Ignore everything anyone writes about this film....

Rating: Null/10 (20 February 2002)

...and go to see it without any preconceptions.
Hype is a double edged sword. Some believe that positive word of mouth precludes anyone other than themselves and some discerning fellow travellers from making an objective assessment of a film's qualities. Others write off the fact, that some film-goers fail to enjoy the film as much as they did, as a cynical reaction to huge popular acclaim.
There is probably some grain of truth in each point of view, but in the much larger middle ground there are people who simply enjoy this film because it appeals to them, or they don't because it doesn't.
If you take my advice you won't read any further, but if you choose to ignore me (many do) and colour your potential enjoyment of this film, here are my 2 pennies worth.
In my opinion, FotR has the potential to be a great film, but whether it meets this potential is down to the viewer.
It has inherent flaws such as the uneven pacing, and a repetitive stop-travel-stop-travel formula.
It also has features that can be viewed as pluses or negatives. These include the balance in favour of progressing the story over developing our familiarity with some of the characters; a number of frantic fight scenes which some people find exhilarating and others compare unfavourably to the highly choreographed style introduced by Hong Kong cinema; a score that is either highly dramatic or gratingly distracting depending on your perspective; and a tendency towards the epic which people may find either profound or pompous.
Finally it has major, almost indisputable achievements, most notably in the visual department, but on the whole for bringing to life the equally magical and sinister world, characters and story of Tolkein's book (regardless of whether you have read it or not, or whether you enjoyed it when you did).
Personally, I found the experience to be very enjoyable, so much so that I've since spent a lot of time thinking and talking about the film. The strongest recommendation I can make is that there were moments of heart-stopping beauty that literally did move me to tears and while I didn't miss the flaws in the film, they seemed trivial at the end of the day.
As I've already said though, that's a personal view. In the end it's up to each film-goer to decide how the negatives and positives stack up for them, and whether other people liked it or disliked it shouldn't matter a jot.