Well, now I have.

Sadly, it just feels like a Lucas-fied version of Lord of The Rings. While I was watching the movie recently, I tried my best to put any images of the Lord of The Rings movies out of my head, and give this movie a fair shake. I really give it a fair shake, because even if I ignore fantasy movies that come after it, I can't help but see all the similarities to fantasy stories that came before it.

It really felt like Lucas stuffed all of the clich??s from the fantasy genre into one movie. It's a passably good movie, but nothing really struck me as special or noteworthy in the film. Basically, it's just a fun popcorn flick movie.