My Favorite Movie of All Time

Rating: 10/10 (1 September 2004)

If you were to ask me "Aren't the Lord of the Rings movies the greatest movies ever made?" last Feburary, my answer would have been, "I don't know, i refuse to watch them." However after reading the books, i was amazed by the action, detail, character development, and plot, that i had to see these movies. I saw each movie over the coarse of 3 weeks. The thing that shocked me most about each movie was how true to the books they were.
Like most Tolkien fans and fans of the books i was disappointed by the lack of the Scourging of the Shire, Sarumans death, and the Mouth of Saruman. After thinking it over I realized somethings that were cut out of the movie were a good thing. Although the battle at the Fields of Pellenor, Osgiliath, and at the Black Gates are remarkable, imagine having to sit through another battle. It wouldn't hold the audiences attention and they would become agitated. I also found the Fading to Black and White at the end of the movies very irritating, while they give closer to that part of the story, it seems as thought the viewer is to think that the movie is over.
Another fault i noticed was the timing of the battles. On the mountain the morning the Rohhirim leaves for battle, Theoden tells Merry, "Its a two day gallop to Minas Tirith and none of my riders can bear you as a burden," and leaves. However, Back at Minas Tirith the battle has already begun, Gandalf is Leading the armies of Minas Tirith in battle as they try and stop the Trolls from pushing th towers to the city walls, Cut to Frodo at the Tunnle with Shelob in pursuit, then when we go back to Gondor, it is around Dusk, and the The orcs are at the gates with the Flaming battering ram "Grond" They break through and rush into the city. When Pippin comes down and tells Gandalf that Denethor is burning Faramir alive, it is around Dawn. Gandalf and Pippin save Faramir and Denethor runs out of the citadel and jumps off the cliff to his flaming death that morning after the sun has risen. Around that point Theoden and his army arrives in the battle, what seems about a day early by what Theoden said.
Several things i was impressed with were, Frodo finally succumbing to the power of the ring, Shelob, and the fact that for the first time in 2 years i cried in a movie.
This is the movie where it actually hit me that, Frodo and the ring are the deciding factors of what will happen to the world. In the first two, we sympathies with Frodo because of this burden and don't fully realize what is going to happen to him, but in RoTK you see everything that has happened to him, and pity him, and when he claims the ring as his, for me it was like a good friend stabbing me in the back.
I normally am not scared in movies by something i know is fake, however I am terrified by Shelob. No matter how often I tell my self that Shelob is a partial, if not fully CGI character, I'm terrified.
The last movie I cried in was Titanic two years ago. No matter how sad a movie was i wouldn't cry, but listening to Sam asking if Frodo could remember things about the Shire, and Frodo not being able to remember just hit me, at that point I sympathised for Frodo more than ever, but when Frodo says "I can see the Shire, Bywater, Bag End," I began to cry,at first it was only a few tears as the movie continued I continued to cry more, until as Frodo is boarding the ship headed for the Grey Heavens, seeing him smile while all of the other three are sobbing, was where a few tears became several.
Overall I think this movie was a 10/10 even with the disappointments because the positives corrected everything