"Masterpiece" is an understatement.

Rating: 10/10 (12 March 2004)

******* Might contain spoilers********
When the "Fellowship" came out 3 years before, I was not at all hopeful for it's quality. I had seen many a movies inspired from famous books, and frankly barring the "Godfather", I had been disappointed in each one of them. Especially, since around that time, the first "Harry Potter" was realised, which made a mess of such a brilliant story, though it was a simple one.
Tolkein's LOTR was of course, much more complex a story than many I had read. The core subject matter maybe simple enough, but the descriptions of "Middle Earth" , characters, incidences, battles and everything encompassed, makes the book a very complex, but hugely effective one. So, I had very little/no hope for Peter Jackson's "Fellowship".
However, after watching "Fellowship", I just realised how wrong I was in my assumptions. The movie not only stays true to the storyline most of the times ( a thing not found in many films adapted from novels!), but it also effectively made me feel what Middle Earth looked like with ease. When I re-read "Fellowship" again after watching LOTR1, I realised what Peter jackson has actually achieved is something near perfection.
The story starts from the defeat of Dark Lord Sauran, who with the help of one powerful ring wanted to rule the whole of Middle Earth. The ring then gets lost from the face of the earth, to be retrieved much later by Smeagol. Smeagol's life is totally destroyed by the power the ring exhibits on him, and the only thing that makes him go, is the desire for the ring, which he both loves and hates. However, after a series of incidences the ring finds itself in the hands of a hobbit named Frodo. Frodo decides to destroy the ring, since Lord Sauran whose spirit had survived, was organising an evil amry to regain the ring again. LOTR (in 3 parts), describes this journey of Frodo and his friend Sam. During the journey, they are assisted by numerous friends who want the ring to be destroyed for the good of Middle Earth,and foes, who are trying to kill them to get the ring. The journey encompasses courage, cowardness, betreyal, freindship and redemption.
Getting the story in a movie was one huge task, and Peter jackson succeeds with flying colours.
The fellowship deals with the group destined to destroy the ring and it's ultimate sepration in the face of it's foe. The next two films namely the "towers" and "return" deals with two separate journeys. One being made by Frodo and Sam, for destruction of the ring, while the other traces the rest of the group fighting battles with the dark lord and it's allies.

Some liberties have been taken in the film to make it a bit different from the book, but they are worth doing so. The one liberty that stands out is Gollum's sciznophenic nature. It's a pity that the academy didn't recognise Andy Serkis's achivement, treating it completly as a CGI, but people will know better. Also, it's a pity that the first two parts of the trilogy didn't get the recogniton that they deserved from the academy, for frankly, no other movie came as close as the LOTR's for the last 3 years in terms of perfection in every department. However, the greatest achievemnt of the LOTR films barring thier superb special effects, epic battle scences and scenery comes from the fact that every character was developed so that the audience can relate to them. And there were quite a few of them.
In the "return" when everything was in place, Aragon says to the Hobbits : "My freinds, You bow to no one". And then everybody in the assembly bows in front of these unlikely heros of Middle earth. Well, all I can say is that Peter Jackson deserves a Bow from all the movie lovers, young or old, for making something more than a masterpiece.