Boring for those who have not read the books

Rating: 8/10 (21 December 2001)

The first LOTR installment left too many plot lines unexplained, too many characters appearing without contributing to the story. Too much of the richness of the book itself was introduced in a slipshod manner, with the assumption that the movie viewer can makes sense of the bits and pieces and see the larger picture.
To compound the problem, so many plot points, characters - and even the mythology of LOTR - have been stolen and used ad nauseum in other books and movies that the modern viewer would find LOTR uninspired.
This movie should have come out 20 years ago.
Finally, many who do not know the full extent of the trilogy will be sorely disappointed with the ending of part 1.
My advice: read the books instead.