Sheer magic

Rating: 10/10 (9 December 2006)

I'd forgotten how much I LOVE this movie. I probably watched it 100 times the first 2 years it was out on DVD (I'm not kidding...I could quote large portions of it verbatim), hadn't seen it in a while, and just finished watching it again for the first time in probably more than a year.
I was fortunate enough to see all three movies on the big screen, and this one grabbed me so utterly and completely from the first moment, pulled me body and soul into that world and hasn't let go since. No other fantasy has done that before or since.
As you watch the movie, you're also a part of it...you're there feeling every little nuance of Elijah Wood's expression, you're left breathless by the beauty of the land, you fall in love with Aragorn and Sam for everything they both do to protect Frodo, you echo Frodo's screams with your own when Gandalf falls into darkness with the Balrog (I've never seen a mythical creature brought to life more amazingly on the big screen!), and you can believe totally Boromir's pain as the arrows pierce his body (by the way, attention, Entertainment Weekly - I nominate Boromir's final 7 minutes in this film as the Best Death Scene Ever in a Movie!). There are so many other things I could list, but I'd rather leave them for you to discover.
Though I love all three movies, neither the Two Towers nor the Return of the King will ever usurp the sheer wonderment of the first in the trilogy for me. Peter Jackson took Tolkien's amazing imagination and intelligence and brought both to the big screen in a way I wouldn't have believed possible. The music sung in Elvish, the lighting, the CGI, the ACTING! - all of it...utterly spellbinding. I'll watch this movie again and again and again, and possibly love it more every time I do.
If you haven't seen this movie, I suggest you run out and buy it (I can't imagine you won't want to own it after your first viewing), come home, turn down the lights, turn your phone off, and give yourself over completely to the spell this film will cast.
Enjoy!