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Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The
New Line Cinema

Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 92 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
8.4 out of 10
based on 34 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 397 votes
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Rate this movie

MPAA RATING: PG-13 for epic battle sequences and some scary images

Starring Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Viggo Mortensen, Sean Astin, Liv Tyler, Cate Blanchett, and Ian Holm

An epic adventure of good against evil, a story of the power of friendship and individual courage, and the heroic quest to pave the way for the emergence of mankind, J.R.R. Tolkien's master work brought to cinematic life. (New Line Cinema)


GENRE(S): Fantasy  
WRITTEN BY: Frances Walsh
Philippa Boyens
Peter Jackson
J.R.R. Tolkien (novel The Fellowship of the Ring)
 
DIRECTED BY: Peter Jackson  
RELEASE DATE: DVD: August 6, 2002 
Video: August 6, 2002 
Theatrical: December 19, 2001 
RUNNING TIME: 178 minutes, Color 
ORIGIN: New Zealand / USA 

Received a year-high 13 Oscar nominations in 2002, including Best Picture and Best Director. The film's four Golden Globe nominations include Best Picture (Drama) and Best Director (Jackson). Other awards include Best Supporting Actress (Blanchett), Filmmaking Special Event, Best Production Design, 2001 National Board of Review

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100
Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek
I see it as nearly perfect: It's one of the best fantasy pictures ever made.
Read Full Review
100
Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington
An extraordinary work, grandly conceived, brilliantly executed and wildly entertaining. It's a hobbit's dream, a wizard's delight. And, of course, it's only the beginning.
Read Full Review
100
Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
Against all odds in an era of machine-made spectaculars, Mr. Jackson and his collaborators have created a film epic that lives and breathes.
100
Newsweek David Ansen
The Movie Works. It has real passion, real emotion, real terror, and a tactile sense of evil that is missing in that other current movie dealing with wizards, wonders and wickedness.
Read Full Review
100
New York Post Lou Lumenick
So consistently involving because the excellent cast delivers their lines with the kind of utter conviction not seen in this kind of movie since the first "Star Wars."
Read Full Review
100
Slate David Edelstein
Fashioned by a buff, The Lord of the Rings is a banquet for the buff in us all. I left exhausted, happy, intoxicated.
Read Full Review
100
LA Weekly Manohla Dargis
The film is a virtuosic triumph, but parlor tricks don't make movies, and it's Jackson's unwavering sincerity that elevates The Fellowship of the Ring into the increasingly rare Valhalla of the rousing, well-told tale.
Read Full Review
100
Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
Made with intelligence, imagination, passion and skill, propulsively paced and shot through with an aged-in-oak sense of wonder, the trilogy's first film so thrillingly catches us up in its sweeping story that nothing matters but the vivid and compelling events unfolding on the screen.
Read Full Review
100
Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
Jackson surpasses the expectations anyone might have had for him with The Fellowship of the Ring, the first installment of his trilogy devoted to J.R.R. Tolkien's masterwork.
Read Full Review
100
Time Richard Corliss
Though faithful in every detail to Tolkien, it has a vigorous life of its own -- grandeur, moral heft and emotional depth.
100
Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow
A movie masterpiece -- thrilling, passionate and wise.
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100
San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
Gets it right. It's a wonderful movie. Watching it, one can't help but get the impression that everyone involved was steeped in Tolkien's work, loved the book, treasured it and took care not to break a cherished thing in it.
Read Full Review
100
Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
Vibrantly, intricately alive on its own terms. This is what magic the movies can conjure with an inspired fellowship in charge, and unlimited pots of gold.
Read Full Review
100
Washington Post Rita Kempley
With its spectacular scenery, stupefying effects and epic scope, is a dream come true.
Read Full Review
100
Rolling Stone Peter Travers
Fellowship is the real deal, a movie epic that pops your eyes out, piles on thrills and fun, and yet stays intimately attuned to character.
Read Full Review
100
Washington Post Desson Thomson
You believe in everything.
Read Full Review
100
Boston Globe Jay Carr
Not since the original ''Star Wars'' trilogy has film dipped into myth and emerged with the kind of weight and heft seen in Peter Jackson's first installment of J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy.
91
Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold
The film's single downside is a certain nagging sense of deja vu: the fact that so many of the elements of the story -- the dark force, the all-empowering object, etc. -- have been usurped over the years (by "Star Wars" and others) that you feel as if you've been down this road many, many times before.
Read Full Review
90
The New Yorker David Denby
Consistently beautiful and often exciting -- despite some dead passages here and there, it's surely the best big-budget fantasy movie in years. [24 & 31 Dec 2001, p. 126]
90
The New York Times A.O. Scott
The playful spookiness of Mr. Jackson's direction provides a lively, light touch, a gesture that doesn't normally come to mind when Tolkien's name is mentioned.
Read Full Review
90
New Times (L.A.) Gregory Weinkauf
The film succeeds as massive, astonishing entertainment; verily, enthralling us is its chief goal.
Read Full Review
90
Variety Todd McCarthy
Looks to please the book's legions of fans with its imaginatively scrupulous rendering of the tome's characters and worlds on the screen, as well as the uninitiated with its uninterrupted flow of incident and spectacle.
Read Full Review
89
Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov
This is high fantasy of the best kind.
Read Full Review
88
New York Daily News Jack Mathews
For Hobbitués and adventure fans of all other ages, it's the year's best thrill ride -- maybe the best film.
80
Film Threat Ron Wells
Probably the best comment I could give it is that after sitting through the first two and 1/2 hours, I would have happily sat through another five. How long am I going to have to wait for that DVD Box Set?
Read Full Review
80
New York Magazine Peter Rainer
Smashing for much of the way; as a piece of fantasy moviemaking, franchise-style, it beats the bejesus out of "Harry Potter."
Read Full Review
80
Village Voice J. Hoberman
Jackson's adaptation is certainly successful on its own terms.
Read Full Review
75
USA Today Claudia Puig
Rings has moments of edge-of-the-seat excitement, too, such as when the dark riders come looking for Frodo. But it's occasionally tedious when it should be captivating.
Read Full Review
75
Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
That it transcends this genre -- that it is a well-crafted and sometimes stirring adventure -- is to its credit. But a true visualization of Tolkien's Middle-earth it is not.
Read Full Review
75
Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
Jackson's dazzling vision turns the story into a real movie-movie -- one that, unlike too many fantasy films today, is genuinely transporting.
Read Full Review
70
TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
Above all, Jackson evokes an almost palpable sense of the will to power trapped within the ring. Without this evocation of the ring's insidious ability to sniff out the potential for corruption and capitalize on it, the entire enterprise would be precious drivel.
Read Full Review
63
Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
But moving across this tableau is Frodo and his gang, and here the trouble lies...Not a one seems believable as conveyed by Wood, who forever looks to be on the brink of a good sob. Likewise, his hobbit sidekick Samwise Gamgee (Sean Astin) is a real wuss.
63
Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
Far from the movie of the year, the first installment of the long-awaited Lord of the Rings trilogy is an all-around disappointment.
Read Full Review
60
Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum
It's full of scenic splendors with a fine sense of scale, but its narrative thrust seems relatively pro forma, and I was bored by the battle scenes.
Read Full Review

What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this movie is 8.4 (out of 10) based on 397 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Jared C. gave it a10:
Peter Jackson awakens us into this breathtaking astonishing trilogy The Lord of the Rings. Jackson views a unique conception of fantasy and engages us with plenty of detail. After that crap animated Lord of the Rings came out, I could never get the horrific sensation of bad elements in the film out of my head. But in The Fellowship, Jackson amazes our pupils and widens our hearts into his beautiful imagination that will be cherished for generations. The soudtrack will raise your heart strings as every scene has its own heartwarming beat or song that brings each a favorable rhythm each time a new place in the story is discovered to develop more build-up in the plot and setting. The Shire, Rivendell, Lothlorien, Moria, and Amon-Hen each have their own soundtrack so when you think of that one place, you think of the music Howard Shore uses in that setting. The character development is tremendous and each and every image in this film is absolutely beautiful. Jackson succeeds in this brilliant and amazing picture and will now be defined as a master movie-maker. The Fellowship of the Ring is highly recommended and magnificent.

Nigg A gave it a0:
It sucked my left nut on the right side bullshit it sucked both the balls freestyle that shit and eat it.

Randy M. gave it a10:
An epic movie if I ever saw one. Captivating and just plain fun to watch. This movie is, indeed, art.

Bob B. gave it a7:
At first, I hated the Lord of the Rings series, but it's begun to grow on me more and more. Although the movies are much better to me than I thought they were when they came out, I still think they're overrated. Anyway, Fellowship is still an great movie in my opinion. Other ones were better though.

Mike F. gave it a0:
Quite possibly the worst movie I have ever seen. I mean this. Even bad movies are better, because at least the directors of those know thy're not making art. What sent this picture plummeting off the scale, earning a complete zero, was the impression I had that Jackson thought he was creating a work of art. What a joke. In fact, I wish it were a joke -- a bunch of one-dimensional characters speaking a sort of bad-Shakespeare dialect. Good lord.

Anson G. gave it a10:
Wonderful adventure movie. Best ever.

Jeff Z. gave it a10:
The whole series is the best, but the first movie is the most faithful of the bunch. a better fantasy epic than star wars. why roger ebert thinks harry potter and star wars is better is beyond me.

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