Best Film Ever? - No; Merely, Very, Very Good!

Rating: 9/10 (27 December 2001)

For many years it has been widely stated that The Lord Of The Rings was un-filmable. Tolkien sold the film rights to fund his Grandchildren's education, and until his death feared that the book would be turned into some awful cartoon (boy did he get that one right!)Now, nearly 30 years after the authors death, Peter Jackson has done the impossible, and created a masterpiece. Only once before ( La Vita e Bella - 1998) have I sat in a cinema with an audience that was completely spellbound. For 3 hours a couple of hundred people sat hanging on every image, we all lapped it up. Performances throughout are superb, especially Ian Mckellan and Christopher Lee (what a fight scene!) Elijah Wood as a Hobbit concerned me when reading through all the publicity, but he is very good, a small criticism would be that one did begin to tire of shots of his big blue eyes. The depth of the characters will only be judged this time in 2 years with 'The Return Of The King' TLOTR is not a trilogy, it is one book, To build character and pace a 10 hour film is necessary but impractical, hence three shorter ones. Special effects for once complement the actors, and do not steal the show, and Middle Earth is exactly how I imagined it to be, Moria was incredible.
I doubt this will remain at No. 1, but I have to say it is far superior to the over-rated Star Wars 4, 5, & 6.
The film of the year without doubt.