OMG!!!!! The best movie ever known to man!- mb.

Rating: Null/10 (20 December 2001)

This message board is so filled with holy praise and worship of this movie that critics dare not tread.
There is no question that this movie is not epic. For many this movie is probably the best movie they've ever seen but that does not necessarily equate to the best movie of all time. For an adventure/fantasy-action movie it is superlative. There are many fine moments, and in particular Ian McKellen as Gandalf carries most of them. Frodo, Gandalf, and Bilbo had the most developed characters. The orcs, wraiths and other monsters of this movie had particular attention and were convincingly evil. The movie is a perfect blend of action, adventure and 'fellowship'. However, it may be a matter of taste, yet I felt that this movie had more hype than depth. Having read some of Tolkien's works there is restraint in his delivery and it is this restraint that needed to be wielded rather than swords and enraged dwarves. It is in the scenes that the unrelenting score and action pipes down that we can look into the characters and empathize with them. I am by no means qualified to ascertain whether this movie could have been edited better, but I would be curious to see what hit the cutting room floor and what the movie might have been had it been edited differently.
Without doubt, this is a Peter Jackson movie, and for those that have scene his other films, will recognize the cadence, editing style, and malicious evil. Though his other films are on a different scale entirely they have an odd charm (my favorite being Dead Alive watch the unedited version only). There were a few moments in LOTR pt1 that I almost felt a Karate Priest (ref. Dead Alive) to kick down a door and start kickin butt (mb Jackson restrained himself from doing so!).
I digress, this movie is kick-ass and is the kingpin of Saturday matinee. Thankfully there are no cuddly orc babies, no Jar Jars (though we have our slapstick), no Ewoks. But PLEASE! it is not the best movie of all time?! I will wait patiently to see the remaining two films to fairly judge this work.