The beginning of EotW is deliberately very similar to the beginning of LotR, but it gets away from that reasonably quickly.
I think most of the criticism for the later books is due to large branching plot lines and slow pacing. It gets to the point where a dozen or more things may be going on at once with very little tying any one plot line to any other for long periods of time. At the same time, each individual plot line takes a long time to resolve. The combination means you need either a good memory or good notes to keep track of everything and avoid getting lost and confused about the plot, along with patience to wait for major things to happen without getting frustrated. Both problems have been exacerbated so far by the necessity of waiting years for each book to be written and published, but that problem, at least, won't last much longer.
If you can handle those two problems, however, the entire series is superb.
Oh, and attention to/memory for detail helps a lot. Robert Jordan likes his foreshadowing, and there are quite a number of ways for it to come up explicitly in character - The Prophecies of the Dragon (aka the Karaethon Cycle), certain Aes Sedai who have the Foretelling ability, a few characters whose dreams can indicate the future, and one particular character who constantly sees visions around most important people she sees. Most of them require significant interpretation, of course.
