A Beautiful Triumph for Peter Jackson

Rating: 10/10 (20 June 2002)

The Lord of the Rings, the Fellowship of the Rings. The first time I saw those letters appear on a trailer while watching Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (in May), I thought it was the most ridiculous title for a movie. The trailer was disgusting-I thought the strange-haired little 'people' (later known as hobbits) were ugly and esoteric. Vaguely, I remember whispering to my best friend at the time, 'Ew...who's going to see THAT? What kind of freak would see a movie with such UGLY people??' Little did I know, I would become obsessed with this 'lurid' movie.
About 7 months later, the tickets to 'A Beautiful Mind' were sold out, so I opted to go for LOTR, because nothing else seemed worth my $5.50. The movie astonished me right from the first scene, with the thousands of realistic warriors and beautiful scenery, I was immediately hooked. Throughout the movie, I don't think I blinked once. The characters, the Elvish language, the setting, everything intruiged me. It was artistically and originally beautiful, not at all what I expected. I didn't even notice 3 hours passing by before it ended and I sat dumbstruck in the theater for a while, listening to Enya vocalize 'May It Be.' I walked out of the theater like I walked into a new world.
6 more times I saw the Lord of the Rings. I have two copies of the soundtrack (which is also fabulous) and am counting the days until the Two Towers. For anybody who has not seen this incredible movie, I suggest that you run to the nearest Blockbusters and rent it on August 6th, when it'll be released on DVD and VHS. It's almost essential to life. The actors-Elijah Wood, Ian McKellan and Viggo Mortensen-beautifully and acurately protrayed the characters of J.R.R. Tolkien's historic masterpiece, and Peter Jackson stayed true to the novel. I've read the books and became deeply interested in things I never have before, and have looked at things just a bit differently in this world.
I highly recommend the Lord of the Rings, the Fellowship of the Rings, to anybody at any age anytime. It is my favorite movie, and I'm not surprised that over 60,000 others voted this movie as worthy of #3 on the spot of the top 250 movies of all time.