“The Ring is trying to get back to its master. It wants to be found…”

I got up out of my seat dizzy. I walked out of the building feeling like I was floating on air. I felt like I had experienced something…holy.

Are we talking about a movie here?

Yes indeed! We are talking about the much-anticipated, much-acclaimed, and much-criticized Lord of the Rings. You’ve heard it praised to the skies, blasted like theater garbage, and presented picked over with a half-hearted “It was okay.” It’s hard to walk into this movie without remembering all those little quibbles; even harder to forget the wonderful majesty of the books.

The majesty survives and thrives in the movie. Once you get past the plethora of trailers (and this being a PG-13 film, they make sure to load you with blood-and-smut trailers), you will sit back and be treated to a swirling mist that carries you through….

…to the saga of the One Ring, created by the Dark Lord Sauron. Through centuries of turmoil and lust for the power it possesses, the Ring falls into the hands of a small hobbit, Bilbo Baggins, who unwittingly holds this terrible treasure hidden for 60 years. But Sauron will never rest until he regains it and destroys the entire land. His opponents are few – the Elves, part of the Men, the Dwarves, the wizard Gandalf, the rightful king Aragorn, and four young hobbits. Bilbo’s nephew Frodo, an innocent yet courageous youngster, is the Ring-bearer, and his purity of heart safeguards him when all the rest are tempted. The nine travelers who make up the Fellowship that travel to destroy the ring pass through unspeakable danger; they are pursued by the nine Black Riders, hunted by Orcs, and always sought by the Eye of Sauron. But the greatest danger could come from within the Fellowship itself…

The scope of this film is simply astounding, and its director Peter Jackson managed to capture all of the beauty and action of the books. That aside, it’s a breathtaking piece, filled with lush visuals, tight battle scenes, and surprisingly, a lot of feeling. The other reviews I read never tipped me off as to how moved I would be by Fellowship of the Ring. It’s truly a heartrending movie, evoking the personal struggles of fear and loneliness, the terror of knowing the fate of millions rests in one person, the vividly depicted contrast of Sauron’s evil and the faint light of hope offered by Frodo’s quest.

As a fantasy film, this one succeeds superbly. It has the epic feel down to a tee, and can hold its own in this day of Harry Potter, The Matrix, and Crouching Tiger. While there were some changes made to the storyline, it is actually pretty faithful to the book. The original story is so magnificent to begin with that any version can’t help but offer at least a glimpse of the magnificence. However, you know that they could have made this one cheaply and tackily. It’s not. (A big sigh of relief!) In my book, it’s a masterpiece that comes out shining despite a few flaws.

I can see how this movie would be a little confusing to those who hadn’t read the book; however, I really don’t see it as a serious problem. You may not get all the subtle nuances or every single plot detail, but you will still be overwhelmed by the sheer epicry of the quest and entertained by the extremely strong story line. To acquaint the audience with what’s going on, the opening tells the basic history of the Ring, meaning that this movie doesn’t start out with a bang. An ancient battle between Sauron and his early adversaries perks things up, but the focus quickly returns to the Shire, the peaceful, pretty land of the hobbits. Not exactly whizbang action. But this movie is remarkable for the graceful way it gains momentum and gradually crescendos into increasingly electrifying chases, battles, and showdowns.

Elijah Wood leads the cast as Frodo. He is so perfect for the role – I could not imagine anybody else playing the part. His wide eyes, vulnerability, and depth of emotion go beyond just acting to actually being Frodo. He connects with the audience very tightly, bringing them into his adventures and his sorrows. Without him, this film would not fly. He is the one who makes you care very much about what happens to the mission – as I recently saw on a wall, Frodo Lives!

I’ve heard so much about the force of Ian McKellan’s performance of Gandalf, that he steals the show. Sorry, but I think that award goes to Frodo. However, McKellan is excellent as the wise, expressive old wizard, and he flows into the role with grace and inspiration. His rival in the story gives him a run for his money in the acting realm. Christopher Lee, who plays the wizard Saruman seduced by Sauron, gives a spine-tingling interpretation of his delusioned character. The two of them duke it out in a fun but decidedly non-Tolkien face-off.

Aragorn (Viggo Mortenson) is amazingly true to the character I had always pictured from the book. Rugged but handsome, he has a quiet strength and mysteriousness that’s just right for the character. He also seems slightly foreign, which adds a new twist to the role. Sean Astin as Sam, Frodo’s faithful servant, isn’t quite what I pictured Sam as but actually fits very well and communicates the loyalty and devotion of their friendship beautifully. The other two hobbits, played by two good actors, were unfortunately undeveloped except for comedic or mistake-making purposes. Orlando Bloom was perfect as the elf of the group, Legolas – his exotic blond features (quickly labeled “cute and sissy” by my dad) make him exactly my idea of an elf. The other elvish actors were perfect as well, except for…yes, here it comes.

Why oh why did they have to cast the females for their names? Cate Blanchett plays the elf queen Galadriel, and while she’s usually a good actress, she seems rather lifeless in this part. She doesn’t really look like a fairy queen to boot; she doesn’t have the striking elf eyes that the others do. Liv Tyler as Arwen also seems there just to add another big name; her warrior princess act never takes off. She’s got too much of a Katharine Hepburn look and too low a voice for the part. (Although my dad said he cried during the bridge scene with her and Aragorn.)

The women were really the only disappointing aspect of this film. Contrary to some, I think the characters were pretty fairly covered, given the amount of time they had to show character development. I would have liked to see a little bit more of Legolas and Gimli the Dwarf (John Rhys-Smith), though that probably wasn’t possible. Boromir (Sean Bean), the tortured warrior seduced by the Ring, was a better character than he was in the book – quite a feat! He shows the struggle between the right and his own evil very convincingly, and I cried at the end when he (SPOILER WARNING!) was dying in Aragorn’s arms.

As a matter of fact, I broke down and cried several times during this movie – once when Gandalf was taken down by the Balrog, and again at the end when Frodo rescues the drowning Sam and they hug, knowing they are about to sail off into horrible dangers. It’s a dark story by nature, and Fellowship of the Ring is dark, no question there; but the magic created by its mixture of darkness and light is irresistible. There are a couple laughs, provided by Merry and Pippin’s blundering and a droll line from Gandalf, but for the most part you’ll find yourself caught up in the exhilarating, heartrending tale of hope and despair, triumph and failure. I’m not a crying person, and I usually struggle to keep the tears back, but this time I made good use of my hanky.

The Fellowship of the Ring’s three hour length zooms by like a flash. The worlds opened up by its director Peter Jackson are dazzling enough for the most cynical of theatergoers, and even those who hated this movie had to admit that the sets and effects were gorgeous. Vivid and luminous, each scene created a new vista of beauty, terror, or sheer magnificence. The CGI effects blended perfectly with the kind of surrealistic reality demanded by the story to create a visually (and in every other aspect) spectacular film.

The photography was also amazing, absorbing the enormous scope of the shots as well as achieving the delicate creativity needed for a fantasy. The techniques used to achieve the various heights of the characters mostly succeed, with the use of special camera shots being the most fluid. The “midget shots” were slightly jolting, since they aren’t consistent with the proportions of the hobbits. They were infrequent, however, and I loved how the hobbits were generally portrayed as valiant instead of ridiculous. Another superb touch is the “otherworld” realm that Frodo enters whenever he puts on the ring – an atmospheric white mist filled with glowing ghostly figures. Very effective!

Watching the trailers, you would never have guessed that this movie has as much action as it does. You have a dozen or more tightly cut battles or variations thereof to savor in all their fast-paced glory. You could say they were a bit too fast-paced, since each shot during the battle scenes only lasts a couple seconds and you only get a racing glimpse of what’s going on. This was necessary for two reasons – one, if they had shown more close-ups, it would have been an R-rated film; two, if they had presented drawn-out fight scenes such as The Phantom Menace, you would be seeing a six hour movie instead of three. As it is, the audience is treated to a heady roller coaster ride of skirmishes, swordfights, and lots of Orcs. Frodo gets targeted and/or wounded every time, of course!

I can see why it garnished a PG-13 rating, even though I feel that that rating has become a lot more lenient lately. In Lord of the Rings there’s no nudity or sex, no profanity, and no drug use (although some might say that Gandalf’s “pipeweed” craving is a little iffy). There’s just lots of violence! Actually, there’s not a whole lot of blood and none of the disgusting close-ups of gory arrows sticking out of eyeballs etc. that violent films like to show. A couple heads get shopped off and plenty of people get hacked with swords and arrows, yet the movie never really shows anything gross or graphic. Unless you count the exceptionally nasty-looking Orcs, which would freak the sense out of a little kid. Probably anyone 11-12 and up could handle this film, depending on the level of maturity.

I had bought the soundtrack long before I went to see the movie itself, and so I was prepared to love the music here. It’s a score worthy of this kind of an epic, soaring and orchestral and heavily minor key. You can here echoes of John Williams at times, though the composer Howard Shore relies more on sweeping strings and epic chorale voices than Williams’ typical bombastic brass-and-strings. The haunting Celtic singer Enya also contributes her considerable singing and songwriting efforts to the score, and I just cannot get her song “May It Be,” which plays during the credits, out of my head!

All things considered, Peter Jackson is a genius for creating this incredible masterpiece out of the different bits and pieces that go into making a film. Even more incredible is the fact that the movie is beautiful, brilliant, and very true to the book. All the aspects I analyzed sound very distinct and logical, yet the truth is the entire movie flows together wonderfully, so that you don’t really stop to think whether the acting is good, or the effects are high-quality, or the music fits. I was entranced by the splendor of the movie as a whole – it was a thrilling performance, but more than that it was one that touched me deeply. Like my first encounter with Star Wars, it brought me into a breathtaking realm of magic and heroism, letting me escape from the mundaneness of the real world for a short time. But this movie kept me enchanted long after I had left the theater – it left me feeling like I had found something very dear to me. And I have.