Good, but overrated

Rating: 1/10 (30 November 2002)

Many here gone into depth about the similarities and differences between the book and the movie. I have not read the book, but I have seen the movie. Simply put, the Fellowship of the Ring is easily one of the most overrated films in recent times.
The movie has a lot going for it. Excellent actors delivering excellent performances. Mind-blowing production values, special effects, sets, music and locations. Yet, despite all of the film's virtues, the movie somehow still managed to bore me. It also seemed that there were too many "endings" that made the experience seem all the more long and tedious.

I remember watching this in the theater and thinking the ending was near when Frodo is stabbed. I checked my watch, saw only an hour had passed and concluded it was wishful thinking. The beginning of the movie lead me to believe I was in for a memorable movie-going experience. Certainly, it was a majestic and beautiful movie to look at. There's a lot going on up on the screen, yet I couldn't bring myself to care about what was on the screen. I was also at a loss at how a good friend of mine was able to see this in the theaters 7 times! I barely made it through my first. The nomination for Best Picture was a serious miscalculation.
As for the story, I was disappointed that for a movie that has wizards as central characters, we get very little magic. All we see is Gandalf light a few fire works, scare the crap out of Bilbo, lamely fight with Christopher Lee and scare off a big ass dragon with little panache. I hate to compare, but I think I'm being factual when I say that you can find more fascinating wizardry in any given Star Wars installment or in the Harry Potter films.

Still, the movie had some wonderful moments. Ian McKellan, John Rhys-Davis and Christopher Lee are all fun to watch. In fact, the entire cast is first-rate. The scenes in the dungeons with all the special effects and swordplay were exciting and fun, and it was here that I thought the movie's pace would skyrocket, but that was not completely the case. It's the only movie that I can think of where virtually everything is perfect, except the pacing. Unfortunately, pacing counts for a lot.
Despite the drawbacks, I still find myself occasionally revisiting Middle-Earth. Perhaps the movie grows on you? Hopefully, it will, but when a movie of this magnitude fails to grab me instantly the way Star Wars, Harry Potter, the Godfather and a lot of the great films did, something is wrong.