The best film. EVER.

Rating: 10/10 (20 December 2001)

Words simply do not do this film justice. Peter Jackson has crafted exactly what Lord of the Rings (and fantasy movie in general) fans have been looking for for years.
In recent memory, movies have not been kind to the fantasy genre. Dungeons and Dragons. Ewww. Jackson makes Middle Earth a very believable place, where not everything is pristine and clean, and every person is completely believable. Viggo Mortenson makes an amazing Aragorn the ranger, Elijah Wood is both pitiable and courageous as Frodo Baggins, Ian McKellen is perfect as the quintessential wizard Gandalf, and Sean Astin gives old Samwise Gamgee that endearing nature that any reader of the LOTR series has come to know and love. The doomed Baromir is expertly portrayed by Sean Bean, and even Liz Tyler, an actress I have always liked but never really respected as a thespian, gives an outstanding performance.
The key, however, is in how Jackson so obviously loves and respects the series to make everything so believable. The faithfulness to the book is at an unprecedented level, and the details are nailed perfectly, right down to the way the elves, humans, and dwarves have different fighting styles. This is easily the best fantasy movie of all time, with only Willow to even compete, and, as my summary presents, simply the best film of all time.