I'm of the "excellent but overrated" opinion

Rating: 6/10 (5 May 2002)

I do grow weary of the googly-eyed folks on IMDb, in the way they respond to the "dazzling" new/recent releases. I imagine that these are predominantly the same folks that in the last couple years vaulted _American Beauty_ to #6, _The Matrix_ and _The Sixth Sense_ into the top 30, and _Being John Malkovich_ and _Magnolia_ into or near the top 50. I do often find myself going against popular opinion on all sorts of subjects and it is tiresome to do so, but obviously what is popular isn't necessarily what's great. This is often compared to _Star Wars_ but at least _Star Wars_ is in the top 10 on this site rather than top 3. (And I don't consider _Star Wars_ top-10 material, either....)
Let's not get ahead of ourselves. Yes, there is technical wizardry here, there are gorgeous vistas, a tale of epic scale containing a classic story of good vs. evil with the fate of everything at stake. All in all, I can grant that it's probably quite the achievement to be able to put the story contained in the book up there on the screen. I imagine that many of the folks rushing in to rate this so highly hold the STORY near and dear to their hearts. That's understandable, but this is a *movie* site, so I judge the film by how it succeeds at being great cinema. And by that standard, I'll just say that I found this well worth my time to see it the first time, but not worth my time to see it twice. (Yes, I saw it twice before reaching that conclusion.) I can say that I'm glad they hired a director like Peter Jackson to direct the project, and even then there was a pervasive "Hollywood" feel throughout. I came out of the theater feeling unfulfilled (moreso the second time than the first), mainly because it's so heavy on the presentation but only "pretty entertaining" in terms of storyline. Maybe there is too much in fantasy-stories that makes them exceedingly difficult to succeed as great cinema, at least by my standards. To each his own, I guess.
I don't care to "knock" the film beyond this. It's excellent. Go see it at least once. Aside from the incessant ear-piercing shrieks of the Cloaked Horsemen of the Apocalypse, you'll have a fun time. But I figured it bears mentioning that it doesn't merit the ranking it's attained on this site, and I don't feel at all that it was robbed at the Oscars given the other nominees for Best Picture. (_Mulholland Drive_ was the best achievement in cinema in 2001, anyway. Hey, what's right ain't always what's popular -- almost certainly so in this case.)