"Best Picture of the year"

Rating: 10/10 (14 January 2002)

I've been waiting for this film a long time. This is the best film of the year. I had my doubts when I first saw the ending but have since made up my mind that this film is the best of the year. The directing was beyond my expectations. I anticipated lyrical beautiful directing as David Lean did with "Lawrence of Arabia" but instead Peter Jackson made The Lord Of Rings a cross between "Gladiator" and "Saving Private Ryan." Elijah Wood did a great job holding his own in this film.
I've notice that Ebert and Roeper said the film was too long but it didn't seem too long to me; 2 hours and 58 minutes is not that long if the movie is good. I've seen almost every movie this year and at first it was a toss-up between "A Beautiful Mind" and "Lord of the Rings" for best picture of the year. But I thought about it while longer and I must say that Lord of the Rings is it for me this year. A friend of mine asked me whether Lord of the Rings was better than Star Wars. But there is a fundamental difference between the two movies. And because "Star Wars" is a Sci-Fi epic and "Lord of the Rings" is a fantasy epic, there is no comparison. I am not about to say that Lord Of The Rings is a better movie than Star Wars. Besides Peter Jackson took this saga from a book and George Lucas created Star Wars on his own. I have not read the book yet so the ending took me by surprise. Mr. Jackson said he's going by the book to make this film and I've only seen the animated version. I'm not going to spoil the ending for anyone.
I love the film so much I need to say it again "Lord Of The Rings." I recommend this film to anyone. I give it a 15 out of 10.