h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I think it may be another Star Wars, time will tell. I thought it was awesome

How could anyone be "disappointed" by the Balrog?! Let's just say that when it appeared, some choice Anglo-Saxon fell out of my mouth

And what about what happens when Frodo puts on the ring, the way the world "changes". That was incredible. Amazingly, Jackson managed to make Sauron both a felt presence in the film and frightening.

The best part is definitely Moria, not only are the battles therein spectacular, but the sets and general atmosphere. And as for that cave troll ILM, look out!

Five out of Five stars, no doubts

While I don't want to split hairs, the take at the box office seems to have justified my own view that this is not another Star Wars.

I also enjoyed all of the sequences in Moria. The comment on the Balrog is a nod to the dissent in some quarters over whether Balrogs have wings. There is no mention throughout Tolkien's works as to whether Balrogs have wings except for one line, which may or may not be a printing error. Hence there is some debate amongst the real Tolkien anoraks.

The special effects were well done, most noticeably to my eye, the seemless shrinking of the actors who played the hobbits, even in quite tight quarters with "humans" (I might even add that into the review).

Hats off on portraying Sauron, 'nuff said.

Madent

the "printing error" being mention of the Balrog's wings being spread across the cavern? I know tolkien mentions that the Balrogs shadow is "like wings" earlier on, but refering to the wings later seems pretty definite. If not, Tolkien should have thought a little harder.

Box Office takings are very impressive if not Star Wars. Excellent Word-of-mouth may change that.

Saw it last night -definitely the best fantasy film i've ever seen
The computer generated effects did not blot out the character development conveying all the emotions of the fellowship and the menacing evil of Sauron and saruman
I think the part with Tom Bombadil in the book was important to the plot,although i can't remember why off the top of my head.
The biggest niggle is that some of the pipe music strayed into 'Titanic' territory at time.
However there was no way the films were ever going to include every single plot detail.As an interpretation the film matches the book's epicness.
If you haven't seen a film this year/If you only see one film next year.MAKE IT THIS ONE

Fan of the book & BBC radio production. Saw it last week with my two sons (14, heard the tape, reading the book & 17, read the book) & mother (70+ only heard bits of the tape, not read the book). My husband refused to go as he didn't want his mental picture spoilt.

We all thought it spectacular. The scenery was breathtaking and I thought it merged pretty seamlessly with the artificial sets & special effects. Despite the length it didn't drag & I wasn't as disappointed as I feared. I wonder if some of the characters may have appeared a little shallow because of moving the story on so fast - there were a few instances that I felt weren't sufficiently faithful to the book: hobbits too passive at Weathertop, hobbits' ready acceptance of Aragorn at Bree and Frodo's departure from the Fellowship too overt. The part that struck me as most unsatisfactory was the fight between Gandalf & Saruman - a little farcical.

Overall well worth seeing & likely to be regarded in the future as a classic, but in a different category from Star Wars.

Looking forward to seeing the next two films!