the most overhyped movie ever, as well as the greatest cinematographic achievement of all time - at the same time.

Rating: 8/10 (24 December 2003)

movie was a wonderous technological acheivement, unparalleled. Very clean, cinematographically flawless. Beyond well executed, technologically. But for all the visual awe and excitement, it lacked emotional edge. This is because it lacked believability and personal identification. Strip away all the cgi, etc and were left with awkward editing, mediocre acting, and trite, overused character employment. omissions made the movie too methodical. Didnt flow. Dumbed-out dialogue left me without identification with the cause. Where's the challenge? This is what I learned from the movie: protagonist die > friend protagonists sad. protagonist live= friend protagonist happy. Bad guy die = protagonist happy. The movie was an emotional simpleton, full of cliches. and above all this, I was still not convinced that the ring was that important. Jackson failed to bring me to understand why the ring was so powerful; the only conscious allusion to it's importance in the entire trilogy was in the beginning of the first movie when we were briefed about its powers, and then abandoned; left to accept its worth with barely a sort of narrative indication to me of its value, origins, backstory etc - only to know that yes, everyone has always seemed eager kill for "my preeecious". Maybe being atheist has to do with my inability to buy into what I feel should be the most expressly and carefully told part of the story, because, the ring was like God, with no beginning, we have only to accept it's importance b/c peter jackson says so. And how about the eye? what was its role in the grand scheme of things? How abour Sauron? what happened to him?