WOW! WOW! WOW!

Rating: 10/10 (30 March 2002)

Wow! Lord of the Rings is a wonderful film and a future classic. Unlike many of todays blockbusters (Tomb Raider or Pearl Harbour for example), Lord of the Rings doesn't draw it's power from stunning special effects and beautiful art direction, but rather from the skill and humanity of the lead actors. Incidentally, the film boasts an exceptionally strong cast, but it's Ian McKellen (Gandalf the grey) who stands out amongst the rest. To even conceive a cinematic version of Lord of the Rings trilogy is daunting, not only because it's storytelling on a very grand scale (and definitely not budget friendly!!) but also because Tolkien never fathomed his book as a motion picture and unintentionally made it very difficult to translate his work to the big screen by breaking many of the rules of film making. However, with only a few minor changes Peter Jackson manages to pull a really spectacular film out of his hat. And for this, he is ignored at the Oscars. Sickening really. The members of the Academy are bunch of cowards, they probably prefered Lord of the Rings over a Beautiful Mind, but as it's a fantasy film felt embarrassed about voting for it.
I wholly recommend anyone - not just Tolkien fans - to see this move at least three times. Well worth it!