perfection was so near...

Rating: 10/10 (27 February 2005)

Could have been so great... But the wizard is a lame (except when he fights the balrog)... And worst... Cate Blanchett looks more like a gnome than an elf... There are good parts still,... Hopefully, the long version (in DVD) fills in the gap... and the Lothlorien is really what it should have been in the movie (I would still give it only an 8, not 9, which is the note I gave to the second film, or 10, which is what the third is worth,...just because of that poor Lady Galadriel...) Peter Jackson had seemingly difficulties in choosing what parts of the book to cut in the movie. This is rather normal, considering the work of Tolkien and, considering the task, he did it rather well. For instance, cutting Bombadil was a good idea, but the halt in the Lothlorien is too quick... the DVD long version really improves this part. This is not the case of opus 2 and 3 which are self-consistent... (and without Cate Blanchett...). A good point (to my mind) is the role given to Arwen (and Liv Tyler) but this again lessens the apparent power of the wizard who unleashes the horses in the book. (the fighting with the wargs where he set fire to a forest is also absent...) Hopefully, the overwhelming presence of the ring and the corruption his power instills is better rendered in the movie than in the book. This results in that, reading the book, I preferred opus 1 to 2 and 3 and seeing the film, it is just the opposite... To conclude with, this film is really worth seeing... but in long version (as far as I am concerned)