The Loss of Innocence...
Do
not be fooled by the title, this is not the
story written by J.R.R. Tolkien. This film is in
fact a Dungeons and Dragons style story based
loosely on the fabled books by the great author.
The names and places are the same but the spirit
is not.
To
simplify, the plot revolves around an evil ring
which was created by an evil emperor thousands
of years before. It is found by Bilbo
Baggins (Holm), a hobbit who lives in an idyllic
place called the Shire. As he departs on an
adventure he leaves the ring to Frodo Baggins
(Wood). The ring has powers and begins to "feel
the call of it's evil master" as noted by the
great wizard Gandalf (McKellen). So, naturally,
Frodo is bestowed the task of safeguarding the
ring as he takes it to the fiery pit where it
can be destroyed.
Along the way, Frodo meets many heroes and
monsters, elves and dwarves. He and his friends
meet many adventures, so many that the film
becomes just a parade of major events one after
another... on and on and on.
The
production value is astronomically high and as a
result the cinematography and overall visual
scope of the film is quite impressive. But as
has always been the case, tons o' money does not
a great film make. This film is probably the
most disappointing film I have ever seen. That
is not to say that it is the worst... far from
it. However, my expectations were so
extraordinarily high for a story of this
magnitude that the resulting three hours of
'entertainment' were ultimately a tedious let
down.
I
believe that there are stories that can only be
told well in the imagination of the READER. No
film will ever be able to recreate the
imagination of a child. The same is very true of
another film from this year, Harry Potter, which
was also a huge disappointment... critically and
publicly. Harry Potter will only gross $300
million... and based on the expectations of the
film makers and the studio heads... that is an
enormous flop.
This
story just drags on for soooo long that it
becomes a finger drumming exercise in excess.
Special effects layered on top of each other so
thickly that they obscure the story that the
director is trying to tell. One should not be
saying to yourself during the film, "Wow, that
is exceptional blue screen work," or "those
digital effects are really cool, I wonder how
many hours it took to do and what software they
used." That, however, is exactly what I found
myself noticing. This is a huge error. Instead
of being transported to another world of fantasy
and wonder, I was dumped into a world of ones
and zeros.
Apparently the sound of evil is equivalent to
the sound of a pig or horse being slaughtered in
a brutal way. The film uses the particular sound
effect an unfathomable amount of times... so
much so that I almost walked out. Over and over
again we hear the animalistic screech of
slaughter so much that it made me nauseous. And
frankly it is a silly sound that doesn't so much
scare as it does shock because of the sudden
volume of which it is introduced. Couple that
with the ridiculously good sound systems in
movie theatres and you have a headache inducing
shriek that will make you want to plug your ears
with your ticket stub.
Unfortunately for this film technical brilliance
does not deliver greatness. The story lingers on
uninteresting scenes too long, and dangles good
scenes in front of us too sparsely.
There is a desperately long death scene with a
character, played by Sean Bean, who is
completely unimportant to the film. It drags on
and on as if we are supposed to cry tears for
him, when in actuality, I was happy to see him
go. This is a great example of the man who won't
die. We think he's dead, but wait he's not, oh
wait, now he's dead... No... maybe now... Oh he
has one last monologue to deliver before his
pitiful funeral scene which is not so much
touching as it is boring.
There are many more problems with this film, but
the most glaring is the ending. THERE ISN'T
ONE!!! This is a trilogy. They shot all three
films in New Zealand, back to back to back. No
resolution at the end makes this film even more
unendurable. We are faced with a year long wait
to see the second part... WHICH ALSO WILL NOT
HAVE AN ENDING!!! And then in the Winter of 2003
we will see the third chapter in this story we
do not care about. As someone once said...
INCLUDE ME OUT.
©
Written by TC Candler
Richard
Propes' Comment
Hmmm...a film that is mesmerizing to watch,
solidly acted, well directed...yet, oddly, I
found myself emotionally detached at times.
Still, a wonderful cinematic achievement.
Jacob
Hall's Comment
n/a
