everything that can be said about this (wrt the spectacle, faithfulness, action, etc) has and will be said a thousand times over, but i think what truly took me here is the mid-film shift Timothee takes from a rebel boots-on-the-ground fighter to a messiah (heh) who believes in his own power and majesty and just how masterfully he crafts it in his performance. Timothee has always been a great actor but i truly didn’t think he had it in him to become that truly fucking terrifying, to have enough power in his delivery to not only command the screen but make you personally believe in his otherworldly might. it’s like watching gravity shift in real time, and it makes the final age that much more crushing in scale and power