It was about an hour into the movie....

Rating: 10/10 (23 January 2002)

I believe it was about an hour into the movie when the thought struck me: "This movie is ramping up to knock one of my top five favorite movies from their place." (current faves are held by: Braveheart, Remember the Titans, Deep Impact, The Natural, Titanic, Field of Dreams, The Karate Kid... ok, was that five?)
Now granted, this is from someone who's never read anything from Tolkien (only surrounded by crazed co-workers who are). Even so, I found the movie to be engaging at every turn, and was willing to forego some of the initial character development (Why? Because I know there's two more movies still to come!). I was able later to bounce questions off of my co-worker Tolkienites, and that has helped me enjoy the movie even more. The fact that Rings wasn't digestable in one sitting makes it all the more appealing to me. This only added to the movie's richness. How often does that happen with a film?
The music? Wow. Howard Shore's score perfectly matched the timbre of the on screen moments... choking me up on several sections. (there's just something about that Hobbit theme that gets me every time.) The haunting "May it Be" perfectly wrapped up the 3-hour adventure, leaving this 30-something guy quite stunned by the film's overall majesty and scope.
Action, Courage, Friendship, Devotion, Self-Sacrifice, (no profanity)... wonderful qualities to find in *any* film.
When it comes to rating this film... you won't find me giving it a low mark (as some seem to have done) because *their* favorite movie was "de-throned" from IMDBs #1 spot for a while. (can you say "The Godfather"?) Judge the movie on it's own merits alone.
My conclusion? The Fellowship of the Rings, is worth the highest mark it could receive. Bring on the "Two Towers"!