I am not exagerating when I say that this was the best movie I have ever seen.

This is the type of movie that people usually say "They don't make movies like that anymore." Epic movies like Sparticus or Citizen Kane where everything is large and powerful and immense and full. In an age where so many movies feel like market demographic studies, here is a movie that is proud of what it is. It's bold, different from the books in significant but interesting ways, and powerful.

Even as I left the theatre I wanted to go back and watch it again. Even now it's on my mind..wanting to see it again.

What's really amazing is that while it diverges from the book, it does so with great respect to the spirit of the stories. It borrows heavily from the Similarian which I thought was extremely impressive (heck, probably a good 10 minutes of air time scattered about is material from Similarian rather than Fellowship which allowed them to cut down a lot of the slow pace that the first book suffers while maintaining true to the overall arc of the story).

Similarian or Silmarillion? At any rate I just know they messed things up, I'm almost afraid to go see it.

They had to change things of corse, but somehow you never go, "why did they do that?" it seams somehow they managed to keep the spirt of the books, and make it work.

that should be "throw" not "through"

The Love story was in the Books, just buried in the appendix, they just took some stuff from there and worked it in, and the rest of Arwens “augmentation” was done in such an way that it fit into the story and didn’t change the dynamic of the story, she is only in it for about a half houre, and most of that is she dose a lot of the stuff that Glorfindil dose in the books. I am a real fanatic about the details of the books, and they managed to keep me happy. And that is saying something. If you are a Tolkien fan at all GO SEE THIS MOVIE……

Not being a Tolkien "fan" (I have read the books, but couldn't recite anything from them....especially since I read them in Middle school...) It was an entertaining movie. Best movie I ever saw? No, but quite good. It was understandable even if you don't remember the books, and it was fairly fast paced. There also was *nothing* in the movie that I looked at and said "well, that is obviously computer graphics". The characters were amazing. I also liked the fact that most of the characters were actors that I haven't seen before. I always get distracted when I see big time actors in this type of movie. The "love Story" portion of this is very short

I do, however, believe that this will be (along with the next ones) a movie that will be placed with the "greats". And, it does make you wish that the next one was coming out really soon...

Not Fingolfin, Glorfindil, witch is was the high elves of the house of Fingolfin. Not to let my nerd ness show but there are several elvish names reused in the lord of the rings, it happend but rarely. The Glorfindil in Sim, died fighting gothmog. Yes I am a geek.

I just got back from it a couple of hours ago. It's really amazing. It was tough at first since I know the books so well, and had a hard time trying to not consiously compare the movie against it (with the changes made to it). However, as the movie progresses the emotional weight kicks in until the end where I was finally completely emotionally invested in it(and now got a weight another year).

I just wish it could have been longer to allow for some more of the quieter leisurly moments in the book.

I'm going back for a few more viewings, now I know what to expect, I can watch it without replaying the books in my head.

BTW, some guy a few rows ahead of me had a either a digital camera or digital video camara. Luckly he got busted just before the movie started. The usher threatened to call the police on him.

What's interesting was the demographics of the audience. It appeared to be nearly all 25-40 year old techie-type males. Basically a whole audience of my clones

Alan Lee and John Howe did a GREAT job. And as a Tolkin Illiustrator myself I have to say I couldent ask for more. I don't know if Conceptual Artist is a Oscar catagory, but if so they should win Hands down.

Yea, I don't know how I could get Fingolfin messed up with Glorifindel (Fingolfin was on of the Noldor high lords, I think he's the one who personally battled Morgoth).

Anyone see the rating it's gotten on IMDB? 9.6. It would be higher if the "purists" weren't on there giving it a 1. It's quite a bit different from the book but it made it a better movie as a result.

I work with LOTR "purists" and by craeonic's attitude:

"I just know they messed things up, I'm almost afraid to go see it."

it seems to me that he's one of them, and is better off not seeing this wonderful movie because by his own words he'll be going into it expecting it to be bad, wanting it to be bad, so for him, it will be. Listening to these "purists" pick it to pieces made me feel a little sorry for them, because I realized that this is what they do to EVERYTHING: they look at the bad reviews first, look at the negative side of everything first, and take their L337 attitude online and let the "anti-everything' beast loose.

But for the rest of the planet (those of us who enjoyed reading the books, and went into the movie just to see a movie, not to analyze it for "errors" and glorify them, and instead basing our opinion on the film's merits) will love this movie. I went with a group, and several of them don't like "these kinds of movies", however they left the theatre completely blown away, as was myself. Not one person in our group (there were nearly 50 of us) could say that they've seen a better movie in a long, long time. It was great to see a movie as amazing as Lord of the Rings...

...it's been a long time.

I am probably what you would call a purist. Ive read the books at least six or seven times (and I'm going to read them again). I've been to see it twice already and could see it a third time with little encouragement. Very well done, as true to the story and the feel of the books as anything I could have hoped for.

Okay. I'll throw my hat into the purist ring (Hell, I got between a hundred to two hundred or so various Tolkien and Tolkien-related books going back to the 60's). And I enjoyed the movie. Yeah it was tough to disengage the internal book-references in my head. That's why I'm gonna see it again now that I know what to expect and enjoy it even more without all that internal background purist chatter going on in my head.