"One ring to rule them all!".

Rating: 10/10 (18 November 2002)

I had not read any of the LORD OF THE RINGS before I saw the film series, and I still have not read it but I think that Peter Jackson has done a superlative job in bringing the story of the three books to the screen. My family now owns all of the extended editions of the three films on DVD, and while the original theatrical cuts weren't too bad at all, I'm glad to have seen the extra footage.
The performances are all fantastic. Ian McKellen and Christopher Lee are both excellent as the two wizards. Elijah Wood and Sean Astin are great as main hobbits Frodo and Sam, Viggo Mortensen and Sean Bean throw in great performances as Aragorn and Boromir respectively, THE MATRIX's Hugo Weaving is great as the Elf King and INDIANA JONES' John Rhys-Davies is great as the dwarf Gimli. This first film is of course all about establishing the characters and what they have to do, and it is handled well.
I can see why it was unsuitable for children below a certain age, because for children things like the Orcs, Uruks, Ringwraiths, the Balrog and, in his brief appearance in the flesh, Lord Sauron himself are the stuff of nightmares. But the story is engaging and the characters all fully-rounded.
I regret that unlike TWO TOWERS and RETURN OF THE KING, I never saw FELLOWSHIP in the cinema, but I still love it. It's unfair though to try and pick a favourite out of the series because each part is brilliant in its' own right. But FELLOWSHIP is an excellent beginning to the series and not to be ignored.