Epic Moviemaking

Rating: 9/10 (31 July 2003)

The first part of The Lord of the Rings trilogy is a monumental achievement, a modern epic that takes the place of the tired Star Wars franchise in brilliant style. The performances are admittedly inconsistent (Ian McKellen and Christopher Lee are superb, but Elijah Wood is dull for the most part) and the script sags in places, but the visuals are outstanding and show up anything by ILM. This will go down in history as one of the greatest movies ever made.