Problems I had with the movie

Rating: Null/10 (21 December 2001)

Contains Spoilers Just saw the movie tonight and I'm sorry to say it, I was MAJORLY dissapointed! Yes, the movie was good, but that's because it succeeded in creating an in-depth world true to the book, along with some amazing visuals that certainly made it feel epic. You can't help leaving the theater after 3 hours feeling like you've been on an adventure...because you're overwhelmed by the size! But basically the story was trying to get a ring from point A to point B while fighting some bad guys along the way. The beginning was great with the Hobbit town and party...but once the quest began the story just dragged. Not only that I tend to be nitpicky about things, and after about a dozen incidences in FOTR, I begin to feel let down by a movie. Here are just a few: 1. How did Gandalf get his staff back after escaping from Saruman? And just what was that big owl thing? His pet? Was that butterfly supposed to be some sort of foreshadowing of how he could escape? Why didn't he just eat it? He was in a prison without food, I'm sure! 2. Gandalf hardly used any magic. Why? He seamed pretty useless other than a wise guide. Did he actually cause the stone bridge to break? It seemed so narrow that it would have broken by itself if the monster had stepped on it. 3. Did the dwarf just happen to have another ax? He breaks his ax while trying to destroy the ring, but then moments later holds up a perfect one while replying to Frodo that he has the help of "my ax". A dwarf ax is supposed to be indestructable, since dwarves are master blacksmiths. Their weapon is like an extension of themselves. I suppose I can believe he had another, but it's unlikely. 4. How did the Dark Lord know that Golem had the ring? If Bilbo had it, why didn't they track it to him as easily as they could Frodo? Remember the flashback shows the orcs torturing Golem, he says Bilbo's name and they go after him. First, how did they find Golem when he didn't have the ring, and why didn't they go after Bilbo, since he used the ring to disappear at his party, they wouldn't have had to stop and ask that one worried townsperson where it was! 5. Why did the Shadow riders turn and run downstream when the water came at them instead of straight at Arwen? The dummies deserved to die. If water could kill them, they would be screwed if it ever rained in that lush environment, which it does. 6. Hugo Weaving as Elrond. Somebody tell him he's not the Matrix bad guy with a Britsh accent in this movie. He seemed to me to be so over the top I couldn't stand his line deliveries. 7. How come the dwarf wasn't any help in getting in the mines? It was his cousin, and he talked about the mines. How is it possible he never went there? Why would there even be a secret entrance to a mining area? And why would they let a monster live in the water so close to them? And when Gandalf read the description, he used the word "friend" when he first read the description in elf language, didn't he? Shouldn't that have opened the door? Even if he didn't how dumb to have the password be in the wording itsself, so all you'd have to do is read it aloud! But I digress... 8. In the mines they are surrounded by orcs, but then the orcs all run away when a bigger monster is heard coming. Wouldn't you think this would be a good time for our heroes to keep running? But they just stand there and think..hmm I wonder what could be coming that would scare all these orcs? Let's stand around and ponder this for a moment. Hmmmmm. Oh it's a bigger monster! Run!!! 9. When the staircase it breaking and Frodo and another guy are on it and it's falling toward the other staircase with the rest of our heroes, everybody just stands there(on the edge no less) expecting the staircase to hold when it slams up into it! Fortunately for them it does. The debris doensn't even phase them, either! It would have shattered and sent them all to their deaths! 10. Isn't it cool how the elf always has a pouch stuffed to the max with arrows? He must fire of 40 shots in the movie, and yet at the end it's still full. Maybe he has one of those infinite pouches or something. 11. Too many predictable things happened. Yes, we all knew the giant orc monster would jump out behind the pillar, and that the whip would catch Gandalf, but I guess I'd never predict that Frodo is actually.... 12. Stretch Armstong! Wow! I expected him to jump into the water at the end of the movie in order to save his buddy Sam, who was sinking deeper into the lake, and who's final perspective shot showed the surface about 15 feet about him. But one arm from little Frodo, and he's lifted up into the boat.
Is anyone still reading this? Am I being too nitpicky? I normally enjoy movies, so why didn't I enjoy this one? Please somebody tell me because maybe I'm going crazy, since all my friends are telling me it's the best thing they've ever seen. But I thought the character were all under-developed, the plot was so-so at best, and the pacing was way off! Yes, the battle scenes were awesome, yes the landscape was epic and the colors were beautiful, yes Liv Tyler was actually good, and yes this thing left me wanting to see more! But I wanted to see more because the movie just didn't satify me! I don't want to say I dislike this movie yet, but I'll wait for the trilogy to end before I pass judgement. That leaves plenty of time for people to rip me apart! -----Original Message-----