Great. Tremendous. Should have been longer.

Rating: Null/10 (8 January 2002)

Seeing that there are already 1967 reviews already posted, it might not make much sense to add any more, but here goes.
I approached the movie with a bit of trepidation, having read the books some 5-6 times starting in college (but not in at least 10 years). Would the movie be faithful to Tolkien? Would it be painful to watch like the animated version done in the early 80's? I had hopes but was ready to be disappointed.
Right off the bat, I found this first installment of LOTR exhilarating and stupendous. Through much of the movie I was in tears, choked up at the thought of seeing old friends from the book brought to life in such a lifelike way. Acting? These characters lived their parts. I came away thinking it would be nearly impossible to make a more faithful and compelling cinematic version of Tolkien's epic.
I do have a few caveats. With the concentration on battle scenes (all superbly done), the movie comes off quite a bit more dark and intense than the books. This is not all bad; much of what makes the books such a reading pleasure might not translate into a good cinematic experience: the long descriptions of countryside and weather, some of the songs and conversational banter.
Nevertheless, a bit more balance could have been brought in at least in the Lothlorien sequence. Basically this whole scene was far too short. In the book, the Fellowship's time in Lorien provided a welcome and healing respite after the shock of losing Gandalf in Moria. The trek through the forest is described at length with wonder and joy growing, and the time with Galadriel and Celeborn is a marvelously refreshing encounter. There was the testing and the anxiety at the mirror, but in the movie these darker elements became almost the sum of the experience in Lorien. In particular, Galadriel came across much darker and foreboding. My wife, who has not read the books, asked me in a whisper at one point if she was evil. That seemed amazing to me, but from the movie's depiction alone some could get that impression. I would have added 10 more minutes to the movie (didn't want it to end anyway) to round out this episode. The change in Gimli's attitude toward the Lady (hostile at first) needed to come through, the gifts to the whole Fellowship should have been shown (including the provision of the lembas), and more effort to provide the sense of respite that Lorien represented, as did Rivendell.
I definitely want to see it again, and like many others, will have a hard time waiting for The Two Towers.