Very worthy but why didn't I find it fun too watch?

Rating: Null/10 (4 January 2002)

Wizard Gandalf retrieves an evil ring from Bilbo Baggins he finds it's true nature and must destroy. Frodo, a hobbit with a pure enough heart to resist the ring, is selected to make the journey to destroy the ring.
The story here is very heavy and a good job has been made of trimming down the story to make it accessible to those not familiar with the story. The characters are quite well developed - the beauty of the film is that it knows it will be a trilogy of films so it doesn't have to rush past characterisation where other films would need to get down to action quickly to ensure that it can get a sequel greenlighted.
The visuals are fantastic, the special effects are brilliant and are mixed well with New Zealand's natural scenery to great effect, there's no doubting that Jackson can cope with such a grand canvas to work on. The action scenes are also very well handled and the monster special effects are mostly good (only occasionally it is obvious that some are computer generated).
The main problem with the film is that it isn't a lot of fun. I know it wants to be serious but it also needs to be fun for the audience to watch, three hours is a long time to sit listening to lots of talk about family trees and ancient quests etc. I didn't want comedy but it all took itself too seriously to be totally enjoyable. Another problem with it is that the pacing is all off - the film has a set pattern that goes all the way through, first a talky scene with slow camera movements, then the music changes, the camera starts zooming around and we enter an action scene, then back to a talky scene, then an action/chase scene and so on. It all gets a bit tiresome with it's continual cut between action/talking/action/talking with a relentless monotony. There's nothing wrong with the content but it all gets a bit tiresome after a while.
The cast are roundly great - almost totally well cast with the exception of Hugo Weaving who looks, sounds and acts just like his character in the Matrix - it makes it too distracting. Wood as Frodo is a little too serious at times, gazing off into the distance and delivering straight dialogue. Bean and Mortensen are both great, Bean especially with his flawed character struggling against the ring. The best character in the film is the ring! The film suffers from not having a bad guy to focus on (Christopher Lee is built up but he isn't the main source of evil). Giving the ring itself the ability to tempt and manipulate and speak, this makes it the main evil character and makes the quest even more tense.
Overall it's a big grown up blockbuster with amazing effects but it isn't very much fun to watch (not just laughs but basic enjoyment). A good film but far from perfect - 4 out of 5.