Gorgeous To Look At, But Not Quite Perfect

Rating: 8/10 (26 January 2019)

22 December 2002. I'd say 8 stars out of 10 for this movie. The scenery was spectacular and the overall appearance is of epic proportions. The were a few distractions however and perhaps the DVD (and I'm assuming even longer version will help fill in the gaps). Frodo's internal conflict as the ring-bearer doesn't come across the screen as personal to the audience, we get to see more from an observer standpoint without getting the feelings and the emotions and the actual pull to the dark side was one might get from Star Wars. The Rohan King's son is a person we never really get to know and to feel the bond between the King and his son and again we're left to see the King's emotions from outside, never getting to emote with him. Gollum is perhaps the most amazing character of all in this movie and I'd say should earn an Oscar nomination for something. Except for the ending scenes which seem to suddenly turn the Gollum in another direction from the prior scene which doesn't seem smooth and consistent in character, the Gollum and Frodo's and Sam's interaction was the highlight, brilliant, and intimate creative genius of the whole series to date. Another strange figure is the 10,000 warriors that march to defeat Helm's Deep and King Rohan. But even the Vietnam War, the American Civil War, the Russian Revolution, the numbers offered as to the size of the massed army in this epic fantasy don't seem to conform to the gigantic clash between good and evil of the massive size of Tolkien's novel - I'd think that 100,000 soldier army would be the minimum size to defeat any fortified fortress in the Lord of the Rings. The battle seemed to be awful fast and the feeling of lingering doom, the seige over days (more in line with most fantasy battle scenes) is missing in this movie. However, overall, Lord of the Rings brings to the screen images that have been waiting a long time for Fantasy fans and almost (not quite) capture the essence of Middle Earth. A great attempt, a near perfect success, but there is even better movies to come if this significant benchmark is any indication of the future of fantasy movies.