Ten Stars or Less

run time: 178 mins
rated: 14A
considered: Action, Adventure, Fantasy
starring: Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Liv Tyler, Viggo Mortensen, Sean Astin, Cate Blanchette, John Rhys-Davies, Billy Boyd, Dominic Monaghan, Orlando Bloom, Christopher Lee, Hugo Weaving, Sean Bean, Ian Holm, Andy Serkis

movie summary: A meek hobbit of The Shire and eight companions set out on a journey to Mount Doom to destroy the One Ring and the dark lord Sauron. (www.imdb.com)

The Fellowship of the Ring is the first installment of the long and famous Lord of the Rings story. The Dark Lord Sauron, one of the most powerful and evil rulers, creates a bunch of rings and gives them to the different rulers of Middle-Earth. Unknown to everyone is there was another ring, the One Ring, which Lord Sauron kept to himself which was the more powerful than all the others. Behind the magical powers of the One Ring, Sauron decides to take over all the lands, but during a battle gets his hand cut off and loses the ring forever. Fast forward a few thousand years and someone named Gollum (Andy Serkis) takes procession of the ring. One day he is captured, tortured, and loses the ring before turning into an ugly evil grey creature. A hobbit by the name of Bilbo Baggins (Ian Holm) finds the ring and keeps it for next 60 years.

On his 111st birthday, Baggins decides it is time to move from the Shire where he lives and give up the One Ring. His old friend Gandolf (Ian McKellen) comes to visit and learns that Bilbo has the magical ring, but can’t take procession of it because of the power it processes. Bilbo’s young nephew Frodo (Elijah Wood) drops by when Gandolf realizes Frodo would be a perfect caretaker of the ring and convinces him to take procession of it. Gandolf explains what he knows about the ring while he packs Frodo’s things because the spirit of Dark Lord Sauron has sent his dark horsemen to recover the ring. Frodo sneaks out-of-town with only a backpack and his best friend Sam (Sean Astin). The two hobbits make their way across the fields, where they bump into two more hobbits Merry (Dominic Monaghan) and Pippin (Billy Boyd) on the way to another town where they accidentially meet Aragon (Viggo Mortensen). Together they manage to escape the dark horseman and continue their journey.

Gandalf meanwhile is off visiting his old friend Saruman the White (Christopher Lee), who has turned evil and wants the ring to rule everything himself. He captures Gandalf and starts to build an underground Orc army for the upcoming war to end all wars. Gandalf manages to escape thanks to a huge flying eagle and meets up the hobbits and Aragon in Rivendell. By this time Frodo has been injured and is on his death-bed. Thanks to the healing powers of Elf Arwen (Liv Tyler) he is able to recover as her father Elrond (Hugo Weaving) calls a council meeting to figure out how to deal with the ring and upcoming war. It is determined the only way to destroy the ring is to bring it to Mount Doom in Mordor by Frodo himself. The journey will be long and dangerous which leads to a fellowship to be formed with Gandalf, Aragon, Elf Legolas (Orlando Bloom), Dwarf Gimi (John Rhys-Davies), Boromir (Sean Bean), Merry, Pippin, Sam, and Frodo.

Together they set out on the journey to Mordor but run into trouble crossing the steep mountain cliffs. Saruman the White tries his best to stop the group with avalanches and Orc attacks, but Frodo makes the decision to go through the mountain’s inner tunnels. After barely surviving these attacks the fellowship make their way to Lothlórien where the Elf Galadriel (Cate Blanchette) warns the ring will turn everyone on each other and tear the fellowship apart. By the next morning Boromir starts acting crazy attempting to capture Frodo and get the ring. Aragon finds him alone and attacks him before coming to senses and tells Frodo he must escape before any else turns on him and he won’t be able to protect him. He tells Frodo the fellowship is better off without him and that he must go on his own, then shortly after their talk another army of Orcs ambush the fellowship. Frodo is left to defend himself and find a way to the lake to escape before he loses his life and the ring.

my thoughts: Oh how I have fallen in love with the Lord of the Rings series. One day I will buy the books and actually read them, but for now I can enjoy Middle-Earth on the big screen. I have now seen the series three times and only during the third time did everything finally click into place for me. The storyline became very easy to follow, while the characters and their place in the story made sense to me!

This almost three-hour movie is just the beginning of a long story, but the Fellowship of the Ring is a perfect introduction to middle earth and every major character important to the story. The movie is filmed in beautiful New Zealand with spectacular landscapes and dangerous unknown paths that challenge the fellowship on their journey. On top of that this film has great story telling, foreshadowing of events to come, and musicial score. Directed by Peter Jackson, he has been able to assemble a solid cast that dig deep to portray their characters to the way J.R.R. Rolkien wrote them.

The greatest part about this movie is it’s only the beginning and there is many more adventures to come!

my rating: 8 out 10