Amazingly done, yet still amazingly disappointed

Rating: 8/10 (19 December 2001)

First I would like to start off and say that this was an amazing movie. I must Compliment Peter Jackson on doing a wonderful job with the film. Now to beefy stuff...There are two ways to look at this movie.
First off, I had the privilege of viewing the absolute first 12:01AM show at my local cinema. I am probably the only person in the theatre that had not yet read the book, which I did on purpose. Since movies take priority over literature in my mind, I don't like knowing the endings of movies and I feel I can judge them better than someone who has rea the book religiously. Also, as a person who takes film and movies (Two very different things) very seriously, it pains me to hear people discuss this MOVIE as the best movie ever. Now like I said, this was amazing to look, but it was sooooooooooo manufactured. Ever since the introduction of computer animation into live action films (granted some pictures require computer generated images i.e. A.I.) the actual "ART" of filmmaking has been lessened with these $100-$300 million dollar movies. If you have read the book (which I still have not), I would strongly recommend this film based upon the reaction of the die hard fans in the audience. It was wonderfully acted, directed, and manufactured.
Now for those of you who haven't read the book, I can't recommend this to you. 9 times out of 10 when I wait to read a book until afterwords, I'm still greatly satisfied when I first view the movie in theatres without prior knowledge to he book. I wasn't as satisfied as I felt I should be. I went into this movie not expecting much but the typical Hollywood "epic", totally manufactured (It was kind of like Titanic meets Legend meets Pearl HArbor meets Willow). If you are an Action movie fan, I guess I might recommend it to you although the sequences are waaaay to far apart. All in all, however, a valiant effort on the part of Peter Jackson (8/10)