Read this review if you haven't read the book

Rating: 1/10 (30 July 2002)

After watching LOTR and cursing it as the worst movie of the year, I decided to take a look at the books to see what the fuzz is all about. Well, the reading of "The fellowship of the ring" made me reconsider my opinion. The movie it's A LOT WORSE after reading it. I liked the book, but it will not be in my favorite list.
I can't stand the great deal of people who are claiming that "Peter Jackson did a wonderful job adapting the book to the screen" and that "it couldn't be better" without even reading the book!
Many people say, "it's impossible to adapt a book to the screen". Well, guess what, it's not. If you watch and read "The godfather" you'll know what I mean. I consider the movie even superior than the book, it's pecfect in every way. Another good example it's "2001: A space oddisey", while in this case the book is superior, the movie it's a very good work. The list goes on: Gone with the wind, Lawrence of arabia, A clockwork orange, The wizard of Oz, The grapes of wrath, blah, blah. I guess that LOTR it's not even one of the 100 greatest adapted screenplays of all-time.
First of all, the events in the book are slowly revealed, a little bit at a time, it makes the whole thing much more interesting. In the movie we start with a voice-over spoiling us all the emotion and trying to make us think "wow, this movie is gonna be great, look at that big monster".
Second, everything in the book happens for good reason. A lot of scenes from the book appear in the film, but their reason it's very different. For example the parting of Frodo from the shire has a lot more of preparation, planning and help from his hobbit-friends, why? If you want to know, read the book, it's explained there with a lot of detail. In the movie it's off-and-go, for no reason at all. I have to say this also about Merry and Pippin, in the movie they're pointless. Another bad scene, this one involving snow, comes to my mind.
Third, middle-earth it's portrayed in the book with great detail, it's very real. I can imagine every square-inch of it, the vegetation, animals, climate, soil, etc. In the book we see it mostly as a CGI generated background and it looks fake.
Fourth, acting. This is the worst part of the movie. The dialog it's just stupid, it makes the characters look like cardboard. They take themselves too seriously, and they speak as if they were reading some ancient sacred text. The book has this feeling also, but the book pretends to feel like an ancient sacred text. Also, everyone has the same facial expression trough the whole movie (specialy Frodo).
Fifth, in the book, the pacing it's very slow. It gives us the impression that middle-earth it's a slow place. That the news take months to travel from town to town. There's no technology, but there's history, culture, myth, art and traditions. Frodo is scared to death when he hears that black riders were seen in this town, or in that place. Every time closer. In the movie, we only see Frodo being chased by scary-looking men in black, who made us say: "Look, the bad guys". Also, in the movie we see people killing bad guys at an incredible fast rate, then, after they managed to escape in an unconvincing way with help from someone you didn't expect, they kill more bad guys.
AND ABOVE ALL, THE ENDING. Please!!!! This is the result of making the three movies at the same time. It just fades to black in the middle of the story. Altough the book ending it's very similar, it leaves you satisfied, and wanting to know that will happen next. The movie just stops. I guess the next movie will begin from the next frame this one finished. Amazing that the ending didn't catched up Frodo in the middle of a word.
In my opinion, this movie it's bad, and it drags on forever. Ask yourself this questions, I give you my answers:
1. Is it innovative? No, there are a lot of movies which use the techniques used here. 2. Is it original? No, adapting a book to the screen it's done by Hollywood in a regular basis. If you say that the story it's original, then you're really saying that the book it's original. 3. Does it have great fx? I don't think so. This movie uses almost the same fx techniques than "Star Wars: The phantom menace". If the effects were somewhat different, they weren't real enough. Even "Jurassic Park" fx are better 4. Does it have memorable scenes? No, even the death of Gandalf was laughable.
Overall, I have given my opinion before and after reading the book. And my conclusion it's this: This is the second most over-rated movie of all times (the first one it's Titanic). It's nothing new, original or great. Too bad that the other two movies are already finished, because they're gonna be just like this one.