This film brought me back to the movie theater!

Rating: 10/10 (25 July 2006)

When I first heard that there was going to be a live-action movie based upon J.R.R. Tolkien's masterpiece, The Lord of the Rings, I was curious. All right, maybe even a little skeptical. After all, these are my favorite books. No one could possibly do them justice in a series of films. It just can't be done. Boy, was I wrong! Usually if there is movie that I am interested in, I will look for books with photographs from the film, and I will purchase the soundtrack and listen to it before I go to the theater. This way I can get some idea about the direction the film will be going. After looking at the photos of the cast dressed as the characters, I had to give kudos to the casting department. The soundtrack was intriguing. So I went to the theater expecting to see a good film. What I got was excellence across the board. A great story, breathtaking locations and sets, a beautiful score, and characters that seemed like real people that you had met before. In other words, I felt the same way I did when I first read the books at age 16. It left me speechless. And it raised the bar for movie excellence, at least in my mind.