Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (2001) Peter Jackson   The definitive fantasy adventure, J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings has finally been adapted for the screen in a big, live-action production. This is not the first cinematic attempt to adapt Tolkien's work, however. Director John Boorman (Excalibur) started work on a live-action adaptation of Lord of the Rings in the early 1970s, only to have the studio pull the plug due to an escalating budget. Since then, three animated Tolkien productions have appeared, but only now has the entire trilogy been filmed as a movie (parts two and three are due out in 2002 and 2003). You would think that this great, epic story would require a director with a visual imagination commensurate with Tolkien's storytelling imagination. So it is mystifying how it found its way into the hands of Peter Jackson, a director whose prior work features a pretty unremarkable visual style, not to mention a twisted preoccupation with the grotesque. The resultant film is uneven, at best. At the outset the film is promising-the opening scenes, despite some fake-looking effects, are powerful and atmospheric, and the Shire, the pastoral haven of the hobbits, is just as Tolkien described. As Gandalf, Sir Ian McKellen's imposing voice and piercing eyes easily convince that behind Gandalf's scruffy, gentle exterior lies an immortal of incalculable power, and Christopher Lee is equally effective (and chilling) as the evil Saruman. Ian Holm is also the perfect Bilbo Baggins, at once grumpy and endearing. Additionally, all the actors cast as Hobbits-Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, Billy Boyd, and Dominic Monaghan fit their parts like a glove. Jackson's decision to cast normal-sized actors and then "shrink" them down to hobbit size via CGI effects and forced perspective shots was brilliantly audacious, and the effect is nearly always convincing. As the film progresses, however, misgivings begin to add up. While in the book the characters occasionally break into song, this has been ignored by the filmmakers (the only songs present in the film are two bland tunes by Enya, neither of which utilize Tolkien's lyrics), and the warm sense of camaraderie among the fellowship, so prominently evoked in Tolkien's writing, is missing. In the role of Arwen, Liv Tyler is better than expected, but as Aragorn, Viggo Mortensen has a rather sleazy screen persona, lacking the quiet nobility of this king in disguise. Also, the elves, so alluringly luminous in the books, are passionless and bland. There is also an uncomfortable, sickly darkness to the film. Certainly The Lord of the Rings is a tale of great darkness, but also of great goodness and light. However, the film dispenses with much of the material Tolkien used to establish the good folk of Middle Earth (such as the characters of Tom Bombadil and Farmer Maggot), so the darker aspects of the story become dominant, exacerbated by the use of cheap horror movie shock effects (as when Bilbo suddenly sprouts fangs when he sees his precious ring once more, or when Galadriel morphs into a hideous monstrosity when Frodo offers her the ring.) The visual style of the film is also disappointing. Gifted illustrators Alan Lee and John Howe provided conceptual art for the film, and there are some arresting images (the fiery "cat's eye" of Sauron, the dark tower of Barad-dur, and the mines of Moria) but the photography is drab and washed out, in an unsuccessful attempt to replicate the subtle hues of Lee's illustrations. Depicting Middle Earth requires dramatic landscapes (a la David Lean), but the New Zealand locations are not well chosen nor utilized, and many are simply fake-looking CGI composites. Even the Lothlorian sequence, which should have been the most beautiful in the film, has a cold, uninviting sterility. Tracking and aerial shots are overused, and the fight scenes are not well edited-the cutting is so choppy that it is hard to tell what is going on. Yet there are moments of unintentional humor, as when Gandalf, under the spell of Saruman, twirls about on the floor like a top. And the intentional comic relief is genuinely funny, with most of the best laughs furnished by Hobbits Merry and Pippin. The balrog sequence is also tremendously impressive-by far the finest moment in the film.    This production is unquestionably better than earlier animated efforts, but still falls short of the great cinematic potential of the story. That the film works at all is mostly due to the extraordinary power of Tolkien's narrative, but visually, it is hopelessly outclassed by films such as The Dark Crystal and Legend. The Lord of the Rings is an adequate and, at times, effective film, but ultimately disappointing and uninspired. —Paul Andrew MacLean

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