over-rated

Rating: 2/10 (20 December 2002)

I honestly don't see what is so special about this movie. Maybe in not having read the books, I'm missing something, but I was incredibly bored throughout the movie. It was difficult to tell the difference between Mordor and Bilbo and all these weird, "mystical" names. I was unimpressed by the action set pieces. Having seen many Kurosawa films, I felt I had seen it all before, as there are only so many ways to film two large armys coming toward each other. Then there are the strange, mercifully brief moments with Liv Tyler, probably the only actress whos mere appearance in a film is enough to make me want to watch something else. When none of this stuff is happening, there is a lot of talking. But not about anything is particularly interesting, they're all talking about the "RING." Who has it? Where is it? What is it doing? Beware the ring, protect the ring. Ringringringring. It gets really old really quick, and all of this ring-talk is edited together with ring SHOTS. the ring is falling, the ring is glowing. then there are the sweeping helicopter shots of people standing on cliffs and mountains and all. i truly believe this film would've been an hour long had they edited these things out.
on a more positive note, i do admire the scope of this movie and the undertaking of peter jackson to film three movies at once. that takes a lot, and the FX are quite impressive. but i feel that LOTR is a movie by a fanboy, made FOR fanboys.