Good movie, not the best

Rating: 9/10 (7 January 2002)

I just saw the movie yesterday, and it didn't impress me as much as I've heard it impresses others. I had just read all of the books (NOT a trilogy, as the forward says in the books!) within the last 6 months, so they were fairly fresh in my mind. I loved the books, but only liked the movie. The action and scenery were the best I have seen, but the acting seemed to be lacking. It seemed to suffer the same fate of any book-to-movie, in that the actors were acting in regards to the book and the movie, and not just the movie. So they alternated between reacting to events that happened in the book and not in the movie, so you felt lost if you hadn't just read the book; and not reacting to key events in the books, so if you had ever read them you felt like they forgot about something that shaped their character.
Also, it seemed to rely too much on the sweeping, beautiful landscapes. At times I felt like I was at a documentary about New Zealand. But, all in all, a good movie, definitely NOT the best of all time.
7/10 rating.