"It's like visiting with old friends."

I uttered this phrase after fifteen minutes of watching this movie. Y'see, I read the trilogy when I was in elementary school (somewhere between grade 6 and 7, I think), and I loved them then. I have since seen the Rankin/Bass animated versions of The Hobbit (prelude to LOTR) and The Return of the King (third book in the trilogy), as well as the infamously horrible Ralph Bakshi animated version of The Lord Of The Rings (ugh... if you must torture yourself with subpar animation and a man's misguided attempts to shove the first two-and-a-half books into two-and-a-half hours, then by all means, rent it), and I've read (and loved) The Hobbit and The Silmarillion (though that last one is damned hard to get through--ie: if you thought LOTR was hard, don't even bother trying The Silmarillion).

The point of all of this is to say that I've got a history with this story, and it's a phenomenally fond one. I'm familiar with the main characters, and so when they all appeared on screen, it was very much like visting with old friends who I haven't seen in years but have wanted to see for just as long.

Which is to say, it was an entirely pleasant experience.

All of this said, was the movie any good? Yes. Yes, upon yes, upon yes, upon yes. It was fabulous. Truth be told, it was everything I had hoped for, and more. The music was great, the acting perfect, the casting utterly fabulous, and the special-effects priceless. Especially the ones that you don't even notice.

Special effects you don't notice? Yup. Such as the "shrinking" of some of the main players. John Rhys-Davies, for example, plays the dwarf, Gimli. This actor is, in all reality, quite tall. In this movie he appears to be no taller than four or five feet. That and the actor they have playing Bilbo Baggins is nowhere near short enough to play a hobbit, and yet they've been able to shrink him down so that he's shorter than Ian McKlellan by four or five heads. Bloody amazing!

And let's not forget the casting. The aforementioned McKlellan (Magneto from X-Men) is perfect as the wise wizard Gandalf. Elijah Wood gives a perfect turn as the Ring-Bearer, Frodo Baggins. Viggo Martesen is picturesque as Aragorn son of Arathorn (I love saying that!). Liv Tyler carries herself well as the half-elven princess, Arwen (the whole five or ten minutes of screen-time that she's got). As for all the others (whose names I can't quite recall)... well... by gwarsh, they all gave in utterly fabulous turns. Well done, casting agents! Well bloody done!

The story is simple. Way back when, there were a whole bunch of magical rings made by the Dark Lord Sauron. He gave them to the humans, elves, and dwarves (he was disguised, of course). Then, in Mount Doom back in his evil land of Mordor, he crafted The One Ring, that would give him control over all the others. A war eventually erupted, and during the course of battle the Ring was cut from his finger, and for thousands of years it was lost (this isn't the whole story... for that, check out some supplementary material). Eventually, it falls into the hands of Bilbo Baggins who, on his 111th birthday, hands it over to his nephew, Frodo. Gandalf, an old Baggins friend, discovers the origins of the ring and decides that it's time to do something about it.

There's the story, in a nutshell. It's actually quite a bit more complicated than that, but I won't go into any of it in this review. Let's just say that the first book is adapted beautifully, with all the important stuff accounted for, and a few changes done for the sake of the screen (eg: when the elf Legolas is introduced; he's brought into play later than he should be).

As I've said, the special effects are astounding. When the Balrog is finally shown, it's a sight that must be seen: beautiful in a horrific kind of way. The Black Riders are chillingly depicted, along with their ghostly shrieks that are enough to give anyone nightmares.

And the scenery! It's amazing the amount of detail and thought that was put into this! It was all better than I could have ever imagined! The hobbit-hole in which Bilbo lives (and then Frodo after him) is exactly how I had imagined it. The mines of Moria are utterly fabulous. Saruman's tower (another wizard) is beautifully rendered. It's all just... well... wow.

The only thing I can think of to criticize is that this movie runs at only two or three minutes under 3hrs. That's one hell of a time to sit still, and some might get bored with it. Me? I was glued from the second the music started.

End result? Go and see it. This is by far the best movie that I've seen all year. It's one of the few that's worth spending your hard-earned money on.

[History of The One Ring] [Movie Reviews 2001] [Reviews Main Page] [Home]