"2896 comments in total"

Rating: Null/10 (21 April 2009)

And counting. I'm guessing mine will make it 2897 :-) What to say about the Pete Jackson rendition that hasn't been said. Well, I saw all three films in the theatre, and was entertained. You can't really ask for anything more. There may be some deep hidden message encoded somewhere, but I couldn't find it.
Tolkien "borrowed" from Wagner, who borrowed from others, and so on and so on. Tolkien's works are, in his own words during a filmed interview, an homage to the King James version of the Judeo Christian bible. If that's the case, then I'm a little hard pressed to find anything of any real meaning in either written work or filmed interpretation.
Don't get me wrong. I had the Hobbit read to me when I was about three or four. Read the book for myself a few years later, and took a stab at the more massive "Lord of the Rings" trilogy after that. I liked the stories. I found them entertaining, and wanted to add my own little niche of "Blueghostliness" to Tolkien's world, but I didn't pick up any deep spiritual nor philosophical underpinnings, as so many a Tolkien fan have in the past (and presumably still do).
There's the whole nature verse mechanical theme going on, and a few others operating. And if you can find that in either books or films, then more power to ya :-) For me, I find both books and films respectable entertainment. If anything, I think the films are ever so marginally over the top a-la Pete Jackson's style. That doesn't make them bad, just not the classics that I think a lot of people are making them out to be.
You have to love and admire the amount of work that went into these films. You really do. If you don't like the characters, then like the setting. If you don't like that, then like the music. If that fails you, then like the SFX. If you're still not finding salvageable, then just be glad that someone finally took on this project, and put it on screen.
My nitpicks; the pointy helmets of the Gondor soldiers. If I understand correctly this may have been an homage to the Rankin Bass animated Hobbit film from the 70s. Meh... they just don't do it for me. And the CGI, to me, is more hit than miss, but some of it still looks plastic.
All in all this is a classic "Hollywood" take on what's been labeled by many a bookstore as a modern set of classical literature. It's got big characters, huge spectacle, lots of drama (heartfelt, though not really deep), and production values that should impress the most jaded of Tolkien fantasy types.
I saw all three films. I was entertained. I don't think they're classics. But I liked what I saw.
There's not much more I can add than that. :-)