LOTR trilogy

"Lord of the Rings" trilogy -- "The Fellowship of the Ring", "The Two Towers", and finally, "Return of the King".

Re-watching the trilogy never fails to amaze me, over and over again. Perhaps, some people may say that the novels are still better than the movies but, how the movies are depicted, it requires really great skills.

Watching it the first time would concentrate on the story plot and stunned at the effects. However, after getting into Film major, re-watching it would be amazed at the cinematography, the editing, the audio post, art direction, set designs (well basically all aspects of film). I would still never understand how some shots are done. And indeed, the trilogy is a big budget film and I would never be taken aback by the results of the box office.

The trilogy, especially "Return of the King" can be considered a classic of the 21st century. In the future, when students study Western film history, LOTR would be one of the films that students will have to study for reference. When they watched it, they would probably go, "Wow! How did they achieve those in the past?"

The analogy would be something like when we watch "Ben-Hur" or "Star Wars". We would wonder how could they achieve something like those in the past, with technology that is not as advanced as now.

Would LOTR trilogy be classified as classic? What other movies would be classified under history, in the future? Would "Independence Day" (*wonders if anyone would remember it now*) be classified as well? How about "Matrix" trilogy?