The first and best of the trilogy

Rating: 9/10 (20 December 2003)

Having recently re-watched both The Fellowship of the Ring (FotR) and The Two Towers (TT) before going to see The Return of the King (RotK), I was surprised to find that the first film stands up far better than either of its sequels.
There are a number of reasons why this should be the case. The opening of FotR is spectacular. Epic in vision and realisation, the prologue sets the scene for what is to come, immediately engaging the audience by turning the weighty history of the Lord of the Rings into an enthralling narrated story. The battle against Sauron on the slopes of Mount Doom, whilst not as lengthy or technically accomplished as the fight scenes in TT or RotK, achieves genuine grandeur in a short space of time.
Once the story proper gets going, we are treated to dozens of engaging and enjoyable sequences: virtually everything set in Hobbiton; the flight from the Black Riders; the scenes at Isengard; the journey through Moria, and the final, tragic events at the end of the film. Perhaps the only parts of the movie that don't quite work are the scenes in Lorien, perhaps because they break the tension that is otherwise almost continuous between the Fellowship leaving Rivendell and the end of the movie. Also, Jackson seems more comfortable in the grimy, frightening world of Men, Orcs and Dwarves than he does in the aloof and ethereal palaces of the Elves. Even Lorien, however, offers one gem: the temptation of Galadriel - the last time Frodo is willing to hand over the Ring, and a scene that reinforces its malevolent power.
The story flows smoothly and logically, with none of the sudden jumps of TT or RotK. Although much of the original novel was cut, there is nothing missing from the film that really needs to be in here. Jackson and his writers have done an excellent job of paring down Tolkien's verbose style to make a film that perfectly fills its length, feeling neither too compressed, nor too drawn out.
The film's sequels sometimes emphasised spectacle over character. The reverse is true of FotR. Although there is enough action here to satisfy - the flight to Rivendell, the battle against goblins, trolls and the Balrog in Moria, and the breaking of the Fellowship - Jackson spends equal time establishing the relationship of the key characters. The Hobbits are carefree Little Englanders, suspicious and dismissive in equal measure of events that take place away from the Shire. Frodo and Sam are dragged, kicking and screaming, into the world of the Ring. Aragorn seems to have lost something: he is cynical and hard, and his relationship with the equally hard-bitten Boromir tells us as much as we need to know about the "World of Men". Gandalf is wise, but not faultless: he fails to discern Saruman's treachery until it is too late, and it is his lack of attention to Bilbo's Ring that means Sauron has not been defeated before he can gather his armies. Gimli and Legolas, whilst less defined than the other members of the Fellowship, get their share of fun scenes, and Gimli's character in particular helps the audience build a picture of what the Dwarves are like. It is doubly fortunate that FotR succeeds so well in establishing the characters, as TT and RotK dedicate much less time to them, and rely on the memory of this film to maintain the audience's emotional investment in their journey.
FotR is a marvellous fantasy movie that captures the essence of Tolkien's complex world and makes it into a genuinely accessible and engaging film that is peopled by believable and interesting characters. Jackson is to be applauded for his achievement here, for it would have been easy for a film that includes tiny men with hairy feet, Wagnerian Dwarves, Wizards, Trolls and Elves that talk like cod-Shakespearean hams to be laughable. That he conveys a world that is not only real, but which has its own long history, reflected in its architecture, its landscape and its people, is exceptional. While the two sequels are worthy in their own ways, neither quite scales the heights that are reached here, by the Fellowship of the Ring.