Ugh. I've read the books waaaay too many times to like the movie. They changed the order of events, lopped off the ending, and crammed it all into about an hour and a half.

When I heard about it, I immediately thought, "That needs to be at least 2 and a half hours long to be any good." It wasn't, so it felt rushed and you really had no idea who most of the characters were and why they were important.

However, Ian MacKellan + Christopher Lee = Awesome, no matter what movie they're in.