This Movie Puts Other Movies To Shame

Rating: 10/10 (23 December 2001)

This movie will ruin other movies for you. It doesn't take long for you to be convinced of another world (or is it an earlier version of our world?) and find yourself transported there. There are incredible settings, fantastic special effects, excellent and nuanced performances, frightening depictions of evil, epic battle scenes, all shot through with a gritty realism. And there is a depth and complexity to the characters and the story's moral underpinnings which are greater than usual for a "blockbuster". But most of all there is a sense of joy in creation that permeates the film, the kind of artistic integrity that accompanies a labor of love. No cutting corners or gratuitous sex scenes here. This movie sets the mark very, very, high for future film-makers who don't want their efforts to look lazy and creatively vacuous in comparison to this triumph of a movie.