one word, disapointing.

Rating: Null/10 (5 January 2002)

`Lord of the rings, Fellowship of the Ring'
1 ½ *'s out of 4
Reviewed by Matt Doolittle
`Lord of the Rings' is likely the most speculated film of the year. Unfortunately if you are one of the few who haven't seen it yet, don't expect a lot. Like most of the other critics I was excited to see this film come out and like few of the other critics I was very disappointed. `Lord of the Rings' is a film about a hobbit named Froto who inherits a ring from an older hobbit. Little does Froto know, this is no ordinary ring. This ring is an extremely evil ring created by an evil emperor that is trying to take over the world. The emperor was killed but his spirit lives on in the ring and takes over who ever holds it. Froto and his posse, featuring the best of every creature in the land, go on a journey to destroy the ring in the volcano in which it was created. They are stalked by an evil wizard and his army of evil creatures that have come back to life.

The problem with this film is that it never sets any limits. A wizard can make lightning strike a mountain the group is walking on, but he can't strike the group? A bird can save a wizard when he is trapped on a tower, but he can't be saved when he falls into a pit of fire. This same wizard can block the whip of a huge fire monster at one point, but a second later it wraps around his leg and pulls him into a pit of fire. As this movie goes along it gets downright ridiculous.
The only reason I didn't give this film a zero is because of the fighting scenes and the wonderful sets. The scenery in this film is great and the makeup and costumes are outstanding. The fight scenes are the only things that kept this film moving along and in the middle when there are none, you find yourself having a conversation with the person next to you. The fairy scenes are pointless and are not worth watching.
The plot in this film is the controlling factor of everything. When a character is saved it is only because they are needed later in the film. A different character dies only to create an intense scene in this boring, predictable quest of a hobbit and a ring. Another reason this film is a flop is because when you make a book into a movie, you can't use ever piece of dialogue or every scene in the 500-page book. You have to cut it down into only the important things and this film neglected to do this. This film could have easily been cut to an hour and a half instead of almost 3 hours long. If you haven't seen this film yet and still want to, let me give you a little bit of advice. Watch the first half-hour take a nap for 2 hours and wake up just in time to see the final fight scene, trust me you won't miss anything important.