Very little to admire

Rating: 5/10 (18 February 2004)

There are a few things very admirable about Jackson's latest installment. The special effects are incredible, the...um...No, I think that's about it.

Before I go any further, let me state I am an admirer of Tolkien's work, and this review will be largely biased because of that. The breadth and scope of 'The Lord of the Rings' amazes me every time I pick up the novel. The character dialogue is long, eloquent, and puts the reader in a grander time and place than his own. The story is about traveling with friends, talking over dinner, and exploring a world unlike anywhere else in literature. But Jackson's movie has very little of any of that.
I understand that because of the cost of the movie, he had to adjust it for mainstream audiences. However, the problem is not that he adjusted the material, but that he absolutely butchered it. Tolkien's beautiful dialogue is trimmed down and thrown away to be replaced by bad one-liners and soap opera scenes. The characters feel one-dimensional and act like cardboard cut outs of their alter egos in the book. Does Frodo panting or groaning or complaining for the hundredth time tell me anything about him or why I should care that he's panting and groaning, etc?
I don't hate everything about Jackson's interpretation. I enjoyed the wonderful sets, realistic cgi, and thrilling battle scenes. But was it necessary to make the Battle of Plennor Fields an hour long computer simulate scrimmage when Tolkien spends only a single page describing it in his book? It's a pity mainstream audiences have swallowed the movie and accepted it as a masterpiece, when really it's nothing of the sort. It's a real shame.