A Tragedy of Our Time

Rating: Null/10 (7 September 2003)

The Lord of the Rings films have been, to date, a terrible disappointment and a tragic waste of time and money. I was wary from the beginning of the attempt to take a richly historic and poetic novel as the Lord of the Rings and turn it into a three-film special effects extravaganza. That was precisely the result. Things such as plot and character basis were set aside for the endless tirade of effects and action sequences. In spite of everyone's devotion to staying "true to Tolkien" these movies have become a foreign entity. I am aware of the necessities of change when adapting a work of literature to film. However, any tale told by a competent story-teller is worth the hearing. Even one that little resembles the quest so many remember. Peter Jackson is not that competent story-teller. I found the film to be boring and gaudy. It was inundated with shallow moments of "heroism" like so many mismatched beads on a string. It was so completely banal and dull, so completely ill-paced, so completely determined to be a slide show of computer shots set to music, that I am completely discouraged from wasting my time or money to see Return of the King. Lord of the Rings rates with the Star Wars prequels as the most hyped-up rubbish in cinematic history. Even on virtue of mindless entertainment the films rate rather low.