The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Metascore
92 out of 100

Universal acclaim - based on 34 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 33 out of 34
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 34
  3. Negative: 0 out of 34
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  1. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Lou Lumenick
    100
    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."
  2. Rolling Stone
    Reviewed by: Peter Travers
    100
    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.
  3. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Mick LaSalle
    100
    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.
  4. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Lisa Schwarzbaum
    100
    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.
  5. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Kenneth Turan
    100
    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.
  6. Wall Street Journal
    Reviewed by: Joe Morgenstern
    100
    Against all odds in an era of machine-made spectaculars, Mr. Jackson and his collaborators have created a film epic that lives and breathes.
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  7. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Desson Thomson
    100
    You believe in everything.
  8. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Marc Savlov
    89
    This is high fantasy of the best kind.
  9. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Jack Mathews
    88
    For Hobbitués and adventure fans of all other ages, it's the year's best thrill ride -- maybe the best film.
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  10. Charlotte Observer
    Reviewed by: Lawrence Toppman
    100
    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.
  11. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: A.O. Scott
    90
    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.
  12. Variety
    Reviewed by: Todd McCarthy
    90
    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.
  13. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Michael Wilmington
    100
    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.
  14. Seattle Post-Intelligencer
    Reviewed by: William Arnold
    91
    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.
  15. Baltimore Sun
    Reviewed by: Michael Sragow
    100
    A movie masterpiece -- thrilling, passionate and wise.
  16. Salon.com
    Reviewed by: Stephanie Zacharek
    100
    I see it as nearly perfect: It's one of the best fantasy pictures ever made.
  17. Time
    Reviewed by: Richard Corliss
    100
    Though faithful in every detail to Tolkien, it has a vigorous life of its own -- grandeur, moral heft and emotional depth.
    All this critic's reviews
  18. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Jay Carr
    100
    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.
    All this critic's reviews
  19. Slate
    Reviewed by: David Edelstein
    100
    Fashioned by a buff, The Lord of the Rings is a banquet for the buff in us all. I left exhausted, happy, intoxicated.
  20. Newsweek
    Reviewed by: David Ansen
    100
    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.
  21. The New Yorker
    Reviewed by: David Denby
    90
    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]
    All this critic's reviews
  22. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Rita Kempley
    100
    With its spectacular scenery, stupefying effects and epic scope, is a dream come true.
  23. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: Manohla Dargis
    100
    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.
  24. New Times (L.A.)
    Reviewed by: Gregory Weinkauf
    90
    The film succeeds as massive, astonishing entertainment; verily, enthralling us is its chief goal.

User Reviews

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User Score
8.8 out of 10

Universal acclaim- based on 902 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 305 out of 346
  2. Mixed: 9 out of 346
  3. Negative: 32 out of 346
  1. grandpajoe6191
    9
    "Lord of the RIngs: The Fellowship of the Ring" may be boring for several people, but nevertheless it is a heart warming epic adventure that certainly is one of the year's best films.… Full Review »
  2. RandyM.
    10
    An epic movie if I ever saw one. Captivating and just plain fun to watch. This movie is, indeed, art.
  3. ChristopherE
    5
    One of the more over-rated films of the 21st century that owes it's success more to nostalgia than to taste.
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