Skyrim is a victim to the hype machine in the sense that people forgot how much Oblivion sucked (for an Elder Scrolls game). Skyrim is awesome.
Usually when I see someone complain about the combat, it turns out they are not challenging themselves. They just "swing at everything with a sword" and "shoot slow motion arrows". It's like playing Halo on Easy and only using the Battle Rifle. Like any game, it becomes fun when the difficulty forces you to economize and scramble, and use all the tools at your disposal. I think it doesn't occur to people to bump up the difficulty because this is an unusual type of game and they don't realize what the problem is. Bump it up to Expert and see how things go.
Also, make sure you are using shouts, your racial power, scrolls, poisons, potions, etc. Especially if you do not use magic. See, if you play on Adept, you tend to just skip that stuff because you don't need it. Prioritize collecting Words of Power. Or don't, you will find plenty along the way. If you have Kinect, start screaming at your television. If you are playing on PC like a boss, get Thu'umic Shouter and the mod that eliminates the delay when shouting. Keep in mind this stuff is not the usual Kinect gimmick. Voice activation makes shouts more useful, reduces time in menus, and makes combat more fluid and immersive.
Combat gets more interesting as you level up and collect perks.
Finally, the core appeal of Elder Scrolls titles is exploration. In my opinion this is best realized not by seeing the neat stuffs, although that's important, but by learning about the land of Skyrim. So hopefully you will enjoy that, and try not to pass up opportunities when they arise.