Very entertaining and enthralling, a magnificent movie.

Rating: 10/10 (20 December 2003)

To even try to hold this movie or the other two in this trilogy up to the standards set by the books is a fool's folly. No one alive can ever make these books into a movie while following the books exactly. Nor would the dare do so because to do so would be a career ender. Why, one main reason, no one would sit through the 20+ hours it would take because it would be so boring therefore making it a complete box office failure. So Peter Jackson did the only thing he could, adapt them to movie form. And taken as an adaptation this movie is magnificent in all respects. 3 hours and 20 minutes went by for me with barely a notice of the passage of time. The movie was both very entertaining (which is why one goes to see a movie in the first place) and enthralling (which is what one hopes a movie is when chosen out of all the possibilities on any given night). Knowing the ending in no way spoiled this movie for me because seeing my minds eye realized on screen so magnificently was pure joy. I was very careful not to read or hear any ones else's opinion before hand, which allowed me to see it untainted plus or minus and I was rewarded for it. Peter Jackson took on the daunting task of taking one this era's most prized and revered set of books and turning them into movies and IMHO succeeded. It must be hard being a purist, these movies our excellent unto themselves.