Im going to say this first, It's a bad movie.
This movie did keep my eye's glues. Especially the first scenes in Shire, oh my gosh, that's that's straight out of a book. And you can tell. That was a dare I say, PERFECT job they did, on visuals. I really enjoyed the battle scene, at the start of the movie. So much so, that it set the standard of what the rest of battle scenes should have lived up to, but the firt still looked the best. It captures the grand scope, of all the fighters, knocking each other off one by one which no other fight scene compared to. I was surprised at how good the acting was, I can see how some san say it's award worthy. Gandalf obviously being the best. I could watch an ENTIRE movie with just his character. He was very enjoyable. Unfortunatly, I never read the book before, so some things,(While I can see them being resolved in sequels) seemed implied, and incomplete. I did NOT think the movie was too long, because I actually gave the movie a chance to explain itself, and some movies need that time to do a great job.
But what it came down to was (and I was'nt the only one),LOTR did the book a great service, I can image the best. Anyone who's read the book, has had nothing but praise. But After the movie ended last night, there was almost 100% dissatisfaction for this movie. People were "Boo-ing", imagine about 300 people. And I can't see these people paying to see this movie again. I think,(and this is based off of my own, dissatisfaction) the movie was VERY unclimatic. He we are 3 hours deep and the movie ends as if it were the middle of the film. YES, I know, perhaps the middle of the book, but for a Film,... no way. They did it, but you can't do that. I figured, (because I read allot of things off the net) that - "NO, this movie wont show him destroy the ring", but the average person did not, I repeat did not, expect this. The problem? As a film? The movie stresses WAY too much, what the goal is. "Throw the ring in the pit",..."The only way to destroy it". The solution: They should have only explained this ONE time in the movie, very subtle too, somewhere in the being of the film. Why? So the "newcomer" could focus more on the issues, of THIS film, not events that will happen later. Maybe some fans may not understand that, but, the set up of the film, was a total distraction to people who don't know what's going to happen.
The second thing that they could have done to better conclude this charpter, for new audience's, was to make that final battle, A-better, B-maybe they should have built up the character of that spawned monster a little bit more, so when he get's defeated, it gives the feeling that something has been accomplished in the 3 hours, the characters take a step foward, and some sort of evil was betaen. But again his character was so minimal, that, killing him was no diffrerent then killing the other goons.
And those 2 suggestestion to make the movie better, are actually my most reserved oppions, so that, as little of the story is changed as possible. But as filmmakers, it should have been done better.
So I gave this one a thumbs down.
Favorite scene: When Bilbo, tries to take the ring from Grodo. The demon that came out of his face was scary.
Hmmm, you sound less negative than your first line there. And I am a bit surprised about your criticism. But I cannot comment to it because I have yet to see it.
THat it doesn't have a climax has probably more to do with it keeping close to the book. The book Fellowship of the Ring doesn't have much of a climax either.