LOTR: The Fellowship of the Ring...the King of the Fantasies.

Rating: 10/10 (11 January 2003)

I will be very honest here.
Star Wars is NO LONGER the supreme fantasy movie franchise. LOTR: The Fellowship of the Ring INSTANTLY KILLS any Star Wars movie for that honor hands down and no questions asked.
The Fellowship has an extremely high level of quality and excellence. Never have I seen a fantasy epic that featured a perfect-cast, very deep character development, excellent pacing, excellent special effects and best of all, an excellent story that was perfectly translated from Tolkien's books.
Right from the beginning of the film, which details the history of the Ring, I was blown away by a wave of cinematic excellence.
As far as fantasies go, The Fellowship has a perfect cast and each character is excellently cast, like Elijah Wood as Frodo, Sir Ian McKellen as Gandalf, VM as Strider/Aragorn, Liv Tyler as Arwen...etc. Heck, by seeing them onscreen I don't think of the actors but more about their characters...it comes to show that the stars instantly vanished to transform into the famous characters many people know worldwide.
LOTR: The Fellowship is nothing less than excellent as a fantasy...and as a movie in general. I highly recommend to EVERYONE to see this film and I promise you...forgetting about Star Wars is worth it as long as there is LOTR.
A lot has changed when I saw this movie. I never knew Peter Jackson before LOTR but now I greatly respect him as a master of fantasy and story detail...I am not afraid to say that Mr. Star Wars himself, George Lucas, has finally met someone who has BEATEN HIM to the punch.

By comparison, Lucas is responsible for the decline of fantasy entertainment value of Star Wars since he made The Phantom Menace, and no, Attack of the Clones is not enough to entertain me. Perhaps he should try hiring Peter Jackson for Episode III...
Sorry Star Wars, I am sticking with LOTR.
My salute to Tolkien and Jackson!!!