Warning: contains some spoilers

Rating: 1/10 (27 February 2002)

In one word: BORING. Well, first of all, the movie has almost nothing to do with the book. Sure, the characters' names are the same, but that doesn't mean that they have anything to do with the characters from the book. I mean, look at Frodo. At the time the story, he is 50 years old! Just look at him in the film! And since when do Hobbits have pointed ears? Next, there is the complete absurdness of the plot. The director cut out the entire Tom Bombadil scenes, and to get the Hobbits' their weapons, Jackson makes Strider give it to them. Like all he does is carry a pack of Hobbit-sized swords with him. And then there is the Crouching Gandalf, Hidden Saruman scene. Like old, wise wizards have nothing else to do but to fly around with their staffs. But wait, there is more! Gandalf rides to Gondor to study the manuscripts. Almost no time passes and he retuns to Bag end. Considering that there is several thousand miles between them, and he still must spend some time reading, and then return, with nothing faster than a horse available to him, the journey should have taken quite some time (In the book, Gandalf is gone for about 20 years). This is only a small part of the absurdities of the plot.
Now, don't get me wrong, I love Tolkien, but THIS has almost nothing to do with what the Professor wrote. Jackson created his own story, and even though it bears the name The lord of the rings, it is not.