Absolutely excellent film.

Rating: 10/10 (11 March 2002)

When I heard that Lord of the Ring was going to be made into a film trilogy I had not read the books but had heard from friends that it was an extremely good book so I decided to read the trilogy despite having no great interest in the fantasy genre. I found the story engaging, exciting and very well written. As such I could not wait to see the film.
Being a New Zealander much was made here about the fact the the film was made entirely in New Zealand and there was a lot of hype leading up to the premiere.
I went to see it on opening night and my expectations were exceeded. The casting was excellent as were the directing and special effects. A fair amount of the book was left out but as the film was already 3 hours long it's understandable why. Sir Ian McKellens performance of Gandalf was outstanding and his Oscar nomination is very well deserved.
Overall I very very impressed by the film and think Peter Jackson did an excellent job in pulling everything together on what must have been a project of a huge scale. I cannot wait to see the next in the series and wish they weren't a year apart.
I wouldn't say it's the best movie of all time but it's the best film of the year.