A long-revered story successfully comes to film

Rating: 10/10 (5 October 2007)

"The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Rings" is the first of Peter Jackson's trilogy of films that adapted Tolkien's famous fantasy novels to film. The film features impressive costumes, sets and majestic New Zealand scenes that bring Middle Earth to life. To create the film's setting, the makers of the film used seamless models and CGI effects along with an appropriately epic score from Howard Shore.
The casting in this film is outstanding. Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, Billy Boyd and Dominic Monaghan all are convincing as the carefree Hobbits drawn into a larger world. Ian Holm is memorable as an aged Bilbo Baggins, the main character of the novel "The Hobbit". Sean Bean, Orlando Bloom, John Rhys-Davies and Viggo Mortensen are all well-cast as members of the Fellowship. Hugo Weaving has a matter-of-fact manner as Elrond that recalls his success as Agent Smith in "The Matrix" (1999). Christopher Lee proves adept again in a villain role as Saruman. Cate Blanchett and Liv Tyler make memorable elves. Andy Serkis is appropriate and believable as Gollum. My favorite of the great performances, though, is Ian McKellen as the wizard Gandalf. He brings the right mix of geniality, authority and humor to the role and looks the part with the help of his cloak, beard and staff.
The film follows a streamlined version of Tolkien's narrative and remains faithful to the original work. The result is an epic and exciting adaptation of one of the greatest fantasy novels of all time that remains well-paced despite its length. The extended edition of this film has some interesting scenes, but personally I didn't find that it added a lot above and beyond the theatre cut.