Compared to the Books....Complete Rubbish

Rating: 6/10 (3 February 2005)

I have been a fan of Tolkien as long as I can remember. I read the Hobbit in its entirety at the tender age of 9. Since then, I have read the complete trilogy of the Fellowship of the Ring more times than I can remember, I have forgotten more than most people know about the books...and yes, I still manage to have an active social life.
Now, I could go into microscopic detail about the inconsistencies that plague this particular movie and the entire trilogy as a whole when compared to Tolkien's novels, but that has been done ad nauseum to say the least.
Peter Jackson certainly had an eye for detail, the scene locations were absolutely realistic, and often breathtaking, but overall...his reliance on computer animated graphics and completely straying from the story line just ruined it for me. I can prove this in one example. Towards the end of Return of the King, Aaragorn has to persuade the Ghost King to help him in battle, and he will release them from their mountain prison. The same thing happens in the book, but the Ghost King and his army have only a marginal impact on the battle for Osgiliath and have absolutely nothing to do with the battle at the city of Gondor.
However, Peter Jackson decides to take the Ghost King and his army to new levels of valor. In the movie...the Ghost King's army basically takes out the entire army of East Tribesman who are fighting for Sauron (Oliphants and all), along with half of Sauron's army, which are assembled around the gates of Gondor. This happens on screen in a matter of seconds, as a ridiculous fluorescent green wave "cleanses" the city of Gondor. Complete garbage! Maybe if I was 10 years old and didn't read the book, that part may have seemed cool, but to a devoted Tolkien fan and reader years before these movies came out, I can only hope that Tolkien himself is rolling around in his grave as we speak.
For the record, I don't have a problem with all of the subtle changes that Jackson felt he had to make (even the addition of Liv Tyler as "Arwen," Aaragorn's love interest who never existed), but to completely change the face and facts of the battle scenes is just too much to swallow. I couldn't wait to get out of the theater and away from all the "average" moviegoers, who it seems have not picked up a book their entire lives, and seem even more eager to be lead around like a donkey going after the carrot on the stick.
Bottom line...PG-13 killed this movie, pandering to the tastes of kids (graphics and more graphics) killed this movie, and a director who seemed to be too full of himself (literally and figuratively) killed this movie.
Read the books, dump the DVD collection in this case.
How this movie ranks among IMDb's best of the best completely baffles me. Better than Citizen Kane? Godfather II? Are you people f@#$ing kidding me?