It has a few flaws, but is still the finest fantasy film of all time.

Rating: 8/10 (4 April 2002)

It lives up to the hype. It's magnificent - the best fantasy film I've ever seen.
O.K, so it is not as great as the book. Even in three hours, set against the gorgious New Zealand landscape and featuring some lavish sets and costumes, it cannot hope to match the richness of detail and historical depth that Tolkien could fit into the 500 or so pages of The Fellowship of The Ring. Nor does it have the pacing of the book - without slashing more parts of the story director Peter Jackson simply couldn't spare the time to make the transitions between the major events as smooth as Tolkien did. At times we seem to jump from one big scene to another in 'Greatest Hits' style; for example, the shift from Moria to Lorien is too sudden.
Having said that, the screenplay by Jackson and his collaborators is an excellent adaption of the book, retaining almost all of the best scenes and lines - 'many who live deserve death, and some who are dead deserve life. Can you give it to them? Do not be so quick to deal out judgement.' - while keeping the plot tight and even improving on Tolkien (blasphemy! the fanatics cry) in some ways, such as by showing more of Saruman's rise to power, adding the big badass orc Lurtz and bringing out several laugh-out-loud moments, particularly with Merry and Pippin, which the book lacked.
Jackson's best achievement though is how the film looks. As with 'Harry Potter', my imagination generally topped what was on the screen - but to the filmaker's credit there were plenty of things that were even better than I had envisioned. I cannot emphasize this too much - 'Fellowship' looks AMAZING. Seething hordes of goblins, an idyllic, waterfall-bordered Rivendell, hellish labyrinths of mines and tunnels, thrilling, chaotic battles, and the Balrog. Oh my God, the Balrog. I spent a lot of this movie with my jaw unhinged.
In terms of the acting, the casting is just about perfect. Sir Ian McKellern as Gandalf, Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn, Sean Bean as Boromir and Sir Ian Holm as Bilbo are outstanding, and pretty much everyone else hits the mark. To act in this kind of high-flown mythic style and not be melodramatic is tough, but they pull it off - with the exception of a few moments.
Yes, it's not perfect. A few shots of Arwen and Galadriel - all angelic and glowing - are overdone, some of the lines are delivered sentimentally, and the music, which generally excellent, also goes over the top at times. And, reluctant as I would be to do it, if I was editing the film I'd cut out the whole Lorien chapter. It's pretty good but compared to the rest of the film it doesn't add much, has a couple of those creaky moments I mentioned, lengthens a long film and does upset the pace. Again, Jackson couldn't afford the time to give the forest enough of the feel of a wondrous, magical sanctuary that Lorien had in the book.
Rating: 8 1/2