Beautiful, Magic, Awestrikingly Magnificent

Rating: 10/10 (18 December 2003)

This is the greatest film I have ever seen, bar none. No question. Absolutely unbelievable in every regard. This film is without equal - and it will almost certainly NEVER be equalled. The acting is first rate, the story is intensely moving, extremely emotional, multi-layered and textured. The action is the best I've ever seen - ditto the effects. The battle scenes are brain-explodingly wonderful. I can't find the words really. I have never experienced anything like this ever before and may never again. The actors were ALL born to play these roles. Peter Jackson was born to direct this masterpiece.
Memorable scene after memorable scene, classic line after classic line, victories so moving you'll jump out of your seat and yell "HELL YEAH!!!" I can't stop thinking about this film, rest assured I'll be seeing it over and over. So many favourite parts - when Aragorn leaps out of the boats with the cursed soldiers, when Legolas brings down an Oliphant, Gandalf whipping Denethor's butt, Eowyn's incrediblly powerful performance in her showdown with the Witch King - "I AM NO MAN!!", when Denethor falls burning to his
death, but my very favourite has to be Sam literally carrying Frodo up Mount Doom - tears streamed down my face for the first time ever in a cinema. This movie is GOD.
Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh and Phillipa Boyens, your work here is done. And it is good. Amazingly good. Biblical, even. This should go to Number One on the top 250 list immediately, without a doubt. Thank you, thank you, thank you. THIS is the way movies were meant to be. The defining film of our generation. And as a trilogy, LOTR is absolutely leaps and bounds ahead of any competition. Sorry Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Godfather - meet the new yardstick for all others to be measured by.
Magic.