The filmmakers were trying desperately to make a franchise that could repeat the success of LOTR. They thought to themselves: "Brilliant! This will appeal to the same audience, if we play our cards right, and there's 7 parts instead of 3! We can't lose!!"

They shot it in New Zealand, they had CGI monsters, they had "epic" battle scenes, they had "fraught" chases but none of it is entirely supported by the original material, because LOTR is like that but CON isn't.

If they had given CON enough credit to be able to stand on its own merits then they would have made a successful movie.

As it is, they made a bad version of LOTR.

It also suffered from using its child actors in the worst tradition of 70s, Disney, live-action cheese.