unsatisfying

Rating: Null/10 (23 November 2002)

With The Two Towers almost upon us, I finally got around to seeing the standard cinematic release of FOTR and personally, found it wanting.

Although certainly lavish and with action scenes second to none, the dialog seemed somewhat patchy, probably not surprisingly, considering the amount of material that has been held back for the "enhanced version".

Having read the book, but not particularly being a fan of it, I'd happily say that some of the decisions on what's included or excluded seem a little off-base. Maybe the "enhanced version" is again responsible.
With obviously state-of-the-art CG throughout, a single shot of Legolas atop the cave troll seemed straight out of a video game and brought the impressive run of scene-after-scene of even more impressive SFX to a screeching halt.
In the end, I guess I'll have to get a look at the "enhanced version", as I get the impression there's something exciting about this LOTR project, but the cinematic version wasn't quite it...