 7/10 (25 November 2002)

I first watched the Lord of the Rings moments after finishing the book one Sunday and I was very disappointed in the film adaptation. Looking back at my initial disgust, I've come to realize that if everything in the book was translated, the film would've been 6 hours long.
I was semi-upset not to see old Tom Bombadill-o and when Arwen took the place of Glorfiendel at the I was utterly outraged. I understand that having a little eye candy in Liv Tyler makes for some better box office sales, but Tolkien's version was uprooted in the scene at the forge. In the film Arwen creates the wave that stopped the Ring Wraiths and those of us whom read the book know a little better.
The scene on the mountain was portrayed very well, though I think the film put too much emphasis on the fact that Sauramon created the snow storms. I believe that in Tolkien's writing, the mountain had almost an arrogant life force to it, not allowing the adventurers to pass.
As far as a movie goes, the end result was a good movie for people who've never read the book. The Tolkien fans, much like I have, will always scrutinize. I think this comes with the territory of attempting to create a vision of a model which has millions of very different visions.