The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

Director: Peter Jackson
Year Released: 2001
Rating: 3.0

I'm not sure how fair it is to this film to rate it as its own entity, since it's only a piece of the much greater 8+ hour epic Jackson has made. It's over-'everything', to simplify things - over-acted, over-long, overly ambitious, but what's the harm in really striving for something so stunning that no matter what you do it's bound to fail a little? It should be seen by anyone that loves and appreciates grand-scale movie making or fantasy in general; it is not the greatest film ever made (and the trilogy, pieced together, will probably not be a masterpiece), but it isn't contemptible either, and despite the flaws - and occasionally awful CGI - it's an intriguing and elaborate project.