- I remember approaching the first installment of the Lord of the Rings trilogy with a healthy mix of trepidation and pessimism. The film was getting fairly good reviews, but this was an adaptation of the book series I had grown up with as a child. Sure, I had read The Hardy Boys, The Chronicles of Narnia, and even some more serious stuff, but there was only one series that had, you might say, ruled them all. At various times in my life I had even devoted some thought to what a Lord of the Rings movie should look like. Admittedly, the cast usually had a lot of overlap with that of the film Willow. I recall thinking even back then that there were aspects of the books that would never translate well to film. The constant singing, Tom Bombadil, The Eye of Sauron, and the Ents all quickly came to mind. When Peter Jackson was announced as the trilogy's director, my skepticism only increased because, unlike most people, I had seen a Peter Jackson film before. It was difficult for me to imagine that the creator of Dead Alive, the lone occupant of the lawnmower-zombie-killfest genre, was the right director for Tolkien. It turns out that I was wrong.
- From the start of the eminently watchable ten-minute prologue, it's obvious that this trilogy is going to be epic in theme, look, and probably also length. The entire history of Middle Earth is summarized in a dazzling primer that quickly covers most of what you need to know about the Dark Lord, elves, dwarves, men, war, and of course rings of power. After the prologue, we are gently eased into modern Middle Earth through a birthday party being thrown for the hobbit Bilbo Baggins (Ian Holm), who is turning eleventy-one. The list of attendees includes Bilbo's nephew Frodo (Elijah Wood), hundreds of other hobbits, and even the illustrious wizard Gandalf (Ian McKellen), who first recruited Bilbo for a series of adventures long ago. In fact, it was on those adventures that Bilbo acquired his magic ring, which renders the wearer invisible. Like any magical item, however, the ring comes with a price that wouldn't surprise anyone who had seen the prologue. Upon seeing how much difficulty Bilbo has in bequeathing the ring to Frodo, Gandalf begins to suspect that this ring is more powerful and dangerous than it appears.
- The adventure quickly picks up steam once Gandalf's worst fears about the ring are confirmed. Indeed, this magic object is the ancient heirloom of Sauron, the Dark Lord, whose spirit still menaces Middle Earth. While Gandalf sets off to consult with the wizard Saruman (Christopher Lee), Frodo departs to a nearby village with his trusted gardener Sam (Sean Astin). This is of course only the first step in a quest that eventually brings them together with fellow hobbits Merry (Dominic Monaghan) and Pippin (Billy Boyd), the roguish ranger Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen), the fleet-footed elf Legolas (Orlando Bloom), the grumpily reliable dwarf Gimli (John Rhys-Davies), and the boorish captain Boromir (Sean Bean). Their ultimate task is to destroy the ring of power in Mount Doom, which we assume will be the least inviting place in Middle Earth. Set against this noble troop are the various evil minions of Sauron, including his fearsome black riders, the newly-assembled orc armies of the treacherous Saruman, and multiple other fell creatures of Middle Earth. To describe each of the fellowship's encounters and travails would be to miss the point of the epic adventure, so I will instead note only that the fellowship is ultimately much less successful than it set out to be.
- The Fellowship of the Ring is not quite perfect, but it is certainly a much, much better film than I had expected. In fact, I find it difficult to name the film's single strongest point since the art direction, set and costume design, special and visual effects, music, casting, and acting are all simply superb. Basically, Peter Jackson and his huge team of collaborators succeeded in bringing Middle Earth to life. Considering that it is a world filled with fire-breathing demons, colossal works of architecture, and breathtaking natural scenery, this an enormously impressive accomplishment. As an index of the film's quality, I can only quietly complain that some of the beauty of Tolkien's language was too coarsely simplified and that the film occasionally erred on the side of melodrama and unsubtlety. That said, The Fellowship of the Ring still manages to be completely riveting and is, in this reviewer's opinion, the best of the trilogy. It captures with equal skill both the lamenting echoes of a crumbling world and the terrifying roars of its fantastic creatures; a quest I never could have imagined would succeed.
- I did some soul-searching on whether to review the regular or extended versions, but went with regular. Maybe I'll comment on the extended versions when appropriate.
- I missed mentioning several characters like Lady Galadrial (Cate Blanchett), Lord Elrond (Hugo Weaving), and Lady Arwen (Liv Tyler).
