A good movie, but I'm a Tolkien fanatic

Rating: 10/10 (21 December 2001)

SPOILERS, and I mean of this film adaptation, not just of the story.
Also, if you don't know and love the story, then you probably wont want to waste your time reading my comments.
I just saw the movie last night, and I have to go see it again in order to determine what I think of it. This is because when I saw it all I could think of was, no, that's not right. I understand that in 3 hours you can't recreate and entire story, but where his recreations are unfaithful to the vision are where I have my problems.
First off, Gandalf is not always portrayed correctly. Gandalf, in the books is always a wise, super-human being. Heck, if you really follow Tolkien you know that he is not human, he is of a race that was created before the world itself was created (as was Sauron and Saruman). This is not a being that would bump his head in Bilbo's hole (home), tell of the Ring's location to Saruman or need Frodo's help to solve the riddle of opening the door to the Mines of Moria. In the books he also had a lot more real power than was displayed here. I can only guess that Jackson doesn't want to show too much too soon or we would not be wowed in the future films.
Merry and Pippin seem to have gone along almost accidentally. You are not even given over to know that they are close friends with Frodo, nor do you see their serious side, but rather they are shown as comedy relief.
The Ringwraiths in the movie are a joke. The hobbits were able to fool them and get away from them over and over again without even trying. In the book I was truly terrified of these beings, they were evil incarnate, and only great power could drive them back. The only reason Frodo got away from them on Weathertop is because they had already stabbed him and they figured it was only a matter of time before he was theirs, but in the movie you actually are given the impression that Strider is able to fight off a whole group of them, singlehandedly.
The ring itself, and the world the wearer enters, is also modified. In the books the wearer enters the world of the Ringwraiths (thus is invisible in the normal world), but just because he is in that alternate dimension, does not mean that the Wraiths can automatically see him. They would have to be in his presence in order to see him, but in the movie, Sauron himself, all the way in Mordor, was able to see Frodo in Bree. Heck, if that was the case, then why didn't he see Bilbo at his party, or for that matter, all of the other times that Bilbo wore the ring?
Finally, though I could go on and on, the Council of Elrond is a joke. The movie makes it sound like all of the attendees were summoned, whereas we know that they were all there for their own reasons, reasons that could have been explained without adding too much length to the film, while definitely keeping to the spirit and making other things easier to explain. I have no idea how the rest of the story is going to unfold with Boromir not seeking Elrond because of the dream/riddle. It makes no sense that he would have been there, especially considering the war that was going on. Boromir also treats Aragorn with disrespect when he finds out who he is, something that he would never have done in the book, jealousy maybe, but not disrespect. He wasn't even supposed to know that the line of Isildur still remained, yet his only comment when he learned who Aragorn was was that "Gondor needed no kings."
I'd better stop now. In general I thought the movie was good. I plan on seeing it again, soon, as now I am prepared to accept the modifications, so maybe I'll have a better chance of enjoying the movie for what it is, rather than for what I wanted it to be.