A great fantasy epic. Forget the "faithfulness" to the book.

Rating: 10/10 (1 May 2003)

Review scale: **** Not just excellent, but a classic *** Excellent (both can be considered 10/10, just **** movies are ones I treasure) ** Average * Terrible
The top two complaints I hear for this movie are: 1. It's so overrated 2. It's not loyal to the book
Well, how to start here?
1. It's only overrated to all you million people out there. And along with Akira, due to all the statements that say this is an overrated mess, it truly marks this movie as underrated. So ha! to you. 2. What movie based on a book is? What, were you expecting a word-for-word translation of the book copying everything as is? Notice how it says BASED on the novels by J.R.R. Tolkien. It doesn't say COPIED WORD FOR WORD FROM J.R.R. TOLKIEN'S BOOKS.
This is truly one of the greatest films I have seen, fantasy or not. The action is absorbing, it moves very fast, and is guaranteed to make you ask "was that movie really three hours?"
Guaranteed the same will happen with the special extended edition. It contains 20 minutes of extra footage, and a DTS-ES surround track, and it is not to be missed, especially since now it's at an affordable price.
Review: **** Excellent, Classic (don't miss this one in your collection, 10/10); Rated: USA PG-13 UK PG Canada 14A