[Media Insurgent]

"...would no doubt startle the gentle medievalist J.R.R. Tolkien."

That phrase doesn't even make sense. There was nothing gentle about medieval times. It's like calling someone a "gentle expert on Roman gladiators, or a "gentle scholar of Nazi Germany." Studying the material necessarily exposes one to a profound level of brutality.

Tolkien may have been a gentle person, but he certainly would not have been startled by the violence and death inherrent in depicting warfare in a quasi-medieval world. Ebert should read historical accounts of the conflicts between the Vikings and Saxons and reassess his opinion of what might startle a medieval scholar.

[2Jedismom]

Exactly. Couldn't have said it better myself.

I admit, I didn't even finish reading the review. At the point I read that I assumed the rest of it was drivel.