Beautiful, but Dull

Rating: 6/10 (23 December 2002)

What can I say? As much as I would like to enjoy these LOTR
movies, I just can't seem to get into the spirit of this series. I found
the first one beautiful to look at, but ultimately dull and not
involving. Even gave it a second chance by watching it on DVD.
Nothing. Glowing reviews and the promise of a "better film" got me
into the theater for this one. Well, Gollum "is" a technical wonder.
This CGI marvel is by far, the most engaging character in the
movie. The battle near the end of the movie is also wonderful to
look at. Lots of good "eye candy" there. But the rest of the movie?
(Yawn!) Why would director Peter Jackson, spend over two hours
building to the climax of this movie, the battle, and then keep
cutting away from it to show us the two Hobbits and Treebeard
walking & talking? For me, it kept grinding the film to a halt.
And extended DVD's? Are you kidding me? These movies are
plenty long enough as is, thank you very much. One thing's for sure, I don't care how good the reviews are for the
next chapter. I won't be rushing off to see Return of the King. 6/10