One of the best fantasy films of the new millenium

Rating: 9/10 (20 December 2001)

Co-writer and producer/director Peter Jackson has masterfully transferred J.R.R. Tolkien's first chronical in his infamous trilogy into an absorbing, interesting and above all awesome picture. It is quite long, which is the film's only downside, but then in order to tell Tolkien's tale properly as many details would be necessary, thus it is never boring.

This first epic starts off Frodo Biggins (Elijah Wood) on his dangerous yet crucial quest along with others like Gandolf (Ian McKellan) and Strider (Viggo Mortensen) to bring the rings back to which the fire it came from. The plot is important, but that isn't the key thing about the film that will intrigue most non-fans on Tolkien (fans of Tolkien make this a must see by the way).
The picture has so much visual splendor matched with constant (yet not too constant) suspense, action and battles that it is hard to complain about the few lulls. Not the best epic fantasy I've, but it could be up there. Big props go to McKellan by the way for giving one of his best performances to date with Gandolf, though the other performances are also noteworthy. A