The Lord of the Rings - The Fellowship of the Ring

J.R.R. Tolkien's epic fantasy trilogy The Lord of the Rings is notable because not only is it great reading, people also consider it great literature. Tolkien fans have been rabidly craving a big budget adaptation of his novels, and this new film is definitely worth the wait. Director Peter Jackson, who shot the three films that compromise the trilogy back-to-back, had the arduous task of condensing hundreds of pages into three movies. The Fellowship of the Ring, the first novel, is three hours, yet omits many things and adds others. Jackson manages to retain the spirit of the novel in their changes, so hardcore fans may actually be satisfied.

There is a lot of plot in Fellowship. Aside from Frodo's quest, Jackson is trying to bring forth much of the current political upheaval in Middle Earth. Heck, he recaps The Hobbit in about 10 minutes. Unfortunately, some of the detail does not come through, but Jackson does hew closely to his overall theme. Apparent through the entire...

THE GOOD:

Beautiful New Zealand Scenery

Exciting Storyline

Great Acting with Likable Characters

Classical Music

THE BAD:

Missing a few parts from the book

SUMMARY:
Fans of J.R. Tolkien's epic novels will love the movies, which stay true to the books for the most part. We couldn't expect them to include every detail from the almost-400-page long masterpiece, but Jackson did a good job of deciding what to keep and what to cut.

The story is about the most unlikely of heroes, a young hobbit, which is a race of men nearing three feet in height, with the enormous task of destroying a ring with the power to destroy the world. There's a catch: The ring can only be destroyed in the place it was forged; deep in the heart of the enemy who wishes to use the ring. He teams up with many friends along the way and forms a small Fellowship capable of moving in stealth yet providing an adequate amount of protection...