Movies don't come much better than this

Rating: 10/10 (20 December 2001)

I believe there are 3 kinds of people who won't enjoy this movie. Zealous fans of the original book who get too hung up on the mostly minor changes and how Tolkien told things better. People who lack the imagination to enjoy a bit of good fantasy. And people who view everything they see with a lot of cynicism. Everyone else, SEE IT NOW! You will not regret it. Even if you know nothing about the original books by JRR Tolkien upon which this movie was based. It might even make it a better experience since you will not be comparing it to anything except other movies which largely pale in comparison. It certainly is the best fantasy-based movie ever. And one of the best action adventures. The major difference between it and all others being the overall quality of the script (I can only think of one line in the entire film which felt out of place and or badly written) and plot, and the tremendous acting by every major character. The look of the film moves back and forth from amazing beauty to frightening darkness to awesome spectacle with a tremendous musical score that matches each scene perfectly. I did have a few minor issues with the direction in a few places. Some sad or tragic moments seem over dramatized. Especially with the use of tears on men's faces. It seemed appropriate a few times, but after the 5th or 6th time you see various people crying you start thinking "not again!". But aside from that I was hard pressed to think of anything I didn't like about the film upon leaving the theater. That night I couldn't stop thinking about certain scenes and by the next day (today) I knew I wanted to see it again. The scary thing about this film is that it is really just one third of one huge 9 hour movie. With the quality this high already, it is hard to not believe that the next two thirds will be this great as well.