Big budget... but then?

Rating: 6/10 (20 July 2004)

First off, I'd like to make a statement: I have not read any of the LOTR books by Tolkien. I once started out in The Hobbit, but didn't think much of it. So I'd like to review the Movie, and will not relate it to the book. So I don't care if Middle Earth 'came to life' to some viewers, or if the Orks really had 3 eyes or whatever. I don't care about that.
Let's start with a view at the story. A ring that has the power to destroy the world falls into the hands of young Frodo (Wood), who with help of several friends has to destroy it on a special place. The first movie of the trilogy basically are these people on their journey to that place.
And that's it. I don't care where that place is, which member of the Fellowship really is the son of whom, what is going to happen in the next movies or whatever. This is the open ended story presented, and it's really not that interesting. Way too many (unimportant) characters are involved, the movie is lacking in story and pace and isn't as epic as a lot of people (mostly fans of the book), make you believe it is.
If you analyze it, the movie goes like this: Group of people taking a journey. Have a fight. Lose a guy. Continue journey. Have a fight. Lose a guy. Continue journey, etcetera, etcetera. These fights might be against different enemies (Orks, Uru-kai, a huge monster or black knights), it all comes down to the same thing. And that, to be honest, is a bit boring.
The worst part though is that when Lotr:Fotr finally does finish, nothing has really happened. They're still on their journey, still losing guys and I'm sure they're gonna have a lot more fights in the other 2 films, of which I already saw The Two Towers. Is it really necessary to expand an easy (mind you, I didn't say bad) story to a 9 hour movie extravaganza? For instance, is Cate Blanchetts character really of importance to the movie? No, the only reason she's in there because she's in the book. And that's a pretty lame reason, since this is Film-making we're talking about.
Now, it's not that the Fellowship is a really bad movie. It all looks phenomenal and we have to congratulate Peter Jackson for the fact he got those studio people mad (or, in retrospect, wise) enough to spend so much money on it. We have to respect Tolkien for creating an exciting world, full of imaginative details.
But, for the many things Fellowship is (a cool look at the book for fans?), a good movie it most definitely is not. 6/10.