Let me preface this review by saying I know very little about The Lord of the Rings trilogy.  I did have the long-playing record of The Hobbit, a much-maligned animated version of the prequel to Rings made in the late '70s.  But that doesn't mean I wasn't looking as forward to the first film, The Fellowship of the Ring, as the people who voted J.R.R. Tolkien's books as the best of the 20th century.

Anyone who regularly sees movies should be equally as excited.  Already the biggest episodic undertaking since Star Wars, the trilogy are the first films to be shot simultaneously (Parts 2 and 3 of both Back to the Future and the upcoming sequels to The Matrix are as close as anyone has come).  It took over a year and, depending on who you believe, between $190 and $400 million to film the three Ring pictures, which are set to be released at the end of 2001 (Fellowship), 2002 (The Two Towers) and 2003 (The Return of the King).

Fellowship is a perfect blend of action and fantasy, of special effects and thoughtful storytelling, and, in a time when the two seem anything but mutually exclusive, blockbuster juggernaut and arthouse darling.  It's a shoo-in for multiple Academy Award nominations for its incredible technical package, which is probably the best and most detailed since Titanic.  People may scoff at the notion of James Cameron carefully replicating the silverware aboard the doomed ship, or of Fellowship's Peter Jackson wasting time with the authenticity of the swords in his film, but, for some reason, it works incredibly well.

Fellowship starts with a brief yet breakneck explanation of the origin of the ring that weaves its way through the three Tolkien novels.  It seems that long ago (although not in a faraway galaxy) 19 powerful rings were created and distributed to the various peoples of a place called Middle Earth.  But one additional ring -- a master to the other 19 -- was also secretly fashioned. Its possessor could control the other rings and, presumably, anything else he or she desired.

The ring changed hands a couple of times, ultimately being discovered by Bilbo Baggins (the hero of my long-playing record), a hobbit who held on to it for 60 years without realizing what he had.  On the evening of his 111th birthday, Bilbo (From Hell's Ian Holm), operating on the advice of wizard Gandalf the Grey (Ian McKellen, X-Men), passes the ring to cousin Frodo (Elijah Wood, Black and White).  Gandalf, you see, knows the evil potential of the ring and, after doing some digging, discovers its long-dead former owner is regaining strength, though he can't yet take human form.

Yeah, that bit sounds a lot like Voldemort from Harry Potter (as does the incident with the cave troll).  And there isn't much difference between Fellowship and much of what happens in Star Wars, either.  As shameful as it may seem, it's hard not to think about how derivative Fellowship's story is, even though Tolkien's book predates the birth of George Lucas and J.K. Rowling by decades.  The rest of the film, which depicts Frodo and his titular fellowship of eight other various creatures (hobbit, human, elf, wizard and dwarf) embarking upon a journey to destroy the ring in the fire of the appropriately named Mount Doom, isn't anything but a road trip.  A really bumpy, increasingly frightening road trip with bad guys scary enough to give adults nightmares for weeks.

Jackson, who directs, produces, co-wrote the screenplay and I think appears as a drunk in Fellowship's bar scene, confirms the brilliance displayed in his Oscar-nominated Heavenly Creatures, and, if possible, a little bit more.  The trilogy is a huge undertaking, but Jackson clearly is in full command of his craft.  It was downright shocking to learn he used a crew comprised of mostly Australians and New Zealanders with no big feature-film experience.  Even if you ignore the slick post-production special effects and the oft-copied story, you have to admire Jackson's incredible attention to detail, whether its keeping the size of the characters in perspective, or letting his main elf walk on top of hip-deep snow while the others are forced to trudge through it.

Back in July, I got my mitts on a copy of the first episode of television's 24 and, after being dazzled by it (twice), began moaning and griping about having to wait several months to find out what happened.  You'll get the same feeling from Fellowship, only you'll have to wait 12 months instead of a few.  The film, like The Empire Strikes Back, ends with absolutely no resolution, simply because it can.  It's simultaneously frustrating and cool.

So let's sum it all up:  Fellowship is wonderful, and though its story is something we've all seen before, it's one of the best films of the year.  Will it please fans of the book?  I think so.  Will it make a ton of money?  You bet.  Will it factor into the Oscar race?  Yes.  Do you need to be familiar with the story to see the film?  Absolutely not.  Will it be bigger and better than Episode Two?  It's too early to tell, but Fellowship doesn't have a Jar-Jar Binks, so it's got an early lead.

2:58 –

for epic battle sequences and some scary images