My favorite movie from the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I’m so glad that on rewatch 22 years later, it still holds up. It’s truly epic, and I love how the actors and filmmakers treat the source material seriously.

On this viewing, three things stood out:

  1. That decaying remnants of previous, greater peoples populate every part of this dying world. It’s very spooky and chilling.
  2. The cinematography is fantastic. I particularly love how the camera stays with Frodo during the final battle as he realizes: it’s time to go independent.
  3. My single criticism: all of the orcs are black, one-dimensional cannon fodder, serving at the behest of Saruman the White 😳