The Mother Of All Epics

Rating: 10/10 (23 December 2001)

Peter Jackson has done probably as good a job as anyone could of fully realising Tolkiens middle Earth.
Casting couldn't have been any better with Elijah Wood forever defining himself as Frodo much as Mar Hamill did as a certain Skywalker 24 years earlier. In fact the parallels between Star Wars and LotR are many, Obi-Wan & Gandalf, Han Solo &b Aragorn and the comic relief being provided by messrs Took and Brandybuck instead of a pair of droids.
CGI work on the film again raises the bar on what is achievable in motion pictures. Fully realised fight scenes involving 1000's of Orc's, elves and men spring vividly to life. You can almost smell the Orc blood as limbs are hacked and warriors slain (echoes back to the good old days of Jackson's wonderfull Braindead).
All in all a defining moment in the Fantasy film genre. LotR will do for fantasy movies what 2001 and Star Wars did for Science Fiction.
Roll on 2002 and the Two Towers !!!!