Ring is good, but it wont change your life.

Rating: 5/10 (21 December 2001)

After scanning the user comments, it certainly seems that they are almost all written by people who are familiar with the books. I mean VERY familiar. And before I say anything else, I will point out that I'm a pretty big fan of Star Wars, so it's not like any one hasn't called me an over-obsessed fan before.
The theater was packed full on opening night for this one, and these people were obviously already clued in on what was going to happen. The girls sitting across the aisle from me were the type of fanatical fantasy fan who instantly remind people of the Comic Book Guy from the Simpsons. Good God, they were practically setting up gamemaster screens and rolling for Frodo's hit points during every scene.
Now I'm not putting down fans of the film, I'm only mentioning this because I think the only people we are hearing from at this early stage in the film's release are the inner circle of Ring devotees. But for people who have never read a word of the novels, and dont really plan to, Fellowship is certinly a great film, full of imagination and love for it's source material; But it's also a film sandbagged by its own history. With the exception of a few startling moments (the opening battle scene, and any moments with the great Christopher Lee), I found this to be a rather joyless experience that made me feel like I was on the outside looking in.
I think Peter Jackson spent so much time and energy into pleasing the fans of the book, who will practically fill a sock full of 20-sided dice as weapons to defend their love of the series, that he made this seem not like a fantastical journey, and more like a audio/visual lecture on what us laypeople should have been reading all these years.
Watching this, I could easily see a tight and lean motion picture here. And before anyone starts flaming me, I certinly don't mean it should be edited down to anything under 90 minutes. I understand part of what's good about the series is the richness of it's characters and situations. But this could have been trimmed down to about two and a half hours, and been an absolute juggernaut. As it is now, it seems like a sloppy love note to the fans.
I hear you Ring fans, before you even start. But all of the characters who are introduced (with little or no characterization) that screech the movie to a halt are important to you because you have a dog-eared copy of the book in every room of your house. But as for me and my friends, walking out of this one we started talking about the characters and belive it or not, outside of Frodo and Gandalf, we couldn't think of one of their names (we settled on "guy with the arrows" or "the dwarf with the beard",) and dont even get us started about the needless baffoonery antics of the extra hobbits thrown into the mix.
And the ending? I felt angry enough to shout down every hand clapping in the theatre with a boo large enough to knock the screen down. Just stopping the film with no resolution WHATSOEVER may be faithful to the book, and it will please fans who already plan on seeing the rest of the series sight unseen, but for those of us just stopping by to see what the fuss is all about, it's an awfully arrogant way to end your picture. A trilogy that forces the viewer to fork over more money for part two, while not offering a nugget of closure in its opening segment, or at least trying to make the parts enjoyable separately, seems awfully smug to me. Further evidence that this is intended for fans, none of whom seemed to blink twice as the screen faded to black. Whatever.
Ring is a good film. I enjoy it more in retrospect than I did in the theatre. It's got more imagination and passion in fifteen minutes than overcooked crud like Armageddon, although both it and this film suffer from a lack of assertive female characters (say what you want, Tyler and Blanchett exist here only to look like pretty porcelain figurines in midst of the woods).
I had fun watching this, and saw a wonderfully creative film from one of my favorite directors. But for whatever reason, it just didn't connect with me the same way it is with everyone else. It will be interesting to see just what happens to the film after the hype dies down and the Burger King light-up goblets start collecting dust. I have a feeling it will do what every other blockbuster will do; Slowly descend down the charts, and shuffle to a lifetime on DVD sales. Frankly, I'll wait until they are all available for home viewing before watching them.
Does anyone know when Attack of the Clones comes out? I'll see you there.