A Success!

Rating: 9/10 (29 January 2002)

Very rarely has a popular book been so successfully adapted to the screen. Peter Jackson's "Fellowship of the Ring" manages to appeal to die-hard Tolkien fans without pandering to them, and the world he creates remains true to the books without being constrained by them. This achievement, in and of itself, is worthy of high praise.
The cinematography is gorgeous, the attention to detail is staggering, and Jackson's creative vision of Middle Earth builds upon Tolkien's rather than just replicating it by the numbers. In the background we see ruins of past civilizations, trolls turned to stone, giant statues of legendary kings... we are completely transported into another world. The special effects are, for the most part, seamlessly integrated into the film and have a flair of originality long missing from factory-issue Hollywood blockbusters. Not only did "Fellowship" out-Star-Wars the Star Wars trilogy, it made the unpleasant memory of "The Phantom Menace" begin to fade from my consciousness entirely.
While the dialogue occasionally bordered on cheesey and/or pretentious, Jackson was wise enough to follow the number one rule of fantasy filmmaking: If you want silly made-up words to sound cool, hire Shakespearean-trained British actors. Indeed, Sir Ian McKellan has effectively rendered it impossible for anyone else to ever play the part of Gandalf. He was perfect. The rest of the casting was generally quite good, too. Elijah Wood may not be the world's finest actor, but he certainly does look like a hobbit. He may actually BE a hobbit. I was also very impressed with Sean Bean as Boromir. His part is actually much better written and more sympathetic than it was in the book, and Bean plays the role with just the right mix of pomposity and good cheer.
Just a few minor quibbles... the "Frodo falls flat on his back" motif is repeated far too many times. The duel between Gandalf and Saruman is poorly done, despite excellent performances by both actors. The battle scenes suffer a bit from the herky-jerky camera work that plagues nearly all contemporary action movies. The plot trajectory is uneven and some scenes feel a bit contrived-- although, given the sheer weight of the source material, I think the editing was better than we had any right to expect.
On the whole, this is the best big-budget action movie in many, many years. Kudos to the cast and crew for tackling such a difficult project and bringing it to life on the screen.