I thought I was getting into an epic fantasy adventure and instead I got a wanky musical about walking!

That's how medieval people perceived their epic fantasy adventures. It's correct. And authentic. And very cool, when you think about the distances they went, the scenery they saw and that they had no Google Maps, GPS and mobile phones for connectivity. It's between a very long hiking trip and a one-way ticket sleeper ship to Alpha Centauri.

BTW, another wrong thing from the movies - it feels there as if it all were happening in one world. As if they had regular trains between Minas Tirith and Fornost. As if they had TV. I dunno, something like that, because they behave there as if immune to distractions, one can imagine that in Forgotten Realms setting, where magic does everything that mobile phones and GPS can do, and "adventurers" roam everywhere, but not in Middle-Earth.