Ok, so I finally rent this movie after hearing for 8 months how great it is. And it bored me. It looks neat, the acting is ok, but the material they're given is just far too dungeons and dragons for me. I don't think I'll bother to pay money see parts 2&3, though if this were done as a made-for-tv miniseries, I could see myself plopping down on the couch to watch it over the course of a week. A big problem is that the movie doesn't tell a whole story- it begins the story and gets to somewhere in the middle. Those who say this is part of a trilogy- it's not. A trilogy is three complete stories, which are related to each other. This is the beginning of one long story. And a pretty dull one at that. With far too much slo-mo. Maybe if I'd read the books before, I'd be more interested, but probably not. On the other hand, from what I've heard, Tolkien is tremendously wordy and overdescriptive, so I would have probably been bored by the books as well. So- to sum up- 4th best movie ever? nope... passable, but pretty dull when all is said and done. speaking of which, not much GETS done in this movie.