Exquisite production, with NO room for complaints

Rating: 10/10 (25 December 2001)

Once in a great while, a movie will exceed expectations.
The Fellowship of the ring is certainly to be included in this category.
There were so many methods available for ruining this film, or at least leaving something to be desired. To my surprise, all of them were avoided and the result is a movie that can be measured as "great" in several ways, not the least of which is that the translation from the great trilogy to the silver screen was nearly flawless in it's capture of the care and empathy generated for the characters of the story. Compelling to say the least. The key to this film's success and the main question to be answered was whether or not we would "care" if Frodo succeeds. The story was there for the taking and a grand adventure it is. But as the first rendition of Dune showed us, a great story and grand adventure means nothing if you could care less about the characters involved.
This movie does it right in every aspect from special effects to photography to pacing.
The expectations for the next two will be that they too are as well done (and since all three were filmed in one stretch by the same people, this is a shoe-in).