A great adaptation.

Rating: 9/10 (31 January 2008)

One of my all-time favorite literary tales, The Fellowship of the Ring is transformed on film into a sprawling, epic fantasy tale. The action is supremely well done. I doubt I've ever seen more well rehearsed and orchestrated fight scenes, especially on such a mass scale (the ones in the next two films are even better) and the film has some of the best art direction, makeup, cinematography and costume design I've ever seen. They're truly phenomenal. It does drag a little in the beginning, but it's worth it to get us into the story. My only other big complaint is that some of the scenes are just a little over the top, Galadriel's freak out being the best example (a little bit of training for Blanchett for The Golden Age). The performances are relatively good all around with a few being phenomenal (Viggo Mortensen and Ian McKellan), a few being great (Dominic Monaghan and Billy Boyd) and one being very poor (Elijah Wood). But overall, they're good. This film is one founded on it's story. If you don't like the story, you won't like the film. Personally I adore the entire plot spanning all three novels/films and Jackson perfectly captured this first act.