10 Problems Nobody Wants To Admit About The Lord Of The Rings Movies

4. The CGI Is Really Inconsistent

You can't blame a movie trilogy made on the cusp of the millennium for looking somewhat dated in the CGI department, but there are many Lord of the Rings fans who will adamantly deny the fact that The Lord of the Rings looks kind of terrible in places. Granted, Gollum still remains a CG-creature masterpiece of the highest order - he has more personality (and is thus more believable) than most of the human characters on display in these flicks. But the rest of Peter Jackson's award-winning trilogy is scattered with instances of questionable, fake-looking CGI. It might appear somewhat petty - silly, even - to point such a thing out, given that these films are now almost 15 years old, right? The problem is the inconsistency, though: whilst some of the CGI holds up, lots of it doesn't. There could be a great moment of CGI, followed - seconds later - but a questionable or sub-par usage. Think back to that amazing establishing shot of Rivendell towards the beginning of Fellowship, and then compare it with the awkward instance of green-screening when Frodo is standing on the crumbling stairs in the Mines of Moria after the Balrog gives chase and you'll see what we mean by "inconsistent." Though everyone has spent recent years deriding The Hobbit for its excessive use of CGI, at least the graphics in that movie were consistent. Video game-like, sure, but consistent. The Lord of the Rings' special effects are all over the place, almost as if they were carried out by technicians and animators of varying skill levels. At times, it can get really ugly.