Awesome

Rating: 10/10 (24 December 2001)

I dare anyone to walk out of this movie disappointed.
True, there are differences to the book; but these were necessary to transform LOTR into cinema. I have not seen Peter Jackson's previous work, and I did read the book 15 years ago. My comments are not director or `book fan' biased.
There are movies that leave a lasting impression on ones psyche (`Shawshank Redemption', `Godfather', `American Beauty'). There are also movies that break new ground and leave a lasting impression on the industry as a whole (whether it's technology, like the Wachowski brothers, reinventing the twist themed ending genre, like Bryan Singer / Christopher McQuarrie or M Night Shyamalan, or devising new filming techniques like Christopher Nolan).
Peter Jackson's work here is both mesmerizing and ground breaking. From the methods used (the whole trilogy was filmed in one year in New Zealand, the WETA effects, the amalgamation of Enya and Howard Shore's score, the roller-coaster camera work like zooming the viewer into the inside of middle earth from Saruman's tower) to the emotions captured on 35 mm (through the changes in the color of the lens, the `slow motion for non action'; the battles are real time, but the consequences are absorbed in slow motion, and capturing the delivery of Tolkien's writing `you do what you can with the time that you are given'), the LOTR deserves its ranking on the IMDB charts.
The LOTR proves that cinema, at it's greatest form, is a synthesis of the finest visual and audible arts: admiring a Caravaggio whilst listening to Mozart's 29th symphony, or admiring a Magritte whilst listening to Coldplay's `Trouble'- take your pick.
As I've said, I dare anyone to walk out of this movie disappointed.
10 of 10.