Peter Jackson's ten-hour, three-film adaptation of Tolkein's classic The Lord of the Rings tale must rank among the most ambitious movie projects of all time. Assembling a superb cast and filming the three parts simultaneously, Jackson must be applauded for mastering the sheer logistics of it all before any credit is given for technical and artistic achievements within the movies themselves. The other major popular book adaptation of 2001 (Harry Potter) was handed to Chris Columbus who, like Jackson, has never handled anything on this scale previously nor, to be perfectly honest, given the impression of being able to. Whereas Columbus proved to be a slightly less visionary director than he was explorer some time previously, Jackson can be proud of his accomplishments.

The Fellowship of the Ring is a stunning film, succeeding on just about every level. The cast is predictably filled with noted British talent, led by Ian McKellen, who is on commanding form as Gandalf. Ian Holm and John Rhys-Davis are just as good as they always are, and the rest of the cast acquits itself superbly too. Jackson makes fine use of the New Zealand scenery (to the extent that its tourist industry has ballooned out of all proportion) and John Gilbert's film editing ensures that despite its gargantuan length, the film never seems either to be dragging or rushed.

Speculation as to who would score the movie was just about feverish for almost a year before the final, surprising, choice was revealed. For a while it seemed like James Horner was a given, and Polish master Wojciech Kilar's name was also attached to the project for some time. However, the only composer approached to write the score was Howard Shore, whose reputation is high among those in the industry but who was - until now - not especially known in the wider world.

Shore's music is excellent, make no mistake. He captures the spirit of each scene very well while also maintaining a hold on the wider picture. There are a few motifs associated with characters or groups and the score as a whole is composed in a Michael Kamen-like way, integrating small, perhaps not too obvious, themes and motifs together and creating a broad tapestry based on these elements.

Talk about a dream project: wizards, elves, hobbits, dwarves, magic, humour, terror. What composer wouldn't be inspired by it? But this, to me, is an important question, one not considered by the legions of (mostly teenage) film music fans who have lavished praise on the score as the best thing ever. Not to belittle Shore's excellent accomplishment (it is indeed a powerful, moving, thrilling musical work) - but wouldn't it have been virtually as hard not to be inspired by the film as it would have been to be inspired? If Shore's music has a fault, it is that it is all entirely predictable. The composer's never written a score on a comparable scale nor in a similar style before, and yet from start to finish it sounds entirely as one would expect the music for The Fellowship of the Ring to sound. An unusual complaint? Certainly, it may read as such - but for my money, this film is in terms of size, scope and guaranteed popularity the most obvious candidate for a world-beating score since Star Wars a quarter of a century before it. Think of your reaction on first hearing Star Wars (or, for that matter, Ben-Hur) - this movie genuinely offered a similar opportunity for a score to be considered alongside the very finest of all time. Did it get one? Simply, no.

The music is exciting when it needs to be, moving when it needs to be, beautiful when it needs to be - but as exciting, moving or beautiful as Star Wars? Not even close; not even close, if truth be told, to First Knight or Mulan, not major scores in Jerry Goldsmith's body of work. One of the major action themes in The Fellowship of the Ring ("A Knife in the Dark", if you want an example) is either borrowed from, or coincidentally very similar to, Goldsmith's The 13th Warrior, an above-average but not earth-shattering score written as recently as 1999 which garnered very little in the way of critical praise or even attention, by virtue of the fact that it was "just another Goldsmith score". But "above-average but not earth-shattering" would pretty well sum up Shore's music here - it's less on the level of "best thing ever" and much closer to the level of "just another Goldsmith score" - not a biting criticism (Goldsmith's still better than anyone at what he does) - but an observation to underline that this music is not the be all and end all of quality film music written in the last decade. It's not sensational. It's good fun, it's very well-written, but at the same time it's repetitive (every time there's a long shot of the fellowship on their travels, the same fanfare - which sounds like a slightly-mutated version of a Miklós Rózsa processional - appears, usually in the same arrangement) and - dare I say it - quite generic. Not generic in the sense that it sounds like a typical Hollywood score - it is better than that - but generic in the sense that it's like a "brand X" version of Star Wars or Legend.

This criticism must be read with this in mind: I make it not because I think The Fellowship of the Ring is poor - in any way - but because the fanatical hysteria which has greeted its release is astoundingly over-the-top, and because for such an important film, I think there is a relatively large bunch of composers - not just Williams and Goldsmith, but Kilar, Goldenthal, Kamen, others - who could have written something truly special. As it is, The Fellowship of the Ring is an excellent score, an excellent album (featuring two songs by Enya which have provoked a heated debate, but which for my money are two of the better cues on the CD) - just not, perhaps, what it could have been.

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