A whole theatre clapping, screaming, laughing and crying!

Rating: 10/10 (17 December 2003)

I had high expectations when I entered the LotR triathlon spanning 11.5 hours of the best movies ever made. Warming up with Fellowship and Two Towers really set the mood for the perfect ending of the trilogy.
The theatre was boiling when the last movie hit the screen. The movie moves you in every way and you have to be very cold not to be emotionally thrown in every direction. The cast is totally confident in their roles and the actors deliver an overwhelming performance, and Sean Astin shows a wide spectre of talents giving the role of Sam the true heroic feeling.
While some of the fighting scenes in Two Towers were a bit chaotic, RotK tops it with the most gigantic battles with over humongous amounts of warriors of all kinds slashing out after each other, but still not forgetting close-ups that strengthen the impression of what these soldiers actually did and went through.
I can't remember being in a theatre watching a movie that affected the audience in the same scale ever! Usually people don't hold back on laughing and clapping if the setting calls for it. But RotK gave us absolutely every emotion full strength and experiencing hundreds of adults crying of joy, and later sadness, touched me deeply. I was surrounded by a gang of role-players in their forties who wept like babies!
This is the first time the IMDB rating scale made it difficult for me to choose. I gave it a perfect 10, but a 11 would be more appropriate seeing back on my earlier votes... ;-)