Lord of the Rings was disappointing and over hyped

Rating: 6/10 (20 December 2001)

In all likelyhood, my opinion will be the minority, but I feel I need to provide some balance against all the buzz. Having read and enjoyed the books when I was younger, I knew the film would be epic - and it was. However the film fell short (in my opinion) on a number of levels. Even with 3 hours to work with, there was little character development and virtually none of the details that the books provided. When characters died, I did not feel any empathy or loss. Too much time was spent on broad camera angles. For example, during the birthday party there was very little personal interaction amongst the characters, it was 5 minutes of general party shots and dancing. Throughout the movie we were bombarded with spectacular views of the landscape, which is all well and good, but it left this viewer wondering what these characters really were like. Another example is the fight scenes, granted they were well done but there was little detail to the actual combat and I never really felt that the characters were in danger. I never was on the edge of my seat, however I did jump once or twice.
Net net, the movie was enjoyable, not very compelling, and in my opinion only an average movie at best.