There is no best movie of all time.

Rating: Null/10 (28 December 2001)

Of course it was inevitable. It just took a little longer than I expected. After LotR reached the #1 position, people had to react to this blasphemy. Their baby, the holiest of holiest of movies, The Godfather, was no longer 'the best movie of all time'.
Well, stop crying and let me get you out of this dream: 1) there is no best movie of all time. 2) the fact that it is #1 doesn't necessarily mean it is better than The Godfather 3) these two movies can't be compared.
Sure, you can compare certain aspects of the movies. LotR had some flaws and The Godfather didn't (imho). But, as they were both adaptations of a book, a story like LotR is infinitely more difficult to translate from book to film than The Godfather (well, maybe not infinitely but a lot :) ). Give it a little time and The Godfather will probably pop up as #1 again. You can't mess with the Family eh?
The other thing I read was that it was not nearly as good as The Empire Strikes Back. Well, I think that is just nostalgia talking. Of course, I also saw TESB as a kid and at that time it was a milestone and it made a huge impression on me. If you show it to kids these days, they will still love it but it won't have the same impact.
So, stop comparing and see it as it is: A fantastic movie experience that you will not soon forget. Not often does a movie live up to its hype, but LotR delivers! And so it is one of the few movies this year (together with Memento) worthy of some Oscars. But they will probably disappoint me again like the last few years by not giving La Vita e Bella and Crouching Tiger the Best Picture Oscar.
***** (out of *****)