'Fellowship' is an excellent beginning to an excellent trilogy

Rating: 10/10 (8 June 2015)

In the 1990s, a director had a vision. A vision to adapt one of the most celebrated fantasy series of all time, and turn it into a film. Originally it was to be one film, then two, and finally was settled at three. Slowly, the film became reality, with real-life sets being built and still standing, a filming that took over a year, and the trilogy going on to make billions of dollars at the box office. This film trilogy is entitled The Lord of the Rings. Now that I have reviewed it's prequel, The Hobbit, it is now time to review the next series (in chronological order). Let us begin with...
...The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. The Fellowship of the Ring follows a hobbit named Frodo Baggins as he comes into the possession of the One Ring, which has the power to control all of Middle-Earth. With the help of a dwarf, an elf, a wizard, a prince and several of his hobbit friends, Frodo is ready to embark on a journey that will take him to the home of Sauron at Mount Doom, where everybody's fates are tied.
This is a tough film to review, mainly because some of the visual effects do begin to look dated, especially fourteen years later and with the advances in technology we have made since then. However, I suppose I'll do my best. The best thing about the film, perhaps, is the music. Howard Shore creates a musical score that is both haunting and memorable. Listening to the soundtrack, I tend to hum most of the tunes throughout the day (especially the theme song of the Fellowship).
That's not to say everything else isn't good either. The plot works well, and manages to end on a note where we feel satisfied with the ending, but we're also wondering what will happen next. It's very well done and written, considering the book's original ending. The actors and actresses in the film do a phenomenal job. I think there's too many for me to rattle off names, but my personal favorites are Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn, Ian McKellen as Gandalf the Grey, Cate Blanchett as Galadriel, and Hugo Weaving as Elrond. Not to say that everybody else did a bad job, but these are the people I enjoyed the most.
The cinematography in the film is beautiful. Whenever there's sweeping landscape shots, the film manages to make it look as amazing as it possibly can. I sadly have not seen the film in HD Blu-Ray, but even on the DVDs I've watched the film on, it still looks, quite frankly, amazing. In the darker scenes (basically the Mines of Moria), the cinematography makes it feel unsettling and cold, as does the music. That is when you know you've crafted something great.
The special effects, though slightly dated now (especially in the opening prologue), are still a marvel to look at. Back in 2001, I can't imagine how I might have felt back then, if I sat in the theater, looking at all of these things that seemed impossible to create, at first. I mean, who really thought that a 3-part movie filmed all at once and released over three years was going to be great? I'm sure lots of people were surprised by the film.
The film has a lot of character development, which is great, especially for the characters who leave at the end of the film. I won't spoil who, but someone dies in the final battle of the film, and it made their death that much more heartbreaking when it occurred. Frodo gets a lot of development, as his struggles with the Ring begin to show, and a conversation between him and Gandalf in the Mines of Moria is probably my favorite scene in the film.
Overall, Fellowship fits the shoes it was required to fill, and manages to create a smart fantasy that hits all the right notes: great music, cinematography, characters, acting and special effects. I'm sure that after this, everybody was excited for The Two Towers. And so am I.