Oh My. I'm about to commit blasphemy. I'm about to tell you that I didn't like a movie that everyone says I'm supposed to like. Perhaps there's something wrong with me.
Not hardly so.
I really wanted to like this film. I really did. As soon as I saw the really early teaser trailer that advertised one movie per Christmas for the next three years, I wanted to see this film.
Well ... I've seen it. The Fellowship of the Ring is a very long and repetitive film that fell apart an hour into its three hour length.
The set up is quite good. We first meet Bilbo Baggins and learn of his very old age, and his desire to move on and finish his book. He has this ring, that's very strange. He leaves it and all his possessions to his nephew Frodo. And then he is gone. This is is a great set up, for anyone who hasn't read The Hobbit. It quickly brings you up to date, and you get a view of the Shire the Hobbits live in before the real adventure begins.
Next, we discover the history of the ring and who the bad guys are who want it so desperately. Frodo must leave immediately, and does so by a narrow margin.
Finally Frodo, three other Hobbits, and the wizard Gandalf end up in the land of the Elves. The ring must be destroyed. A fellowship of Hobbits, Wizards, Elves, Men, and Dwarves comes together to take the ring to Mount Doom to destroy it.
And now the movie goes to hell in a hand basket.
What's left is the fellowship running away from evil, fighting evil, and spelunking through caves to avoid wizard invoked avalanches, over and over again. This is the classic, bad guys couldn't kill a tied down pig if their life depended on it, but good guys can hack up a bushel in no time type of fighting. It gets old real fast.
And then the film maker commits the ultimate sin. He ends the movie without an ending. Imagine a film where I can't spoil the ending, because there isn't one. Excuse me, I paid seven bucks to get in. I want an ending!
That all said what this film does well is design. You really do believe that you are in Middle Earth. Everything looks old and lived in. People appear to be motivated. It's big and expansive.
Pity about that last two hours.
