In a word, this movie SUCKED!

Rating: 1/10 (28 December 2001)

I can't believe that so many of you people loved this movie! First of all, I completely agree with others who have complained about its lack of character development. What happened there in that Elf village where the Fellowship suddenly formed? "Okay, Frodo, you carry the ring, and we'll have an elf, a dwarf, 2 humans, an old wizard, and three other useless hobbits tag along with you." To the people who read the book (I did not), you need to remember that for a movie based on a book to be "GREAT," it should be self- sufficient. I should not have need a Lord of the Rings fanatic sitting next to me explaining every scene and telling me things like, "Oh yeah, those guys are called Ringwraiths... no, the bad guy is Sauron and the wizard who became bad is called Saruman, can't you keep these names straight? ... No, Tolkien couldn't use names like Fred and John because he needed unique and magical Middle Earth names! (except of course for the arbitrary naming of Sam the hobbit)...." What is all of this hogwash? Are you people all on drugs? Can't you see what kind of nonsense this movie is? Don't you realize that by reading the book, you got all of the character development and background story that the rest of us just did not get? Clearly, you all used your previous knowledge to fill in the gaps that the rest of us just had to endure. I'm just stunned at how many weirdo Dungeon and Dragon freaks there are out there who ranked this movie so highly.
Bottom line: This movie was terrible in every sense of the word. Long, boring, filled with useless scenery shots (which were really just CGI enhanced shots anyway) and shots of Elijah Wood's blank expression as he stared at the ring in his hand, devoid of any character development (I couldn't even remember main character's names, let alone motivations or backgrounds), and filled with cheesey action sequences that made "The Mummy Returns" look like a masterpiece. You need to be a huge Tolkien/Fantasy fanatic to appreciate this movie. Otherwise, go see "Ocean's Eleven", which is much better and more entertaining in every respect.