Boring

Rating: 1/10 (27 February 2015)

It starts well: We have a nice (though a bit complicated) introduction, we see the beautiful Shire, and we start off with an endearing scene where the wizard returns to meet his old friends. We have a wonderful scene where Gandalf and Bilbo fight over the magical ring. And then the journey begins... and it's boring.
Those ring wraiths are imposing, but they are neither scary nor creepy. The elf woman that comes to save Frodo is dull. It's all like ballet, choreographed chases and confrontations that lack the raw power and terror that they ought to be instilling. And then comes the rest in Rivendell where lots of dull, pointless conversations take place. Then they walk in the woods. And walk over plains. And walk over mountains. And walk under mountains. Then, finally some action ensues, followed by more walking and more elves and more forests and more dull, pointless dialogues. And they paddle down a river... And by then I am too exhausted to care. But the film refuses to end. Even when the final confrontation takes place, we still have tedious, failed attempts at drama as poor, faithful Sam (who still refers to his buddy Frodo as 'Mr' for some reason) almost drowns trying to catch up with the little wimp with that ring whose close-ups we get to see every fifteen minutes. Will he really drown? Oh, the suspense.
So there you have it. I didn't care about any of these characters for a second and I hated them for boring me to death with their stupid dialogues. As for direction, it is bad. There is absolutely no suspense because Peter Jackson doesn't understand the medium. He thinks that imposing dark figures and elaborate CGI equate emotion. It is not so. I was a lot more emotionally involved with the animated version of LOTR by Ralph Bakshi - and it's far from an excellent movie. Indeed, it has loads of problems of its own. But at least it gets me involved. I experienced a range of emotion while watching it. Jackson's film did create some involvement in act one, but boredom took over quickly. When Gandalf died, Jackson tried to make us care, and failed miserably. The close-ups on distressed protagonists and the beautiful song in the background could not make us care. Perhaps that is to be expected from the director of films about zombies.