"All you have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to you."

Rating: 10/10 (9 June 2004)

The beginning of the great Lord of the Rings epic. The ring of power is discovered in the hands of hobbit man Bilbo Baggins (Ian Holm), the title character and hero of JRR Tolkien's "The Hobbit", who then passes it to his nephew Frodo Baggins (Elijah Wood). The wizard Gandalf (Ian McKellan) pulls a few strings to bring together the various races of Middle Earth to join in a quest to destroy the ring. Along the way many will fall and many will live, but the fate of the world all rests in the hands of Frodo and his companion Samwise Gamgee (Sean Astin). Joining them is a burned out "ranger" who is actually the heir to one of Middle Earth's finest kingdoms, Aragorn, AKA: Strider (Viggo Mortensen), Boromir (Sean Bean) the troubled son of the Steward of Gondor, elf archer Legolas (Orlando Bloom), Ghimli the dwarf (John Rhys Davies!) and two other hobbits, Merry and Pippin (Billby Boyd and Dominic Monaghan, respectively). And don't forget Gandalf the Grey.
A great long road movie of a fantasy that could easily have been made boring is kept alive by the direction of Peter Jackson, who didn't stay nearly as close to the books as the inept Chris Columbus tried to stick to JK Rowling's Harry Potter books but somehow delivered a far better film, capturing the spirit and humanity of Tolkien's work. Wood is sometimes annoying and sometimes endearing as Frodo, so I give him a 6 out of 10. Astin, Monaghan and Boyd are all fine as the other Hobbits. McKellan and Mortensen shine as Gandalf and Aragorn, with Bean working hard to make you sympathize with Boromir even though may not like him. Davies makes the most of his Ghimli role while Bloom has little to do except stand around and look pretty. Hugo Weaving really stands tall as Lord Elrond of Rivendell (far more engaging than his Matrix work). As for Liv Tyler as Arwen, well, to me Liv will always be Bruce Willis's slutty daughter from "Armageddon". Liv's work here is fine, but I do feel that they were kind of using her face and name as a battering ram to propel the advertising campaign. She isn't bad but it's a shame that she overshadows the work of Miranda Otto as Eowyn in "TT" and "ROTK" and that Christopher Lee, who played the loathsome Saruman with such quiet malice, was cut from the 3rd film whilst Liv was kept in.
Great sets, great costumes, great props, great locations, and great music by Howard Shore. Don't miss Enya's "May It Be". Look for odes to the animated versions of Lord of the Rings here.