An electrifying eye candy feast.

Rating: 10/10 (10 February 2003)

A wonder to behold and not to be taken for granted, the first chapter of J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" is an electrifying eye candy feast, courtsey of director Peter Jackson and writers.
The story itself isn't too hard to understand as a hobbit, Frodo Baggins (Elijah Wood) inherits a mysterious ring from a close relative, Bilbo (Ian Holm) and unfortunately finds out who it belonged to before. So Frodo is forced to take the ring back to where it came from and he's helped from a wide (and unlikely assortment) of allies who become known as "the Fellowship".
Besides the story, another element of the movie made me enjoy even more is the cast, which has to be one of the best ones ever assembled in several decades. Among the other key characters are Gandalf (Ian McKellan), a wizard: two humans, Aragorn (Viggo Mortenson) and Boromir (Sean Bean): Legolas (Orlando Bloom), a wise elf with excellent marksmanship: Gimili (John Rhys-Davies), an axe-wielding dwarf with a grudge: and three other hobbits (Sean Astin, Billy Boyd, and Dominic Monhagan) who make up the "Fellowship". There's some other familiar faces that appear here (Liv Tyler, Hugo Weaving, Cate Blanchett, and Christopher Lee) who each play a key role here.
Overall, the movie is bound to be a classic even though it moves at a leisurely pace and gives the viewer time to understand the characters more especially Frodo, Gandalf, and Aragorn - each of whom seem to be bothered by something in their past.
One last thing, since I haven't seen "A Beautiful Mind" yet I'm sure this movie truly deserved "Best Picture" and I say it not insult the die hard fans of the series.