Merry Christmas! Here's the single greatest movie event in history!

Rating: Null/10 (29 December 2003)

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After the long wait, it's here. And it was worth the wait. This is the single greatest, most excellent film in the history of cinema. PERIOD. I cannot even begin to describe the awesome epic grandeur and beautiful character moments of this mega-movie.
The attention to detail and to the small things as well as the big is astonishing in this movie, you see this right off the bat with the first shot in the movie - a worm being placed on a hook.
Minas Tirith is incredible to behold. It's so huge on screen that it's hard to believe it's really a 20-foot model shot in a studio. When I first saw these awesome, dizzying views of the gargantuan citadel, I was just grinning like an idiot. I never thought that 20-foot model I'd seen in behind-the-scenes pictures would look so incredible on film.
Once in Minas Tirith, Gandalf and Pippin meet Denethor. This guy makes me sick. His scenes are so excruciating to watch. When I saw this with my dad I just wanted to hang onto him like a baby during the whole scene where Denethor sends Faramir on a suicide mission.
One of the most ingenious and breathtaking scenes in the film features beacons being lit. One after the other, over mountains and valleys, in a chain that reaches across the entire land. Rohan then masses its army and makes camp in the mountains. Elrond meets Aragorn there, and gives him the reforged Sword of Kings.
From there, Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli make their way to the Paths of the Dead. There, they recruit an army of ethereal green ghosts in a scene vaguely reminiscent of "Pirates of the Caribbean".
As Frodo and Sam continue their trek towards Mordor, we are finally given a good look at Minas Morgul. Nice work by the modelmakers here. It looked way smaller that I had always pictured it, though. As they climb high up the Stairs of Cirith Ungol, thousands of feet above the pass, Minas Morgul begins to look like an eerie green flower on the earth below.
Once they're high up, Gollum manages to trick Frodo into thinking Sam is a traitor. Frodo continues into a cave, where he meets one of the creepiest monsters in cinematic history: Shelob. This thing is really freaking scary. My mom was freaking out in the theater during this scene when I took her to see it.
Minas Tirith is now under siege in the most insane battle scene ever filmed. Although Helm's Deep was more dramatic, this battle makes Helm's Deep look like a day in the park in terms of sheer size. The Battle of the Pellennor Fields is just plain staggering. For miles upon miles, the plains around Minas Tirith are awash in a thick black tide of Orcs. The Rohirrim, who have a knack for making awesome entrances, wash over the Orc legions like a tidal wave. It seriously looks like liquid in the wide angle shots. But that's not enough. The Army of the Dead sweeps in at lightining-fast speed and lays waste to the 200,000 orcs in one quick sweep.
Then Frodo and Sam get into Mordor. This is where the film really takes off and earns its stripes in terms of human drama. (Okay, Hobbit drama). Frodo has been reduced to a quivering lump of jelly by the Ring, and Sam has to carry him up Mt. Doom. When the ring is finally destroyed, we are treated to an apocalyptic chaos of ruin as everything the enemy has made is destroyed with the ring, and Mount Doom pours out an ocean of lava.
The ending of this film is a weep-fest, so bring some tissues. The most powerful moment in the whole film, and one of the most powerful moments in film history, comes when Aragorn is made King, and he says to the Hobbits five words: "You bow to no one". Aragorn and everyone present fall prostrate before the Hobbits.
Not a dry eye in the house.
Go see this on the biggest screen you can find. NOW. This is cinema history, don't miss out.
10/10. Perfect.