Beautiful! A Wonderful Adaptation

Rating: 10/10 (18 February 2002)

I started to read this book when I was about 14 and stopped out of disinterest. I reluctantly went to this movie after much urging. I'm really glad I did. In the first 10 minutes I knew I was going to love it. If you enjoy any sort of midieval world literature or movies you will enjoy this one.
I have heard people complain that there is too much violence in this movie, however compared to today's standard I don't agree at all. There were some fighting scenes but the blood and gore were kept to an absolute minumum. It does however have scary scenes. I found it less scary than the first Jurassic Park. For example you don't see anyone being bitten in half but you do see a disgusting monster get his head chopped off. Which isn't the same because the dinosaur scene was the monster winning vs in the Fellowship of the Rings, the monster not winning (you want the monster to get his head chopped off not the other way around).
The actor who plays Frodo is so wonderful! He's so cute and his big blue eyes are so expressive I couldn't help but fall in love with him as everyone else does too in the storyline. I would say all the actors were well chosen, although I would have liked to see the racist black vs white played down a bit. All the black characters (as in evil black) were pitch black, not brown. I would have liked to see more brown skinned characters in this movie instead of just white people playing all the parts. It seems to me the wood elves would have darker hair, the wood elves in this film would have stuck out like a sore thumb in the real woods, they all had white blond hair.
Cate Blanchette did a great job - she really seemed to have matured into this role.
Elijah Wood as Frodo, & Iam McKellan was a great Gandalf - they MADE this movie work beautifully. I didn't even realize that was Iam McKellan, I thought it was Max Von Sydow!
Liv Tyler was Arwen - she's not really the actress I would have chosen, she seems too passive and doesn't have much character, I would have expected an actress with more of an animated personality and who was a little stronger and not so bland. She kind of stuck out like a sore thumb amongst all these other wonderful actors. But she was okay she didnt' ruin the movie, she just didn't add as much as she could have.
Sean Bean - was Sooooo good. I loved the way he played this part.
All the halflings did a superb job. I loved Pippin he did well with a great part. Merry was great too. Sam reminded me a a labrodor retriever, kind of like he was supposed to, well acted.
Viggo Mortenson as Aragorn was great.
Hugo Weaving as Elrond was very good in a Star Trek kind of way.
I loved the way they only did the special effects to a certain extent and did not soley rely on them to make the movie. Having such good actors was more important. But the special effects were great too. Costumes were relatively simple in Hollywood terms but not inappropriate.
Orlando Bloom as one of the Elves was better I thought in the 2nd part of the movie. In the great council I found him rather annoying but he played a great elf the rest of the time.
Christopher Lee was a great wizard, played the part well.
John Rhys-Davies as the dwarve did okay, he had a kind of caricature of a role to play. It's hard to tell if he did it well or not. I suppose so.
This film is so full of richly textured scenery and story that I wanted to see it again. We went last night, maybe I'll go tonight too.