For my money, still the best of the three

Rating: Null/10 (24 January 2004)

It's not just that this one had a novelty value that The Two Towers and The Return of the King lacked. The second two installments were both excellent, and I'm still not sure which one I prefer, but I still regard this one as the best.
A significant part of why is at the very beginning. The prologue, with its epic visuals and judicious narration, is easily one of the best ever committed to film. From there, there's the prologue in the Shire. I remember at the time this was criticized as being too long in much the same way that the end of ROTK is being called too long now. It's even further from the truth. Quite a lot of grounding of the four hobbits is necessary to sustain us over three huge films, and Jackson, with his vast army of art department staff behind him, delivers superbly.
Once the titular fellowship forms and the quest begins, however, the film crosses the line from very good to simply great. There are no epic scale battles here, but the Mines of Moria sequence, culminating in the battle with the Balrog, is just as impressive, if not more so. There's even an advantage to be had here, since all the later battles, despite having thousands of participants, still focused very heavily on the heroes. Here, there's no balancing required.
As to the sights and sounds of Middle Earth; suffice to say that even with the trilogy now complete, Lothlorien, with its beautifully ethereal composition of gold and purple in the trees, is still the most impressive setting of them all. Hobbiton, with its idyllic hills and gardens, is also moving, and it was nice to see Isengard, however briefly, as something other than a barren wasteland or swamp. All this, combined with the phenomenal visual effects and excellent score, ensure that this first entry can certainly equal its two sequels in terms of spectacle.
But it's where dramatics are concerned that this one clearly emerges as the best of the three. Half of why can be summed in two words: Sean Bean. Boromir is easily one of the best characters of the trilogy, bearing several of the most crucial scenes, and required to provide the majority of this entry's climactic catharsis. Sean Bean proves equal, and more, to the task. There is only one thing about this film better than Bean, and that's Ian McKellen's Gandalf. To say that he commands the screen is giving him short shrift. He anchors the film throughout the whole first act, and for not a single frame are we not totally convinced of his authority. This film's preeminence among the three could very easily be traced to the fact that McKellen has the most screen time in it.
I have nothing against Ron Howard, Akiva Goldsman, or Jim Broadbent, but I do believe that the Academy should be dissolved on the grounds of critical dysfunction, and the above three's Oscars be immediately shipped to their rightful owners.