Three hours of movie magic

Rating: Null/10 (20 December 2001)

I watched this movie yesterday, and the experience is still vivid inside of me - growing stronger everytime I think about it. "Lord of the Rings" is not your average blockbuster, which you can probably verify from the amazing range of overwhelmingly positive reviews (comparisons to some of the greatest movies in the past), and the rare and occasional "this was so boring (confusing, maybe?)"/"the book was better"/"did not follow the book" reviews.
Most impressive of all are the bedazzling visuals in LOTR - the flying camera, the incredible fantastical vistas, the manipulation of images to denote evil - that bring the Peter Jackson's version of the Tolkien world to life. Ian Mckellen plays a Gandalf that we immediately admire, Elijah Wood is perfectly cast as Frodo, and Viggo Mortensen displays fabulous swordwork skills. The story flows smoothly, and we get climax after climax - emerging exhausted but immensely satisfied, waiting eagerly for the next installment.
This is a great book adaptation, maybe one of the best, but remember that this is a movie and cannot retain all the details. In my opinion it captures much of the spirit of the book, which concerns aspects of evil, friendship and heroism - and, of course, war. If you never read the book, the dialog can be a little confusing (with all those strange names flying around), but there is still plenty to enjoy and maybe it will convince you to read it! I, for one, have been converted.