Just think: Starship Troopers... See this wasn't that bad!

Rating: 5/10 (4 January 2002)

It's hard for me to comment too badly on this movie. It's a fantasy movie. It's supposed to take you away into another world, away from your real crappy lives and entertain you. If you want literature, read the book. If you want 400+ pages of character development, read the book. There's the movie and the book. They serve the same purpose through different mediums; one's better equipped to grab you around the neck and shake you around for a few hours, while the other will gently caress and nourish your mind over the course of several days.
No movie based on a book, especially a book of this stature, will EVER live up to the expectations. "The Exorcist" or "The Godfather" or "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" are examples of near perfection, in my opinion, but I'm sure there are those that disagree.
Then, there's "Starship Troopers"
Just consider this last example. What a horrible piece of crap that movie was. It barely resembled the book past the title. And the movie was horrible to boot! Just imagine Casper Van Dien as Aragorn and Denise Richards as Arwen. Directed by Paul Verhoven.
I'm getting sick just from the thought of it. See how great this movie really was, or at least how bad it COULD have been. I appreciate it more already.
I've been exposed to the Lord of the Rings books and stories and cartoon incarnations as long as I can remember. I couldn't find many faults with this version, but after reading others' reviews, I could believe that if you weren't familiar with the stories that you might not have enjoyed it as much as I did.
In the near 180 minutes that this movie spanned, there could have been a little less pointless CGI and a little more about the history of those involved, for the sake of those not familiar with the story. In general, though, I'd have to say that the CGI didn't get in the way of the story half as much as it would have in some other director's hands.