Bored of the Rings

Rating: 6/10 (11 May 2002)

This must be the single most overrated film in IMDB! It's not bad, but its rating is more a function of the Tolkin fanaticism. It has all the virtues AND vices of Tolkin's books, as it is quite faithful to them. The film starts out nicely. The portrayal of the Hobbits and the Shire is quite charming; the Black Riders are menacing and they move the plot along nicely. But when the fellowship forms, the film falls apart. It becomes tedious - all that "speachifying" to no special purpose. Yeah, it's faithful to the classic epic formula, where this is typical. But then Homer's classic heroes and Gilgamesh always were big on self-promotion - just like the jokers in the WWF! Ho-hum.
One thing that gets me is how this saga has been so embraced by conservative Christians and Catholic pseudo-intellectuals. I understand that it's about the conflict between good and evil, and the seductive power of evil. But that theme has been covered in countless other works, with more charm, excitement and wit. So I don't see anything special there either.

Nice eye-candy though, but then that's become standard fare too courtesy of Lucas and Speilberg.