Best. Movie. Ever. Period.

Rating: 10/10 (19 December 2003)

As I watched the last minutes of this movie it suddenly struck me, how wrong it seemed that at the end of the credits, I would just get up, leave the theatre and drive home. Both because I didn't want to leave Middle Earth, but also because I couldn't leave Middle Earth. This movie - and its two predecessors - isn't just another blockbuster that you watch, have fun with for 2 hours, and then leave behind. This movie and its two predecessors - they really stay with you.
Because of these movies I've made new friends and experienced things I wouldn't otherwise have. I've garnered an interest in and an admiration for every aspect of film making that I didn't have before. Because I knew these movies were coming out I've read a children's book and a 50-year-old 1200+ page book in the original language (just for the heck of it - and for the record I'm Danish) and absolutely loved every minute of it.
To make an already long story a little shorter, these movies have been a life changing experience in more ways than just seriously screwing up my Top 10 Favorite Movies List. I'm not one of those people, whose favorite movie changes every time they see the latest box office hit, but Return Of The King shot straight to No. 1 this week, and it was even better the second time I watched it! Sure I had some problems with some of the editing and heavily truncated characters (Denethor seemed particularly one-dimensional), but it stands as a testament to its greatness, that despite this I can still regard this as the best movie ever. The Extended Edition will surely be an out-of-body experience!!!
For the last 2 years when people have asked me I've said, that the LOTR movies are amazing, but that the book is better. In some ways, this movie is better than the book. The same way as some things are better conveyed in writing than in images, there are things, you can do in a movie, that works so much better than in book form. The images just stir up emotions a lot more than words might, and although I'm a real softy, when it comes to stuff like big crows scenes in movies, I've never cried or welled up as much watching a movie, as I did with this one. And sometimes in places I didn't even expect. In the second viewing I'd already had 5 or 6 `incidents' before I got to the ending(s) with the first one being Gandalf's ride up through the levels of Minas Tirith, and if I keep this up I'll end up crying my way from New Line logo till the end of the credits. I'd never hear the end of it!
I don't really care whether this movie recieves a single Oscar. If it does sweep the floor I'll be happy for sure, but if it doesn't, then it's not because the movie wasn't good enough. It's the Academy, that has something to prove, not PJ or the movie.
So after over 2 years and 10+ hours of transcending cinema with more to come in the fall, I guess all that's left is to say thank you:
To Peter Jackson for having a crazy vision and running with it.
To Bob Shaye for not understanding the concept of just 2 movies.
To New Line for dishing out the cash in a sheer leap of faith.
To Fran Walsh for making the Nazgûl scream the scariest sound I've ever heard.
To Philippa `Queen of the Geeks' Boyens: I'll serve you eternally!
To Mark Ordesky for letting PJ crash on his couch.
To Barrie Osborne for being the most amazingly involved producer ever.
To Richard Taylor and Tania Rodger for revolutionizing their craft.
To Alex Funke for grossly understating the beauty and awe of the Minas Tirith bigature.
To the two guys, who made rubber chain mail for 3 years at the expense of sunlight and their finger prints and still wouldn't have traded the experience for anything.
To the rest of Weta Workshop for never leaving anything half finished.
To the guy, who came up with the concept for MASSIVE. There's no end to the possibilities!
To Jim Rygiel for suggesting Gollum as a mesh between mo-cap and key frame animation.
To the rest of Weta Digital for working their butts of when PJ handed them shots at the last minute.
To Elijah Wood for making his own audition tape.
To Sean Astin for pouring everything into it in the Mordor scenes.
To Viggo Mortensen for taking advice from his son, when he received that phone call.
To Dominic Monaghan and Billy Boyd. May your friendship last forever and bring you much joy.
To Bernard Hill, who will no longer just be known as `that guy from 'Titanic'.
To Hugo Weaving - Elrond no longer looks like Agent Smith, it's the other way round.
To Cate Blanchett for making The Lady of the Galadrim come to life as no other could.
To Karl Urban for stealing every scene he's in.
To John Noble, who will no doubt be redeemed as a much more complex character come November.
To David Wenham for being absolutely heartbreakingly tragic in the scene in the White Tower.
To Orlando Bloom for being the biggest bada$$ wood elf in movie history.
To Liv Tyler for refusing to be portrayed as XenArwen.
To John Rhys-Davies for surviving the horrible days in prosthetic make-up.
To Christopher Lee. Don't worry - the Extended Editions will be regarded as the real movies, anyway.
To Ian McKellen for simply BEING Gandalf.
To the rest of the cast and crew for doing what they did to the absolute best of their abilities!
Thank you with every fibre in my body!