Jackson captures Middle Earth, however, he does not capture the Fellowship of the Ring.

Rating: 6/10 (19 December 2001)

Peter Jackson's Fellowship of the Ring is not a great movie, nor is it a bad one. Furthermore it cannot be called mediocre. There are scenes of magnificent beauty, where Tolkien's vision comes to life on the screen in full glory. There are also scenes which made me cringe due to their diversion from the source. No movie can be entirely faithful to the book it is based on, which is why it is rare when a great movie is made out of great book.
The virtues of this film almost all come from the adoration of the scenes of Middle Earth. Images of the Shire, Rivendell, the Mines of Moria, Lothlóien must be viewed to be appreciated. If you wanted to describe them you would be just as well using Tolkien's original text. Jackson's camera in these scenes is top notch. It is a joy to watch it sweep across the Misty Mountains and circle the Fellowship on their trek. This was, of course, one of the main reasons I wanted to see this film, and for that reason, the film is worth seeing.
Many of my problems could be nitpicky, uberfan things like the absence of "By Elbereth and Luthien the Fair, you shall you shall have neither the Ring nor me", or replacing Glorfindel with Arwen, or minor "factual" errors, but there were many other, more unforgivable problems. First and probably most importantly, the story is told in a linear fashion. It begins with an explanation of the One Ring as told in the chapter 'The Council of Elrond'. It then cuts between the events of Gandalf, Saruman, the Hobbits, ect. To me this was a grave mistake. The direction in some of the fighting scenes is almost as confused and incomprehensible as the opening to 'Gladiator'. While minor things like the absence of Bill the Pony can slip by other important things, such as where Gandalf was during the Hobbits journey to Rivendell and how Merry and Pippin joined Frodo and Sam on their voyage could not. Under par also was the music, it was completely forgettable, nothing more than intrusive underscoring. The dialogue as well occasionally slips into action movie cliché.
Overall I would give it a 6/10. It is worth seeing if you want the visual thrill of Middle Earth, but if you want the story of Frodo and the Ring, open a book.