In hindsight it is very easy to claim that hew Lord Of The Rings trilogy had all the markings of a hit movie franchisee. It could well be classed as the successor to the Godfather trilogy in the way it has caught the publics imagination. Where the Godfather showed a lost world of family values in a 1970s world of paranoia and deceit, the Lord Of The Rings celebrates a return to a more natural and uncomplicated life fighting against the marching forces of international capitalism.
The truth is that with every fantasy film aimed at over 12s before it having bombed, a massively expensive nine hour tale of stumpy people with hairy feet transporting bland jewellery on foot across country must have seemed as commercially viable as a tale of rambling society members ram raiding Ratner's jewellers.
Whilst Peter Jackson and co may wish to thank JK Rowling for whetting the appetite for fantasy and mythology they have only themselves to thank for the quality of the first part of the trilogy. Everything from the casting to the set design has been planned to near perfection and for those not familiar with the books it is unlikely that these portrayals will ever be replaced as their views of the inhabitants of middle earth.
The basic story of a normal person holding the fate of the world in his hands as he attempts to destroy a special artefact is as old as the hills, but the films vivid depictions of characters make such limitations irrelevant. The hard decisions that all the characters face are handled with the minimum of melodrama and you will find yourself forgetting the strangeness of the people and places you are viewing. Rarely is such financial success so well deserved.