So I finally go to see it...

Rating: 6/10 (9 January 2003)

MILD SPOILERS
It was good for what most people expect, which would be a visual representation of what the book had. Good job Hollywood, but...
It was horrible as a film, because it didn't build on any idea or theme, it just dictated. There were a good three or four scenes where all it consisted of was Sam, Aragorn, or whoever talking about how not to give up hope, how hope was something good in the world. One scene would've been enough, but we since Sam said it to Frodo, we needed Aragorn to say it to some little kid, and then we needed Arwen to tell her father the message of hope because the Elves weren't anywhere near Sam or Aragon to have gottent he message. The audience, regretfully, is present at all three. Plus the scene where Aragorn instills his hope speech to Theoden.
I think what the movie shows is that Hollywood is still willing to spend a lot of money to get something right, which is something a vile place like Hollywood should be applauded for, but what the movie also shows is that Peter Jackson has a great imagination, but he's a poor director.
Every other one of his movies have been directorial/screenwriting failures, but have had wonderful conceptual ideas with them. But while I was watching the movie I could care less about what happens to any of the men, and half an hour in I could care less what happens to Frodo.
And when I thought about it, it just came down to the acting. The acting seems as if the actors were still discovering who the characters were because they had no force given to them by the director. It seems that's how all his movies are, very flat characters. The characters are great in Tolkien's books. And indeed, the actors provide those actions and mannerisms in the movie, but there's nothing else. Elijah Wood curling his eyebrows, and Viggo Mortensen making his pouty faces isn't giving them any depth. Maybe Wood can get away with it as a Hobbit, but not a single human in that picture can. Ian McKellan and Christopher Lee give the best performances, from their mannerisms to subtle changes in their face, and it is only because they have been acting so long, they can compensate for a poor director, all great actors can.
The poor acting direction is compounded by the moments Jackson chooses to include in the picture. There were atleast ten times that Jackson cut to scenes of women crying and whining, as if that is the only reaction human women can muster up. One was enough, and about the only one that didn't look like complete whining was the one where the mother was trying to hold on to her soon as he was recruited for the battle at Helmsdeep. He also dramatizes events that people who have never read LOTR would know are just plot points. My mother who could care less about Tolkien knew that Aragon didn't die because he COULDN'T die, he's the one of the main characters for christ's sake. And yet Jackson spends about five minutes showing the sad reaction of the characters. Legolas is sad, Grimli is sad, Theoden is sad, then the very next scene is them arriving at Helmsdeep where we see: Grimli is sad, Eowyn is sad, Legolas is sad, Theoden is sad. If not annoying, at the least it's poor scene construction. And the fact is it's poor scene construction from a director/editor point of view because if you looked at the screenplay it works fine.
The most disappointing thing is how I could care less how many elves, humans, or orcs died in the Helmsdeep, but welled up with tears when Treebeard saw the forest of Isengard destroyed. When he said "They were my friends" it was devastating. And Peter Jackson did a marvelous job with that. But if a CGI creature from his imagination gets more emotion out of the audience than the humans and hobbits, there's something wrong there with how the director is building up the scenes.

I liked the movie like I said, and a lot of the things said about character development and such is true, Gollum and Treebeard are the only interesting characters in the whole thing. I think it took a lot of balls for Peter Jackson to shoot all three movies at once with seven units, and even more balls to think that he could bring Tolkien's vision to the screen. He succeeded wonderfully at it, but failed in heft and emotion of the film as a film itself.
They should have Jackson be the "Master Director" and then had another director to just work with the actors, rehearsing them and finding the pieces for a great performance. Even directors like Jeunet know their weaknesses (his lack of mise en scene) and so he got Marc Caro to do the mise en scene for him while he worked with the actors.

Oh well. It's only a movie, and they'll probably be more LOTR movies made, just as there have been made in the past.