Thinly disguised b-movie

Rating: 3/10 (10 September 2005)

In twenty years, everybody will more or less agree that this was just a fairly unimaginative and clumsy b-movie, despite all the fuss and all the special effects that looked so nice back then.
Tolkien's book is not flawless, but whether you happen to be a fan of the original or not, Jackson's movie fails as a based-on-a-book work: it is neither faithful enough or independent enough to justify itself. Even worse, it tries so hard to be something grand that it also fails to be a simple but entertaining adventure film.
If there's one thing this movie should be remembered for in the history of cinema, it is the strong influence it had on the emerging tradition of using loud noises and spook visuals to build tension instead of resorting to decent scriptwriting, acting and directing.