I am not a Middle Earth expert, but I went with two people who are, and none of us liked this movie. The story seemed drawn out and was not the least bit compelling, just a mish-mash of fantastic special effects and a series of ultimately tiresome battle scenes and narrow, impossible escapes, with little coherence. As someone not very familiar with the story, I was simply bored. But my companions who were very familiar with the story indicated that it contradicted the book in important details and also felt it was drawn-out and boring.