Not as good as they want you to think...

Rating: 3/10 (3 April 2003)

***SPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS*** Since I have read the books once, my review will of course be weighted somewhat by that.
First, let me try to see the movie as a new film, no preferences, just another movie. It is nearly 3 hours long, a format very hard to master. You have to keep the viewer interested at all time not to let him/her fall asleep. This is mainly done by effects in this movie, which I think is not enough. The plot does not contain the sufficient amount of suspense, nor does the music. The plot vanishes in monumental 20 minutes scenes just saying: "There was a fight" or "He is the bad guy". Scenes like that are just there to restate something that was even too obvious the first time it was shown. Accompanied by an equally monumental musical score this constant insulting of your intelligence just makes your mind go numb. Peter Jackson could have said all this movie says in one hour instead of three, if he was a good director. A film is only as good as it's story.
Some things are of course good. The casting is great (with some exceptions), the acting is as good as one can expect, the scenery is good (OK, the barren waste since a thousand years is a lush forest, but who cares? I don't) and the special effects are marvelous and incredible. Sadly, that's all there is to it. I really wanted this trilogy to be the best, the greatest films ever created. I hoped that the second part would be better than the far from perfect first movie, but I got brutally let down. Beneath the crust of pure eye candy this is a hollow void.
The conclusion is: Go see this movie, but don't expect anything but a nice computer demo. The animators deserve the credits, the "director" should be ashamed.
Corrolary: Since Peter Jackson has written his own plot I would like to state some of the major differences. People saying that the books are just good vs. evil have probably never read them.
Warning, some plot spoiling ahead!!! (I think someone else already spoiled it, but ok)
An example of polarization of good-evil: The ambitious fellow Saruman believes he can beat Sauron and thus save Middleearth if he gets hold of the one ring (and he probably could). He is not evil, he has his own way of seeing things.
This is reduced to him being the all evil lackey of the all evil Sauron.
An example of how the importance of CHANCE is ripped away:
Pippin (I think) by curiosity uses the palantir when it is by chance aimed at Mordor and sees Sauron who ask: "Who are you?" Pippin answers: "A hobbit" before he is interrupted by his friends. This event leads Sauron to the (erroneous) conclusion that Saruman has the ring. Why? Since it is very painful to use the palantir, none of the good guys would do it to a hobbit, ergo Saruman made him do it. Ergo, Saruman wants to show Sauron that he has the hobbit i. e. the ringbearer and the ring. Sauron thinks Saruman has the ring and acts according to that, which is the only reason he empties Mordor of troops. If the alliance has the ring an attack is possible. Aragorn is also using the palantir in a somewhat taunting way to enhance this. In doing this Sauron opened the only possibility for Frodo and Sam to reach mt. Doom without getting caught by patrols. When he realize that the ring is in Mordor, it is too late. All this due to a little hobbits curiosity, a factor Sauron didn't and couldn't take into account.
In the films this simply isn't. Everything is deterministic. Everything is planned and thought of, thus actually making it impossible for Sauron to lose.
More examples could easily be stated. However, I only considered things that are greatly contradictory to the spirit of the books, not actual plot misses which are numerous.
/The disappointed storyliner