Let's not say that it is anything like the book, please.

Rating: Null/10 (7 January 2002)

(Spolier)
I'm a fan of Mr Jackson. I'm a fan of LoTR. However I cannot say that I am a big fan of the movie Mr Jackson has crafted. Certainly it is an 'enjoyable' film per se, but it is nothing like the book (elements are in there, but it doesn't even attempt to follow Tolkien's original plot at all). The fight scenes are laughable - it's like watching a Lethal Weapon movie - and the continuity person should be given a good spank.
I could forgive all of these things (to repeat: It is an enjoyable film) if everyone didn't bang on about how it was a faithful adaptation of the book. It isn't. Not even close.
Summary: A good fantasy movie with superb special effects (even the Dungeons and Dragons style battle between Saruman and Gandalf, and the battle between the cave troll in Moria - which didn't happen like this at all in the book); it's generally fairly well acted (even Pippin as the Scottish hobbit); however I cannot forget the terrible way in which Cate Blanchett was asked to portray Galadriel - it's hard to imagine Gimli being smitten by the hard-nosed, malicious b*tch as portrayed in the movie! Most critically for me is the way in which the movie suffers for having assassinated the original plot (Aragon's sword being in Rivendell and not in his scabbard, Arwen not Legolas rescuing Frodo at the Ford of Bruin (spelling??) and so on and so on; I won't bang on about the continuity problems. I look forward to Part II: at least I'm geared up for a movie *based* loosely on Tolkien's masterpiece, rather than a faithful adaptation of it.