An epic story told in fine acting and set against a gorgeous backdrop that brings the magic to life.

Rating: 10/10 (9 March 2005)

Bilbo Baggins, wealthy Hobbit of Hobbition, celebrates his 111 birthday by vanishing--literally--and leaving everything he has to his nephew, Frodo. Everything, including a magical golden ring. Bilbo's old friend, Gandalf the Gray Wizard,suspects there is more to the ring than its power to turn the wearer invisible. He discovers that it is in fact the One Ring, created by the evil Sauran, millenia ago. Sauran has returned, and all he needs to complete his power is the ring. Thinking to keep Sauran from too soon finding the ring, Gandalf entrusts it to the least likely of bearers: a little, home-loving Hobbit. He sends Frodo--unintentionally accompanied by his servant, Samwise, and two cousins, Pippin and Merry--to Elrond Half-Elven in Rivendale, to decide what is to be done with the ring. But Sauran has already unleashed the Nazgul, once mighty kings of Men, now corrupted and become powerful evil wraiths through the power of lessor rings. Called by the evil of the One Ring, they will stop at nothing to take the ring for their master.
The four Hobbits make their way to the Elves, joined and protected along the way by Aragorn, a Ranger. The Nazgul pursue the small group right up to the ford at Rivendale, where they are temporarily defeated. But Frodo has been stabbed by a Nazgul blade, injured by black steel and evil power. The Elves heal his body, but the ache of darkness may never be wholly cured.
In Rivendale, Frodo finds his uncle, Biblo, and even as the powerful of Middle Earth debate what is to be done with the ring, the two Hobbit bearers talk of it, and the effects of the evil of the ring are foreshadowed. A council of Elf and Dwarf and Man and Wizard is summoned to decide what is to be done with the One Ring. There Gandalf tells the council that besides the growing threat in the East from Sauran, they are also threatened from the West by Sauraman the White, the most powerful Wizard in the world, now loyal to Sauran. But all may be saved if the One Ring can be destroyed. With the destruction of the ring comes the destruction of Sauran himself. The ring must be destroyed, but that can only be done at the site of its creation: Mt. Doom, deep in the heart of Sauran's country. A group of nine is chosen to take on the fatal mission: Legolas the Elf, Gimili the Dwarf, Boromir future regent Gondor and Aragorn descendant of the kings of Gondor; Gandalf the Gray, Frodo the Ringbearer, and three Hobbits who refuse to leave their friend's side. Together the nine members of the fellowship set out across Middle Earth. It's a dangerous journey, for they must protect the ring from the Nazgul, Orcs, trolls, a fire demon, and, most dangerous of all, each other.
Tolkien's glorious epic of friendship, love, sacrifice, heroism, and temptation is brought to brilliant life in Peter Jackson's film. Despite changes to the storyline, it remains one of the best adaptions of a novel to a film in cinema history. There is a little for everyone: love of friends and family, romance, epic battle, magic, power struggles, scenes to dazzle the eye, and music to lull the soul. Those with a short attention span may have difficulty with the length of the film. But for those willing to give fine art its due, it's well worth the time.