Having just seen it for the fifth time in three days...

Rating: 10/10 (27 December 2001)

...I thought I would embellish upon my earlier comments, because there is just no way to describe the perfection contained within this film. Ever since I was a boy and had just finished reading The Lord Of The Rings, I searched high and low for other places where respect would be paid to my intelligence. Through years of having to call teachers nasty names in Spanish or just being basically disappointed, my faith in the human race has been at an all-time low, much like Elrond's is in this film. However, from seeing the love and care Peter Jackson has poured into each and every frame of this film, my faith in humanity has been somewhat restored. It is films like this, ones that show creativity and the balls to not aim for the lowest common denominator, that make me glad I live in a world filled with beings who are capable of thinking up things which do not actually exist.
While Elves, Dwarves, Orcs, Uruk-Hai, and Hobbits do not exist, and maybe never existed, one can easily forget this during the hundred and seventy-two minutes this film runs for (I timed it on my stopwatch). The effects and tricks that were used to make Elves like Elrond and Legolas appear two to three feet taller than the Hobbits are perfectly seamless, despite what the nay-sayers will tell you. And contrary to what a certain other nay-sayer out there has written in his comments, this film does NOT have too much fantasy mumbo-jumbo, as he puts it. Compared to the novels, in fact, the speech in this film is highly restrained. Not dumbed down for those who aren't literate enough to follow the novels, mind you, but a lot of the speech that relies on English expressions no longer in common usage is absent from the film. Whether this is a fault or a good move is something I leave to other Tolkien fans to decide.
I've also changed my mind about a few things in this film. After seeing the performances of Liv Tyler and Cate Blanchett a few more times, I have come to the conclusion that they were actually quite well cast. After all, Elves are meant to have an ethereal, other-worldly sort of presence about them, and these two actors captured that. I also found the scene in which the fellowship is trying to cross the mountain quite funny, as Legolas stands atop the snow while his companions are literally in it up to their neck (or over their heads in the cases of the Hobbits). This is not a goof, for those who don't understand the world of Tolkien: Elves are supposed to be exceptionally light on their feet (this is how other Elves are able to sneak up on the party without their knowledge later in the film).
The battle between Gandalf and the Balrog was exceptionally rendered. This one sequence will make cinema-goers vow to never use the word "impossible" again. The Balrog looks exceptional, almost exactly like I imagined him after reading the novel. The cave troll that appears slightly earlier is also exceptional. I can't wait for the DVD-Video version, hopefully loaded with extras that explain how they accomplished these shots. The battle sequences are exceptional, although some shots show a little too much camera wobble for my liking, but what really stands out is the dialogue. Although it is truncated, and at times quite severely so, compared to the novel, it is still brilliant and poignant almost all of the time. What little bits we do lose from the novel are not missed - it seems that everyone in Tolkien's conception of Middle Earth is a dreadful windbag, anyway.
There are few films that I can watch again and again. There are even fewer that I would pay good money to see more than once in the same day, and The Fellowship Of The Ring has proven to be one of them. It was clearly a labour of love for every single person involved, and while Bashki's rotoscoped version had Tolkien rotating in his little Hobbit-hole, Tolkien would be proud of The Fellowship Of The Ring as rendered so faithfully by Peter Jackson. I urge everyone out there: see it at least twice, take your friends, take your family, take a total stranger and enlighten their imagination to a degree that very few other films can offer. It's going to be interesting next year to see what happens when Star Wars and The Two Towers lock horns for the box office dollar. My money is actually on The Two Towers after having seen Peter Jackson deliver in a big way on his cinematic promise.