THE best fantasy movie ever made

Rating: 10/10 (30 January 2002)

There is no doubt in my mind that Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring is the best fantasy movie ever made. Nothing else even comes close. That's sort of a left-handed compliment, considering that I can count the number of fantasy movies that I would consider good on one hand, but it's more than that. I would place LOTR: FOTR among the top science-fiction/fantasy/adventure movies ever made as well, which would include such notables as Raiders of the Lost Ark, Star Wars, Aliens et al.
The acting was incredible...Ian McKellan, Viggo Mortensen and most particularly Sean Bean simply defined their roles for a generation to come. When I read the Tolkien books from now on, I will imagine these faces attached to the names of Gandalf, Aragorn and Boromir.
The scenery was simply exquisite...if there were any way to more completely realize Middle Earth, I can't imagine it.
And I have to applaud the fine line Peter Jackson walked between being as faithful as possible to the book and making an excellent movie. This may go down as one of the best book-to-movie adaptions of all time.