Glen's Review of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

by Glen Oliver

December 19, 2001 - [A Note from the Editor: This is one of two reviews we're running on The Fellowship of the Ring. This review is from Glen, who hasn't read The Lord of the Rings; the other review is by KJB, who has read the books.]

I've never read J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings books. My mom (and many people I know, for that matter) was always a big fan of the novels and tried to hook me on them for decades. I was interested in them, and was even able to sense the appeal of them through Tolkien's vast smokescreen of exposition and minutiae, but they never "took". As such, when New Line announced its daringly conceived, dangerously expensive cinematic adaptation of the literary trilogy, I was profoundly curious and interested – but not rabidly excited – to see how it all turned out.

So, how does The Fellowship of the Ring (the first installment of the movie trilogy) play-out for those not strong enough to face The Tolkien Challenge head-on? Pretty damn well. There have been many reviews implying this is a perfect film – it is not. Some reviews have called it "the best film of the year" – it probably is. But, not to disparage Fellowship in any way, this accolade must be considered in-context – as 2001 is among the worst movie years in the history of the medium in many people's minds.

For all of its imperfections, FOTR deftly succeeds in a few arenas in which other movies (if not all movies) of this type have previously failed. A few very, very important arenas. Director / co-screenwriter Peter Jackson infuses Fellowship with a great deal of "real world" edge and sensibility – bringing humanity to FOTR's characters, making its situations involving, and...above all...legitimizing a genre which frequently comes across as silly, distancing, gimmicky, and garish. Jackson so effectively immerses us in his (remarkably accessible) on-screen world that, on the few occasions in which the film does slide towards expected genre trappings and clichés (like a character referring to another character as "So-and-So, son of So-and-So"), the moments seem incongruous and inorganic, and hit like a clap of thunder.

Perennial girly-man Elijah Wood – playing the besieged and often-baffled Frodo Baggins (a very little person charged with a very big undertaking) is pretty-much upstaged by everyone and everything around him, but that's the point of his character, so this isn't a criticism, per se. Ian McKellen (as Gandalf) is showstopping in both power and subtlety. While I doubt it will happen, I wouldn't be at all surprised if he received an Oscar nomination for this role. Liv Tyler – who has endured more than a few snotty digs in previous reviews on this site – conveys surprising intensity and integrity during her brief appearance in Fellowship. And then there's Christopher Lee.

Best known throughout the years as portrayer of villains (like Dracula) in a variety of generally unrespectable "B" movies (including the tragically awful Starship Invasions, one of my guilty pleasures), Lee may finally enter general public awareness in the coming year. Not only does he have a significant role in the LOTR trilogy, but you'll see him next summer as an intergalactic super-badass named Count Dooku (aka "Lord Tyranus") in Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones. The 79 year-old actor has been making movies for (something like) forty-four years, and only now – for the first time – will he be mass marketed as action figures and miniature sculptures. That's gotta be at least a little cool for him, no? Something of a triumph for this underappreciated actor, and a welcomed renaissance for a gentleman whose cult status has been nearly mythological for decades, but has always glided just beneath the mainstream's radar.

Fellowship does hit a few bumps along the way. A few of the film's visual effects are not quite "there" yet. Certain moments look a little too animated, a little too artificial (check-out the falling domino effect of an army being knocked down by an energy shockwave in the movie's prologue – it's kind of dopey). Some of FOTR's creatures do not walk with a weight which suggests they're actually interacting with the natural encumbrance of gravity. We repetitively zoom through numerous (FX-driven) establishing shots of sprawling environments with a velocity not seen anywhere else in the movie, using camera moves we've already seen countless other times in countless other movies. Which calls attention to the effects themselves, and forces us to notice how they are being used. This is distracting. And, unless my eyes deceive me, there is (at least) one whopping continuity error in the film.

Fellowship's pacing is sometimes a bit off – sometimes a little redundant and meandering (you can only see little people running around in the woods for so long before the "fun" starts to dry-up). Often, such slow downs are (presumably) a product of Tolkien's source material. But it's important to remember that FOTR is, by its very nature, an introduction to a remarkably vast story – which inherently requires a certain amount of exposition, and the placement of sequences whose meanings may not be fully understood or appreciated until we've seen this film in context with its successors.

At the end of the day, Jackson & Co. have manufactured an oddly haunting film – its qualities range from lyrically beautiful to numbingly cacophonous. There's a certain majesty to Fellowship of the Ring, but it's not the majesty of stylish photography or elegant production design. It's a majesty that can only be put on-screen by filmmakers who truly feel the material with which they are working...who truly believe in the task at hand...who have a steady vision to fuel their endeavor. All of the poetic writing and slick post-production in the universe could not make up for the such genuine qualities. Qualities which are fleeting to the point of extinction in most large-scale productions these days. Qualities which are evident here, in welcomed abundance.

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