Good gravy, Dave^dim, you have been having identity crisis problems lately, haven't you?

I did realize that is was one of three movies, but what I didn't realize was that it was basically the first installment of a mini-series, so to speak. Since others have used Star Wars as an example, I'll continue with it. When the first Star Wars came out, and I mean first by the one released in 1977, it was a complete and entire movie. When you watched that movie, it was a complete story in and of itself and you could leave and not need to watch any following movie.
But when Empire came out, I left the theater feeling like it was nothing more than a set up for the third one. That how the first LotR left me feeling. Like after the screen blacked out that there would be a commercial and then we'd get right back into the next reel. Serialized books are the same way to me. Yes I've read serials that have the same characters, but I detest books that seem like they just stop in the middle. I feel like I need to look to see if someone tore some pages out or something.

I don't think any given story should have complete resolution to the point that there can be no follow up, but it should resolve whatever conflicts are opened. For instance, how many horror movies end with the supposedly dead monster starting to twitch back to life?

Grab has hit on many of the things that did bother me, tho by no means all of them. The effects for instance. IMO, a special effect should only be used if it adds something to the story line. But in this instance it seemed like a lot of them were there because someone operates under the philosophy that "more is better". The same with the sets. There were some exquisite, detailed, ornate sets there that I would have loved to have studied at my leisure. But they just passed across them in a 5 second pan of the camera. I think that motion pictures was the wrong medium to present those. The artwork book mentioned above is much better. The clutter in the fast pan was just too distracting to enjoy.

A week ago I told my girlfriend there was no way in heck I was gonna go see this new one with her. But now I think you guys have me convinced to give it a try. Tho I still haven't decided if I'll go this year, or wait until next year so that I can see them all back to back and get the whole story at once.

One more thing. I've been well known in the past for being over-analytical. The people I used to work with called me "The Freak" because of it. From what a lot of you LotR proponents have said, it looks like you have noticed many of the things about the movie that bothered me, but for you it wasn't a distraction from the story. So maybe it's just my personality that kept me from enjoying the movie more.