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

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) -- P. Jackson

After the second instalment of The Hobbit, I thought a return to the Lord of the Rings was in order. And the first thing to say is that the decade just past seems to have brought enough advances in CGI technology that this older film contains moments that seem phony in comparison (though not on the order of Hitchcock's back projection). However, this does not detract from its wondrous spectacle. The fight against the Balrog and the various attacks of the ringwraithes are still pretty great. However, the film seemed to drag a bit, with a few too many cute hobbit moments for my liking. Funny, since a whole book (detailing the necessary destruction of evil Sauron's one ring by a fellowship of nine, including a dwarf, elf, wizard, men, and hobbits) was contracted for the movie (whereas The Hobbit is a single book stretched across three movies). Nevertheless, when thinking about whether Tolkein was done justice by Peter Jackson, one can only conclude that it could have been far worse and these films are an exciting adjunct to memory - his long view of history seems intact -- but read the books first! (2008 review).