(Extended Edition)

“All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.”

The Fellowship of the Ring is the first epic installment in The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Decades after the events of The Hobbit, or in the movie timeline, The Hobbit trilogy, Bilbo, a creature known as a hobbit, still has in his possession the most powerful ring, the one ring that rules over all the rest. A total of twenty rings of power have been created, and with the rise of the villainous Dark Lord Sauron, who seeks the destruction of all of Middle-earth, he first needs to find the ring in Bilbo’s possession.

With Bilbo’s continuous aging and desire to leave his home in the Shire, his nephew, Frodo, takes the ring in his possession and seeks out on a massive adventure with his best friend, Samwise Gamgee, in order to make sure that the ring does not get into the possession of Sauron. Darker forces are rising, however, and Frodo and Sam eventually need new companions, which further develops into what is known as the Fellowship of the Ring. Their one task is to take the ring into Mordor and carry it up to Mount Doom, the one and only place where it can be destroyed.

And that is by far the longest premise I’ve ever written in one of my reviews, and for good reason, I would say. Firstly, it’s honestly incredible how J.R.R. Tolkien was able to take this small and simplistic story with a huge world in The Hobbit and turn it into one of the most epic trilogies with such high stakes, perfectly seamlessly. What’s just as impressive, and perhaps even more impressive, however, is how Peter Jackson and crew were able to bring this massive story to life in the early 2000s, turning what was first looked at as an impossible adaptation with how expansive the lore was, and turning it into a movie that, yes, is extremely long (whichever version you go for), but is also extremely digestible.

I mean, just the world that they were able to bring to life here is honestly unbelievable. This trilogy is perhaps one of the immersive ones out there, with every new location being vastly different than the previous one, and really showing you just how huge this world truly is. In terms of how real and believable this whole, huge world of Middle-earth is, the crazy part is that it’s barely even aged. Most of everything (at least when it comes to the outdoorsy stuff) was shot on location, with a blend of practical and digital effects that work together so well that it cannot be understated how perfect everything looks and feels. It was extremely revolutionary for the time, but unlike a lot of revolutionary movies, when it comes to the progression of special effects, these films still very much hold up and will always hold up. It was such a bold swing to make them at the time they did, with technology, particularly CGI, that was still very much being figured out, and it ended up not aging hardly a day over twenty years later.

Adding onto that, there is also some really fantastic action across the movie as well. It’s definitely the least action-heavy and has the “smallest-feeling” action, I would say, of the three films, but I think that’s necessary, with this film establishing everything. But what we do get here is a good bit of really well-choreographed sword fights, along with a couple of fights with some large CGI creatures, which, and I’ll say it again, have hardly aged a day.

When it comes to the story, it opens up in the best way possible with this monologue that is very exposition-heavy, as all monologues are, but is performed by none other than Cate Blanchett, and immediately explains everything you need to know going in, with fantastic visuals to go along with it. And the monologue establishes everything I said earlier about how high the stakes are for this whole three-film epic story so incredibly well. If I haven’t already made it clear, this entire saga is everything you could possibly want from an epic, and this first film is not an exception.

For being as long as it is, you, of course, want to go along on this massive journey with characters that you like, and that is certainly the case here. Frodo, Bilbo’s nephew, is the central protagonist of this whole trilogy and is extremely compelling in this first film, and only becomes more compelling in the rest of the movies. I think one of the most underrated aspects of this entire series is how amazing a performance Elijah Wood gives. To be completely honest, with the exception of the first act, he really doesn’t talk a ton considering the movie’s runtime. However, these films really establish how much the ring takes a toll on whoever possesses it, and Wood does a perfect job convincing you of that, even when he’s completely silent, and you just see the physical emotions he’s going through. When it comes to his best friend and companion, Sam (Sean Astin), he isn’t nearly as big a part of the story here as he is in the other two movies, but this film is certainly the start of one of, and perhaps the best, cinematic friendships ever.

As far as the other members of the Fellowship go, they are both really compelling and really fun. Gandalf is great, as always, being the wise wizard who is guiding all of them through this long and treacherous journey, but the real standout is probably Aragorn, who is simply known as “Strider” by most of the characters for the majority of the movie. He is played so well by Viggo Mortensen, who, fun fact, was skeptical about even being in these movies until his son, who was a big fan of The Lord of the Rings, convinced him otherwise. Similar to Frodo and Sam’s relationship, Fellowship was the start of something great with Aragorn’s epic character arc, and every time he is on the screen, he pretty much commands it, even after Gandalf starts being around.

The main other standout is very similar to Aragorn in terms of being these epic heroes that really take over the screen, and that is Boromir, played by Sean Bean. Alongside Frodo, he is the other major character who really shows just how corrupt and how much of a curse the ring truly is. As far as just this one movie goes, I would say he easily has the best and most complete arc out of all the characters. The side characters definitely don’t stand out as much as any of the others I already mentioned, but they are still definitely fun and add some levity to this journey and the whole situation. They also get a lot more compelling as the series goes along.

As I’m sort of starting to wrap things up with this review, one of the things that really stood out to me about The Fellowship of the Ring on this rewatch is just how complete this one story feels. A lot of trilogies out there, and there are definitely exceptions, are really just one big story across three films, where just watching one film doesn’t completely satisfy on its own (you kind of have to watch all of them to get the big picture), but Fellowship is certainly an exception. It still absolutely leaves you hungry for more, and you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about if you’ve seen the ending. However, as a standalone film, it gives you a good taste of this incredible world that Tolkien wrote, and Jackson put to screen, gives you characters that you really like, a character with a complete character arc, and a story that has a very clear beginning, middle, and end.

Now, you might be asking, why didn’t I rate this any higher? Well, the one and only negative, which I could definitely see completely disappearing with further rewatches, is that I think the pacing in the second half can be just a little bit spotty at times. It never, ever starts to get boring, because whenever it does really slow down and get on the verge of being that, something awesome happens that gets you glued to the screen again. It’s just that I think there are a few too many pauses in the story where characters are kind of just resting up, which is obviously understandable, but I think it definitely slows the momentum down a good bit. It’s not a big negative, and I don’t even know, maybe that’s just with the extended version, but if I had to nitpick something for this review, it would be that.

Overall, though, The Fellowship of the Ring is the start of one of the greatest trilogies ever made, and quite frankly, one of the biggest cinematic achievements of all time. It’s without a doubt a once-in-a-lifetime experience that I have a hard time seeing ever being lost to time, even hundreds of years from now.