Best movies ever!

Rating: 10/10 (13 August 2008)

-SPOILER WARNING! THIS REVIEW DOES CONTAIN SPOILERS!-
I first read the Lord of the Rings books in third grade. Saw the movies not long after. I love them both. The LOTR trilogy is easily the best book-to-movie adaption I have ever seen. If I had to pick a favorite, it would be Return of the King, but I consider the trilogy one long book/movie in three pieces. I found no flaw in any of the books, nor with the movies, except for one picky little thing that's really just me in the Fellowship movie. Peter Jackson and many others brought the Lord of the Rings to life on the silver screen better than anyone else could have. The movies are long, to be sure, but they are so wonderful and absorbing that it's worth every second. I cannot praise these highly enough, but I'll try.
First off, the cast. Completely perfect and beyond. If I had to pick out a single favorite, it would be Ian McKellan as Gandalf, but I still love everybody. The whole Fellowship is perfectly suited to their roles. Elijah Wood is extremely convincing (and sometimes creepy) as Frodo, and Viggo Mortensen is superb as the rugged, hard, yet inwardly confused and gentle Aragorn, just to name two that I thought were especially good. Another was Sean Astin as Sam. I just love it in the Fellowship when Frodo gets in the boat and starts to row off. "Sam, I'm going to Mordor alone." "Of course you are! And I'm comin' with you!" My God. Merry and Pippin are laugh-out-loud funny, and of course have all the intelligence of a brick, yet they do it very well. Orlando Bloom is the perfect Legolas, and John Rhys-Davies as Gimli is also brilliant. Gimli, I thought, was somewhat like Merry and Pippin with a beard and an axe. Lastly, Sean Bean as Borormir. He actually, in my opinion, delivered the best performance. Boromir constantly has a slightly crazed look in his eyes, and it flares every time he sees the Ring. So when he dies, you really feel it, and can't help cheering Aragorn all the way as he cuts off the Uruk's maggot-ridden head. And the other characters are just as good. Cate Blanchette and Hugo Weaving are wonderful as Galadriel and Elrond, the two elven rulers. Hugo Weaving is particularly great, seeking to shelter Arwen from any harm and make her leave, yet, I think, slightly reluctant to give up hope completely. Liv Tyler as Arwen is also great, though she never does much more than look pretty. Still, if you want someone to just stand there and look pretty, pick Liv Tyler. And the men (and woman) of the West: Denethor, Faramir, Eowyn, Eomer, and Theoden, are perfection. Denethor is the slimiest tick-infested, low -down biased deuchbag ever to walk Middle-Earth. And kudos to John Noble, 'cause not many people could make you hate them that much. Faramir endures Denethor with a pained resolve, which sometimes causes him to behave irrationally. But he has great self-restraint. If I were him, I would've chopped off Denethor's head when I was a toddler. What a ********! Eowyn is much like Faramir: Reckless, ambitious, and has to endure one of the people closest to her not even knowing who she is. Eomer is also great, though he doesn't have a ton of character development to work with. Not so with Theoden. Bernard Hill did the best anyone could do, and you feel his death almost as much as Boromir's. Finally, the villains. Lawrence Makoare makes a very menacing Witch-King and Gothmog, but he can't do much apart from look ugly and smash stuff. (You see Gothmog's teeth and you wish Sauron was a dentist.) Christopher Lee is also great as Saruman (has he ever played a good guy in his life?) Same with Brad Dourif as Wormtongue. (Where's the nearest sink?!) And the plot. They stuck with the book's storyline almost completely for the whole trilogy, making only a few alterations and cuts, and I think some of the former were actually better than in the book, like the elves at Helm's Deep. (I never quite got who the heck those mountain men were in the book.) And the music! Quite possibly the best score I've ever heard for a movie! Ba-Da-Duuuuuum! Dum-Dum-Dum-Dum-Dum! Every note is perfect. Overall, read the books and see the movies! Then do it again. And again. And again and again forever and ever.
P.S. Get the extended editions for the movies. They're much better.