Movie Review

The Lord of the Rings:
Fellowship of the Ring

Rating: Four ****

This movie perfectly captures the feelings of reading The Lord of the Rings books by J.R.R. Tolkien -- large, impressive, fantastic, and mythic, but also large, ponderous, slow, and meandering.

Now, I like the original books as much as any other science fiction and fantasy fan, despite only getting halfway through the second of three books before giving up. Nevertheless, I gaped in awe at the majestic landscapes of Middle Earth on the big screen rather than only in my imagination. I saw elves, hobbits, wizards, dwarves, orcs and even a few humans come to life, and it all felt right -- but it also felt very long, at nearly 3 hours in length, even with the plot pared down for the movie.

Some story points were inexplicably confusing; bit characters wander off and on the screen, and none ever stop to really explain what the big deal is about the ring. If I hadn't read the first book already, I might have been scratching my head in confusion. But, ultimately, Fellowship of the Ring is a treat designed especially for anyone loves Tolkien's epic work of mythic fantasy; it's a faithful, if exhausting, adaptation of this 20th Century classic.