You know, I was never as impressed by the Lord of the Rings movies as most of my friends were. Fellowship had some wonderful qualities, but to me it seemed like the same old sword-and-sorcery in slightly newer jars, and it also suffered from some astonishing lapses of taste; I don't think I'll ever forgive Peter Jackson for blowing Galadriel's big speech to Frodo. The Two Towers was an astonishing technical achievement, but shapeless and carelessly cross-cut. And knowing that all three films were shot at the same time, I didn't expect much in the way of surprises from The Return of the King.

As many, perhaps most, of the readers of this blog already know, boy, was I wrong. Return is so much more satisfying than its predecessors, I'm flabbergasted. It has all of the qualities that I stubbornly refused to see in the first two: it's beautiful, visionary, thrilling, moving. It's more generous to its supporting cast, especially Eowyn and Samwise. The action is sharp and transcendent. I'm not sure how a movie shot contemporaneously with its prequels can seem infinitely more mature and vivid and assured, but this one does. I'm humbled; not only will this movie sweep the Oscars next near, but I damn near think it deserves to.