The fellowship of the ring - The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring Reviews

Before there was J.K. and her bespeckled wizard Harry, there was J.R.R. and his Hobbit Frodo. Director Peter Jackson does a splendid job of taking the first book of Tolkien's trilogy and translating it into a Herculean film epic that runs rings around its fantasy predecessors. In short, the story centers around pint-size Frodo (played by a wonderfully wide-eyed Elijah Wood), who must leave his safe village to destroy an evil, all-powerful ring by throwing it into a foreboding volcanic mountain. And all the while, he's hunted by some of the scariest black horsemen to ever stampede across a screen. The lengthy story's nipped and tucked without missing any meat (it's still two hours and forty-five minutes!), it's marvelously dark and dense and the special effects would give Wizard Gandalf a run for his money. Be prepared, though: The first installment ends in the biggest cliffhanger of the year. But that just makes next year's already filmed return to Middle Earth all the more eagerly anticipated.