It is great but not the best ever

Rating: 8/10 (22 December 2001)

Yes it is impressive that someone has managed to bring LOTR to the screen at last & bravo for that
Yes it is visually stunning in parts -especially the ring wraiths ( although someone must have based Hobbiton on the Teletubbies home )
Yes it stays reasonably faithful to the story
BUT
For me it didn't hang together - it was a series of set action pieces with few of the breathing spaces/humour of the book to turn it from a great action picture to a legendary saga which is what LOTR is - a nordic-style saga for the twentieth and twenty-first centuries and beyond