I made a preparation for “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” released on Dec 14th: I am currently re-watching all the three films of “The Lord of The Rings” trilogy. Well it’s been years since I watched the first film of the series, “The Lord of The Rings: The Fellowship of The Ring”, for the first time and I need to “refresh” my mind about all the things in Middle Earth. And with a three-hour duration, it’s quite exhausting to re-watch it, you know, because I’m not a big fan of it. It’s mesmerizing, yet, and I won’t say that the three-hour duration is not worth it. I have not read the novels—both the “The Lord of The Rings” books and “The Hobbit” books—so I won’t compare the film with the books.

Well, where should I begin? “The Lord of The Rings: The Fellowship of The Ring” is the beginning of the journey of Frodo Baggins (played by Elijah Woods) to the Cracks of Doom to destroy the One Ring of the Dark Lord Sauron. Bilbo Baggins (played by Ian Holm) was a Hobbit, uncle of Frodo, who found the lost ancient ring from Gollum (played by Andy Serkis). Gandalf the Grey (played by Ian McKellen) discovered that the ring Bilbo found was the One Ring of the Dark Lord Sauron and asked him to leave it, which was then given to Frodo. By the advice of Gandalf, Frodo made his journey to destroy the ring with eight other companions: Gandalf himself, Legolas the Elf (played by Orlando Bloom), Boromir (played by Sean Bean), Aragorn (played by Viggo Mortensen), Gimli the Dwarf (played by John Rhys-Davies), and three other Hobbits—Sam Gamgee (played by Sean Astin), Pippin Took (played by Billy Boyd), and Meriadoc Brandybuck (played by Dominic Monaghan).

"All we have to decide is what to do
with the time that is given to us" - Gandalf

I remembered the first time I watched, I talked to myself, “They were shooting in a different world”. I didn’t even believe that there was such a fantastical place they could use to portray Middle Earth, the world the story took place, until I knew that it was New Zealand. What a lovely setting. Wonderful. Knowing how the crew set the location, the architecture, the buildings, the properties, the costumes, and the make-ups is seeing how “The Lord of The Rings: The Fellowship of The Ring” was absolutely designed to be as unimaginably epic as it could be. Some big fan of the book said that the visual imagery of the film was quite different with the description of the book, but I guess it doesn’t matter. The film took me to a totally different world. I was so mesmerized with the visual effect they used to make creatures like Balrog and Orcs. Awesome.

With a bunch of action scenes, wonderful adventures, and a little bit drama, “The Lord of The Rings: The Fellowship of The Ring”  successfully became a grand opening of the trilogy. Peter Jackson did a very good introduction to the unbelievable world where all those struggles and fights were going to take place, and it really helps viewers to understand the unimaginable situation. Sometimes I often think that the duration could be shortened by half an hour or so, as some dramatic parts were unintense. There are so much characters and places with weird names, and not focusing with them may quite distract your enjoyment in watching the film. Yes, the plot was complicated, but if you could keep yourself in the track, you'll realize that it's perfect. I wasn't really attracted with the acting of the cast, except for Ian McKellen. He was the wisest and the most warming, and he remembered me to Dumbledore in "Harry Potter". Another thing that I noticed so much is the music. So grande, so memorable, so lovely. And don't you forget with the Elf language! Fantastic!

I'm not a big fan of fantasy genre, and I found sometimes I easily lost track of what had happened earlier in the story, yet I still enjoyed it very much—and it's truly my problem, not yours. It's powerful not only for its effect and settings but also its story. A strong visualization by Peter Jackson. Maybe it's not exaggerating to say that "The Lord of The Rings" is the greatest epic trilogy of the decade. “The Lord of The Rings: The Fellowship of The Ring” proved it.

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THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING | COUNTRY USA YEAR 2001 RATING Rated PG-13 for epic battle sequences and some scary images RUNTIME 178 min GENRE Action, Adventure, Fantasy CAST Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, Ian McKellen, Viggo Mortensen, Orlando Bloom WRITER J.R.R. Tolkien (novel), Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Peter Jackson (screenplay) DIRECTOR Peter Jackson IMDB RATING 8.8/10 (Top 250 #13) METACRITIC 92/100 (Universal Acclaim) ROTTEN TOMATOES 92% (Certified Fresh) MORE INFO