Meh.

Rating: 6/10 (4 March 2002)

Granted, I did end up behind a big, tall blue-haired guy when I saw this in the theater, so all the subtitles were hidden behind his big, tall blue-haired guy-shoulders, but I did catch 99% of this movie and I feel I'm qualified to review it. It has great acting but the story is sort of incomplete and hard to follow in spots, and not in the "ooh I can't wait for the next one." sorta way. It seems to depend TOO much on its sequel, at the expense of allowing ANY kind of closure. There is a very sharp cut in this film which divides the first part (All About running from Ringwraiths.) From the second part. (All About running from Orcs.) It occurs on the riverbank before the Elf forest, and is followed by a dream sequence and a lot of choppity chop editing that confuses the reality considerably. It turns out that the dream sequence isn't a dream at all, though it had me and half my party fooled. That sequence is totally awful and stands out as utter confusion amid a story that is pretty smooth otherwise, though there are a few parts that just leave you up the creek. It doesn't help at all that the characters themselves are incapable of reflecting on what happens to them.. Not once does Frodo look around and muse, "What do you suppose happened to all those Ringwraiths we were running from earlier? Strider said they could never die, and would never stop chasing me, but they just seem to have disappeared. I'm not even worried about them anymore.. Why is that?" ) There is altogether too much "acceptance" of what is happening, and not enough questioning or curiosity on the part of our heroes, curiosity which would really help the viewers understand things better. The characters are given almost no depth at all, and people respond to this with, "Well, it's not the whole story. They're going to explain everything in the other movies later." So this completely liberates this film from the burden of traditional necessities like character development and plot explanation? Okay fine, but that made it all the more difficult to really get involved and be interested in The Fellowship of the Ring.. Yes, beautiful effects, great costumes and makeup and atmosphere, but not quite enough substance. All the acting is superb, especially Elijah Wood's performance, and there is even some sex appeal (Nevermind Strider..Legolas is where it's at.) And that grand sense of "Epic" you would expect... but this one just didn't do it for me. Not worthy of its publicity and popularity, Fellowship is being carried by the literature and lacks its own identity. All in all, it's just a mediocre movie.