Seen through the eyes of someone much older...

Rating: 8/10 (27 May 2019)

Before writing any further I believe a disclamer is in order. I wil not be mentioning any of the good things about this movie (and trust me there are a lot from the music till the acting) mainly because they are all so well known by now and because here on imdb mostly everybody mentions them without saying anything about what I am about to say. In conclusion this movie has a lot of work put in it and it proves, from the masterful cinematography to the music, visual effects, etc... and yes technically it is one of the greatest achievements in cinema history along with the other two Rings movies. But having seen this movie as an adult I can honestly say that the movie, for me at least, has aged not so well I'm afraid.
I've seen this movie for the first time as I was little, somewhere around 12-13 years old, and what I remember from then was the awesome 20 minutes intro to the movie and the ending, these two being probably the parts of the movie that impacted me the most back then. Having seen this a second time at 20 years old, for me it lost some of it's magic that it had on me back when I was a kid. Seeing this movie a third time around 25 years old, somewhere arround 2-3 weeks prior to writing this review I was stunned to see how bad in some aspects this movie has aged. I'll try to mention only the ones that bothered me the most.
The story: And here there will be much to talk about. Firstly... the viewer is expected to imagine how the ring for one can control all other rings from dwarfs, elves and men then how the ring has such a negative influence around the people wearing it or being anywhere near it, not to metion the fact that the viewer is supposed to imagine how powerfull is the ring, what kind of powers it has. These are huge things that the viewer either has to ignore them or must have a terrific sense of imagination in order to fill in the gaps this movie has with it's story about the ring. Next... the main problem people (who hate Lord of The Rings) have with this universe is that the movies (and particulary this one) are boring. While that is somewhat true, for me is not really the issue that bugs me and downgrades the movie. What I see people have a problem with, is the fact that this movie is basically filler from the moment the fellowship is formed and until it ends by the end of the movie. These two parts by the way are the best parts in the movie for me. So, the problem with the second act or the middle part of the movie is that it is for once redundant and unnecessary. So the idea is that the fellowship goes from point A to point B and during this time they encounter along the way certain dangers that are overcomed but who have no impact on the way they reach point B. So in retrospect, looking back to that, they seem unnecessary. Like what was the point in travelling through that temple and encountering that kraken creature that served no purpose other than create tension and an action scene. So many elements of the middle earth are introduced and characters talk about them as they would know so much about them like some certain mountain of other stuff like that which the viewer has no knowledge about whatsoever. That is really frustrating for me. Imagine The Shawshank Redemption being about how Red and Andy study the prison for 2 of the 2 and 1/2 hours of the film, just so that in the end Andy could escape and all that study was for nothing, just filler. In that movie evreything the characters went through had repercusions and consequences later on the movie. Even the most insignificant thing like Brook writing that he was in that room before killing himself has a resounding importance by the end when Red stumbles in the same room having the same suicide thoughts but overcoming them through the promise he made to Andy and later on writing that he was also there right bellow Brook's message. In this movie however, those events are just passed and never mentioned again. They seem like the writer or the director invented them as he went along so that he could fill the time leading to the sepparation of the fellowship. I could even write more here mentioning Gandalf's death and that creature being pulled out of nowhere just to have Gandalf killed, but it would take just as much as I wrote up until now. But the biggest issue I have with this movie, which cannot be negated nor defended by no one, not even Tolkien himself, is the fact that THE EAGLES COULD HAVE FLOWN FRODO AND SAM TO THE MOUNTAIN HAVE THEM DROP THE RING DESTROY IT AND BE OVER WITH THIS STORY IN A MATTER OF MINUTES! No one and I mean no one can bring a single argument that would be able to defend this ridiculous and contradictory hole in the story which this movie and probably books have. They took Gandalf from like Shire to Isengard and back and they couldn't take Frodo and the fellowship till mount Doom? That is just stupid. Instead they were used two movies later in what is in my opinion the greatest Deus Ex Machina of all time, but I'll say more about that in my Return of The King review. I could go on and talk about some certain visual effects that seemed somewhat fake or about the fact that all these characters are pretty much one-dimensional unlike GoT characters who mostly everyone who's seen at least the first 6 seasons of the show can agree that are way more complex and way more developed than these characters are.
Mainly everyone praises this movie as being one of the greatest of alll time, but I am astonished to see how these things fly over people's heads and they love this movie so much even though it has huge problems that just ruin the overall experience for me at times. The other two movies in the trilogy are way better, especially the second which actually has an importance to every single event that happens in the movie and all scenes mean something by the end, or the third movie which has arguably the most epic scenes in cinema of all time.
By no means have I wanted to say this movie is bad. No... I enjoy it very much and is a great movie to watch and experience, hence the rating I gave it, but the problems it has cannot be ignored, and I for once will not ignore them, because they really lower down the experience I have with this movie in particular.
So to conclude, this movie particulary has not aged well for me, and it is probably similar with Star Wars episode IV which I also find to be very overrated. Strangely both these trilogies have strong sequels which save the movie experience for me, because otherwise the beginnings are somewhat weak.