crap.. what absolute crap

Rating: Null/10 (16 July 2006)

Peter Jackson couldn't pace a story to save his life. Everything which makes the book a timeless treasure is completely thrown over in favor moronic "improvements" aimed at a perceived demographic. The only saving grace of the film is the art direction, but even that leans far too much toward the most recent calendar-illustrators of Tolkien's work (Alan Lee, John Howe, etc.), and lends a slick, sci-fi look that the author would no doubt have found distasteful. The subtlety of the story, with just the right bits of information revealed at just the right times, is rejected in favor of a blunt-force approach which gives away everything at the outset in order to showcase some more lousy cgi at the earliest possible moment. The Ralph Bakshi cartoon, while also far from successful as an adaptation, is far superior by comparison. The other two films Jackson's travesty only get worse.