The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

Starring Elijah Wood, Sir Ian McKellen, Viggo Mortensen, Sean Astin, Sean Bean, Liv Tyler, John Rhys-Davies and Cate Blanchett.

Directed by Peter Jackson.

Quite frankly, children, this is what movie making is all about. This is the summer blockbuster we didn’t get this summer. Notice I said movie and not film. Reading this site’s reviews will give you a deep education in the difference between these two art forms, and their relative values. Fellowship of the Ring is a movie, big and grand and fun as all get out, in the way Raiders of the Lost Ark is a movie. The special effects are great, and in fact create a bit of horror movie fright that makes the danger to the characters more real, but they do not consume the whole movie, as is common with Jackson’s directing. The action is intense, as is the pace, even for a three hour movie. While not a huge fan of the J.R.R. Tolkien classic that inspired the movie, I nevertheless became engrossed in its characters and breathlessly await the next installment. Sir McKellen was wonderful to watch, throwing himself into the aged wizard Gandalf with determination and just a touch of crusty humor. Elijah Wood is growing into a respectable young actor, and that progression seems fitting for Frodo the Hobbit, who is forced to grow up here a great deal faster than he’d like. As in the novel, the romance between Strider (Mortensen) and his beloved elf-maid Arwen (Tyler) is present but not overbearing, since this is in fact not their tale, at least not yet. The movie’s cliffhanger ending, often criticized as a downer, will only be a disappointment to those who thought Empire Strikes Back sucked because “the bad guys won”. You know who you are. Overall rating, 4 cell phones – just go ahead and leave the thing in the car, you don’t want to have to break your concentration away for even a moment.