I don't get it.

Rating: 1/10 (18 January 2003)

Why the heck is everybody jocking this movie? Unless you're a diehard LOTR fan , I really don't see what all the big hoopla is for. Granted, the visuals in LOTR: TFOTR was unlike anything anyone had seen before and it was worth double the price of admission just for that, but honestly, I just couldn't get interested in the story. I do have to say that Christopher Lee's presence was awe-inspiring and the sets were breath-taking. I felt that ,visually, I was taken to levels I had never even imagined.
But I felt that this installment didn't offer anything new. It seemed to only draw out TFOTR's worst flaw--endless exposition. This installment looked to me like a 3-hour montage. I didn't find anything particularly memorable, except the excellent CGI of the creepy-crawly dude (sorry, I didn't quite catch the name). It wasn't that there was bad acting--it was more like there was no acting, or rather, no opportunity to act. It seemed like everyone was either just doing a lot of staring "out somewhere" because the odds were so insurmountable, or that they were scuffling about in groups of twos or threes headed "just over the other side of that tall hill or mountain".
Kudos to the LOTR movies for staying faithful to the books, but as a non-fan, (yes, I know, I am probably blaspheming) it all seemed rather tedious and silly. I thought it was bad enough that TFOTR ended with the Fellowship being chased by a crap-load of Orks (sp?) who are easier to kill than the buffalo in a particularly memorable episode of the Simpsons. I mean, jeez! Is this the world's most inefficient army or what?!?! These Orks are easier to kill than the "middle-eastern" armies in an early Schwartzeneggar or Stallone movie. There is just no element of danger. Everything seems just to gosh-darned easy. TTT ends with a good-guy army of 300 (and eventually some elves) taking on 10,000 Orks. You just know that the Fellowship will pretty easily overcome ridiculously impossible odds. Sadly, I could suspend my disbelief and therefore, I could not enjoy this movie.
This movie gets the 3rd Bass gas-face!