Good, not close to great

Rating: 6/10 (24 December 2001)

It was inevitable that the fanboys would come out in swarms to vote this dog to the top spot. It has happened in the past. Movies like Memento, Shichinin No Samurai, and American Beauty are all examples of the voting disparity of IMDB. The first hour of LOTR: FOTR is actually good. Right up to the point where we take to the road for a pointless and endless 2 hour trek to rid Middle Earth of the ring. I can only imagine that the next 7 hours of this "masterpiece" are filled with a continuation of this journey that takes us neither anywhere extremely interesting or original. When the credits role, your first reaction will be to throw your food at the screen in anger ... and your second reaction will be to wonder why some people in the audience are acting like this film is anything more than just another film. Some people actually applauded the no-ending film. I didn't read the book, and I have no interest in reading the book knowing now that there's no ending. There's so much wrong with this film from the hilariously embarassing wizard fight, to the use of the old Frodo is dead trick twice, the lack of any interesting female characters, the horrid music that would even be bad for an elevator. This movie is filled with zooming into Frodos eyes, shots of Frodo pulling the ring out of his pocket, and shots of people walking. I highly suggest the fans of this movie take a week off, watch movies like High Noon, The Godfather, The Empire Strikes Back, 12 Angry Men, and JFK. It's a 6, but keep in mind that films like Osmosis Jones and Dogma got the same vote from me. Get an ending film, and maybe I'll reconsider.