Poor narrative choices and pacing kill a monster of a movie

Rating: 6/10 (23 December 2001)

Off the bat it must be said in Peter Jackson's defense that the Lord of the Rings is simply too large and sprawling a tale to condense into even three three-hour films. While I have read and enjoyed the books, I am in no way a LOTR fanatic, and was more than prepared for changes to the book in order to streamline the story. That out of the way, The Fellowship of the Ring makes some bizarre narrative choices which ruin what could have been a tremendous accomplishment.
For some reason, Jackson and company have decided to spend far too much time on the build-up to the forging of the actual fellowship. A good half-hour is wasted in Hobbiton, and the slow trek to Rivendell eats up a good hour and a half of screen time. This part of the film lags badly, and is equally hampered by some poor story-telling decisions, such as: why is Saruman suddenly working FOR Sauron? If you're going to add more to Arwen's character, why make it so sudden, random, and pointless? And most importantly, why undermine the mystery surrounding Aragorn? This last point is the most egregious error, in that the actual lineage of Aragorn is in question through the original trilogy, whereas here it is one of the very first things we learn about him.
By the time Jackson gets to the actual journey of the Fellowship, he has run out of screen time, and so the actual traversing of Middle Earth's painstakingly described landscapes is condensed into several swooping longshots cut back-to-back. There is no time to become attached to the Fellowship before their eventual break-up. This is a serious story-telling error on the part of the filmmakers. It is here, during their travels, that there was an opportunity to flesh out the cast of nine characters, as well as divulge the exposition surrounding the origin of the Ring of Power more fluidly and naturally. Instead, Jackson has decided to cram the entire backstory of the Ring into a very awkward and hoky prologue.
Other pet peeves which are more subjective are the irritating overuse of slow-motion and the heavy-handed urgency which is given to every scene (thereby undercutting any actual dramatic moments as the story reaches its climax). The film's score is dreadfully overwrought and completely washes out the incredible sound design. Astoundingly there are points where it even drowns out the dialogue (not that this is a bad thing, considering much of the chatter that goes on).
On the plus side, most of the acting is quite good, esp. Ian McKellan as Gandalf, Sean Astin as Sam Gangee, and Sean Bean as Boromir. Many of the other characters suffer from underwritten parts, and Cate Blanchett is given very little to work with as the Lady Galadriel. Most of the settings are beautifully rendered, although there is a bit too much CGI at work in many of the larger sequences. A necessary evil in most cases, considering the scope of the books.
Overall, the film was a big let down. There is a breath of hope for The Two Towers, however, inasmuch as the characters are split up, which should allow for personalities to develop unhindered by the sheer number of characters onscreen in this first chapter of the trilogy. While expectations are now tempered, I have faith that the two follow-ups in the series will at least be enjoyable romps. Still, given the efforts put into The Fellowship of the Ring, a few smarter narrative decisions could have made for a breathtaking spectacle. Pity.