A superb effort. Obviously done by a fan of the books.

Rating: 10/10 (13 January 2002)

A superb effort overall. It is impossible to turn books of this depth into a commercially successful movie and be totally faithful, but this was obviously done by a fan of the books. This is the first movie I have ever gone to see twice in its first run and enjoyed it immensely both times, and wanted more. Totally pleased with cast, and interpretation of locations. I wonder why certain details were not faithful to the book such as: Aragorn with a bow and not carrying the shards of Narsil, why Legolas announced Aragorn's heritage vice Elrond, why Bilbo was not shown in the council, why the the gifts of Galadriel were not covered, why the Fellowship was broken different in many details from the book, etc., but I reserve judgment until I have seen the complete trilogy. I am hoping there will eventually be a "directors cut/long version" a la Dune on DVD of 4-5 hours per movie. I had great fear that the effort would be shoddy or fall short, to do this tale poorly would border on sacrilege to most fans. My fears were unfounded. You can't please everyone completely but I could not legitimately expect to be more pleased.