Peter Jackson tricked me.

Rating: 1/10 (6 December 2005)

After a year of hyping his Lord of the Rings adaptation. Over and over he was seen being interviewed on TV, telling us how closely he was following the book; how the dialogue came directly from the novels; how seriously he was taking it. I believed every word and my imagination soared whenever I thought of a Lord of the Rings movie! Wow! How great! How exciting! The culmination of all my hopes and dreams! After a long night of errors and broken-down cars, I finally got to see Fellowship of the Ring with my girlfriend. She hated it. I was devastated. One of the most meaningful books I had ever read had suddenly become a joke - not to me. I still loved Tolkien's works. They were a part of me. But now everyone in America that had not read the book but had seen the movie now believed that Tolkien's story was something it was not.
Jackson did not simply "interpret" the books. He did not simply change them. He removed mass chunks of story, only to replace them with terrible scenes of his own creation. Look, for example, to the cheesy dialogue at the Council of Elrond; the slapstick routine that accompanies the Balrog sequence; and, worst of all, adding Arwen to the scene at the Fords of Bruinen - one of the single most dramatic pieces of writing I have ever read in my life. All of them replaced with idiotic, action-packed slapstick comedy.
Above all, Jackson shows no respect for the characters by giving them foolish dialogue, cheesy and hackneyed, for them to speak. He adds slapstick routines with Gimli, turning a noble and strong character into a clownish dwarf. Gimli above all suffers under Jackson's disregard. It is really insulting to Tolkien's memory to treat his characters with such utter disrespect.
The history and culture on which Tolkien based his novels was given no respect by Jackson. None of the nuance, charm or beauty inherent in Tolkien's love for European culture came through Jackson's films. As a Euro-American of Welsh and German descent, I find this disregard for the culture behind Tolkien's novels particularly offensive - this is the reason why I take the issue so seriously. Jackson's movies represent not only Tolkien's work, but millenia of European art and history. By disrespecting Tolkien you disrespect the people that inspired his work.
In short, the movie is insulting to everyone involved. That people felt it followed the books even loosely is bizarre. I do not know what it is about this mediocre movie that has put everyone in a frenzy. I can only assume it is misunderstanding of the ideas, philosophies and cultures that Tolkien drew upon in his novels; a trade of substance in exchange for flashy effects and exciting fight scenes that Tolkien never wrote.