This Christmas the journey ends.
Directed by: Peter Jackson
Written by: J.R.R. Tolkien, Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Peter Jackson
Starring: Elijah Wood as Frodo Baggins, Sean Astin as Samwise Gamgee, Viggo Mortenson as Aragorn, Ian McKellen as Gandalf the White, Dominic Monaghan as Merry, Billy Boyd as Pippin, Orlando Bloom as Legolas, John Rhys-Davies as Gimli, Andy Serkis as Gollum, Miranda Otto as Eowyn, Liv Tyler as Arwen, and David Wenham as Faramir
Music by: Howard Shore
Heck. Yeah.
Quite simply, one of the best movies ever. As in, of all freakin' time. In fact, I consider it to be the best film ever - again, as in of all freakin' time.
Seriously. This film took my jaded little heart and nice neat little "best films of all time list" and left it looking like Hiroshima after it had the nuke dropped on it - complete with little people searching through the rubble afterwards.
I have spent EVERY waking moment comparing it with every great movie I've ever seen, trying to find an area where it falls short, and I can't do it. I can't think of a single film that has a single moment better than this one. You will be blown away. People say that all the time about movies, but I mean you will be blown away. You will see things that you have never before seen on a film screen, and will most likely never see again. It is so good that you will be literally gasping for breath. I thought I had a fair idea of what Minas Tirith looked like. I thought I had a pretty good handle of how to picture The Battle for Pellanor Fields.
I had no freakin' idea.
I found myself at a loss for words, and so did everyone else who saw it. Yeah, you can throw around words like "phenomenal" and "perfect," but they just seem so hollow. You end up speaking in some kind of code, where you'll say,
"Oh man... that one part?"
"Oh yeah. Just wow, man. But that OTHER part?"
"Oh HECK YEAH. But oh man, that ONE part..."
- and of course this continues for forever, because you basically just keep going through every scene in the movie over and over and over again.
It's all here, guys. Yes, they did cut out the scene between Eowyn and Faramir in the house of healing, but you know what? I didn't miss it. And that's my favorite scene in the whole book. I was so looking forward to it, but when the time for it came... I didn't notice it missing, because everything else was just so perfect that I had totally forgotten about it. And it'll be on the extended edition, I'm sure, so I'm not really crying.
Oh yeah, speaking of Eowyn. My favorite scene of the movie belongs to her. She has one of the most iconic scenes of all time in this film, and when she says her famous line... I wanted to jump up in my seat and scream "oh HECK YEAH! YOU SHOW HIM!"
Those that have read the books know the part I'm talking about. And don't worry, it's done perfect - just like the rest of the film.
The Battle for Pellanor Fields = Perfect
Denethor = Perfect
Shelob = Perfect - TOO perfect *shudder*
Paths of the Dead = Perfect
Every Single Moment = Perfect
And in the end, that's what this film is. Perfect. All other films just kinda... die. Like, I couldn't care about them. This film has everything, and it does everything perfect. It's so good that writing this review is proving to be impossible, because I keep struggling with trying to explain to you guys just how good this film is. I can't do it. Words fail me. I had incredibly high expectations, impossibly high expectations and they were shattered. This film was beyond anything I'd ever even dreamed of. With both "Fellowship" and "Two Towers" I found things to quibble about. I loved the movies, but they weren't perfect. This film is perfect.
I've never seen a film like this. Ever. (5/5)
