The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)

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Written by: J.R.R. Tolkien (novel), Fran Walsh & Philippa Boyens & Peter Jackson (screenplay)
Directed by: Peter Jackson
Starring: Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Liv Tyler, Orlando Bloom, Viggo Mortensen, Sean Astin, Cate Blanchett, Christopher Lee, Andy Serkis, Dominic Monaghan, Billy Boyd, John Rhys-Davies, Sean Bean, Hugo Weaving
Rated: PG-13
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Plot
A meek Hobbit from the Shire and eight companions set out on a journey to destroy the powerful One Ring and save Middle-earth from the Dark Lord Sauron.

Verdict
With the length, scope, and scale of this movie, no word describes it better than epic. This balances practical effects and CGI to create a convincing world that is the foundation for an adventure to save the world. This world is nearly a character on it's own. This is only the first entry, but it works well enough on its own as it balances the plot, adventure, and touching moments.
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Review
All three Lord of the Rings movies were filmed simultaneously, which certainly helped the budget and production. The production design is simply amazing. This truly feels like Middle-earth which helps fortify the entire movie.The setting is a huge aspect to this movie.

This starts with a lot of history and exposition to set the stage for the ring which is the main journey of the movie. Gandalf (Ian McKellen) sends Frodo (Elijah Wood) on a journey to destroy the one ring. The ring corrupts everyone, but hobbits less.

One ring to rule them all

This is such a cool world, and this movie does such a great job of bringing it to life. It's an epic adventure with wraiths, elves, dwarves, wizards, hobbits, and other creatures. The production design is one of the most important parts. This world feels legitimate and that takes a big budget, from the perspective tricks with Gandalf to the miniature Helm's Deep. That along with the CGI and motion capture is very convincing. 

Frodo is in completely over his head, but happens to run into a ranger, Strider (Vigo Mortensen) that not only helps him, but knows far more about the ring and what's going on than anyone else. This leads to the formation of the Fellowship of the Ring, nine people tasked with destroying the ring. That doesn't happen until half way into the movie which is the main plot.

Viggo Mortensen, Ian McKellen, Orland Bloom, Sean Bean, Sean Astin, Elijah Wood, Dominic Monaghan, Billy Boyd, John Rhys-Davies play the Fellowship of the Ring

This movie has more adventure than many other movies, that's aided by such a long run time but this is never boring. This group is always on the edge of defeat, just scraping by. Battles don't feel easy. The group does a lot of protecting Frodo. Frodo is physically weak, but he's the only one mentally strong enough to carry the ring.

It sure helps later in the movie that Pippin (Billy Boyd) and Merry (Dominic Monaghan) joined the group and the Orcs take these two hobbits instead of the ones they actually need.

This has great pacing for the length of movie. It's a grand adventure on a scale not often seen, especially when this first came out. I don't know if this would be a movie in today's culture. With the overall length, this is suited for a series. Most fantasy book adaptations lately, Game of Thrones, Wheel of Time, His Dark Materials, have gone series over movie. They owe Lord of Rings some amount of debt.