Review of:Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
Director:Peter Jackson
Rating:PG-13 for epic battle sequences and some scary images
Starring:Elijah Wood, Billy Boyd, Bill Boyd, Dominic Monaghan, Ian McKellen
First published in 1954 The Lord of the Rings is the first part of a trilogy of films that are due out December of 2002, and 2003. This first installment deals with the adventures of Frodo Baggins. The ring is bequethed to Frodo by Bilbo, and is the uneasy owner (ring bearer) of the One Ring. A ring that gives the dark Lord Sauron the power to enslave middle earth into a dark, and violent existence.
The answer to stop this terrible act from happening is to throw the ring into the fires from which it was cast Mount Doom. During the first battle when they defeated Sauron the need for power from men kept the ring from being thrown into the fiery pit of Mount Doom.
After much time has past the ring had grown from reality into a fable, until it was found and eventually finds its way into the hand of the hobbit Frodo.
Realizing what the ring was, and the power it was capable of unleashing a council is called. It is decided that the ring must be desposed of. To help in this task a fellowship bands together to help Frodo accomplish his mission. The powerful wizard Gandalf (Ian McKellen),Sam the hobbit (Sean Astin), Merry the hobbit(Dominic Monaghan), and Pippin the hobbit (Billy Boyd); the human Aragorn or Strider (Viggo Mortensen) and the human Boromir (Sean Bean); the skillful elf Legolas (Orlando Bloom); and Gimil the dwarf (John Rhys-Davies. They are also added in the quest by Arwen the elf (Liv Tyler), Galadriel (Cate Blanchett, and Elrond (Hugo Weaving).
The ring holds a strange power over all that come into contact with it. Almost making them lust for the power that it holds. This adds a very interesting quotient to the movie because you don't know who you can really trust. The longer you are in the vacinity of the ring the more likely you are going to be powerhungry.
Even though Frodo doesn't want to head this expedition he sees early on that this is something he must do. All along the way the road they travel becomes more dangerous as they are hunted by creatures of uneartly origin.
The scenery matches what you would expect to see from hobbits and such. A lot of the scenery is shot in New Zealand. The characters are all believable, and do a handsome job of pulling of this epic tale. Even though the movie is slow it picks up at a good pace, and by the end of the film you are totally into the production. The running time is almost three hours which makes for a very long film, but if you have the time it is well worth it. Might be a little scary for the younger kids also for the simple fact that they do an excellent job on the evil characters in this film.
