The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

Peter Jackson's adaptation of "The Fellowship of the Ring", the first part of J. R. R. Tolkiens voluminous trilogy, is brilliant. At the beginning of the new milennium the film industry is finally able to make the special effects required to create a credible fictional universe complete with orcs and hobbits half the size of humans.

In this first part the young hobbit Frodo is given the Ring and he embarks on a perilous journey to destroy the Ring, first accompanied by 3 other hobbits, later by the fellowship, which also includes an elve, two humans, a dwarf as well as the wizard Gandalf. Peter Jackson has wisely omitted the merry Tom Bombadil whose adventures are an unnecessary digression from the main plot. There is more than enough action in "The Fellowship of the Ring" as it is. How Jackson is going to tackle the more problematic storyline in the following books will be interesting to follow.

It is hard to critizise the film, and the enlargement of Galadriel's and Arwen's parts also seems logical. Except from Hugo Weaving's Elrond, who does not appear elvish or majestic enough, the cast is also well-chosen.

Jackson has managed to convey the elegiac, the grand, the horrifying, the poetic, the adventurous as well as the tragic feeling of this story and even added a bit of romance, so what more can you ask for?