Fellowship
The first thing you should know before you go see director Peter Jackman's new movie The Fellowship of Rings is that it's not a complete story; apparently it's the first movie of a trilogy, and you'll have to wait a year to see the second. I didn't know that going into it, so I was surprised by the lack of resolution. The theatre manager seemed to think I should have known; he said there's been all sorts of information about it available on the Internet. I told him I was there to see a movie, not to look on the Internet, and that it should have said "part 1 of 3" in the opening titles, but he wouldn't give me my money back.
The other biggest problem with the film is that it's very derivative—it appears to have been based on a Dungeons & Dragons "role-playing" game, with elves and dwarves and wizards and orcs and battle scenes and Ultimate Evil and a Heroic Quest and so forth. Big Commercial Fantasy on the big screen. The theatre manager told me it was based on a book (how are we supposed to know that?); all I can say is that TSR should sue the author of the book for stealing D&D concepts. The movie even features a race known as "hobbots," which are thinly disguised D&D halflings. I have to admit that it's impressive that they found that many "little people" (what used to be called midgets before the PC Police had their way) to play the hobbots, though.
I also have to admit that the actors (a cast of unknowns) put on some creditable English accents. And you have to be impressed with the technical crew; some of the background scenery (forests, mountains, etc) looks almost real.
So I suppose I can say that it's a promising first film from director Jackman. If he learns to use more original material, he may end up being someone to watch.