Dreadful

Rating: 1/10 (29 December 2003)

I had such high hopes when I first heard that a Tolkien fan was going to write and direct a live-action+CGI version of Lord of the Rings... ... only to have them cruelly dashed.
FOTR was a bit rough but I said to myself "It'll only get better". Boy was I wrong.
I suppose the main problem is twofold.
First, Jackson is way too young/inexperienced to have taken on this project. He certain has ability but he has a lot to learn about filmmaking before even thinking about tackling such an ambitious project.
Second, for alleged lovers of the source material, Jackson and company took WAY too many liberties with the story. Changing them in pointless and even foolish ways. Perhaps this was inexperience, maybe it was just laziness or a lack of understanding of the source material.
Goodness knows that LOTR is far from perfect as an example of storytelling but there is a great tale buried in Tolkien's massive tome.
Too bad that Jackson and his crew were absolutely unable to bring it to the screen. By the TROTK, Jackson's exhaustion is practically oozing from the screen and he's lost sight of many key elements of the story.