Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring

Sword-and-sorcery tales are not easy to pull off. Perched over the twin chasms of Ludicrousness and Pomposity, it’s all too easy for a ham-handed filmmaker to fall prey to that terrible Dark Knight known as Dorkiness. And so Peter Jackson’s first installment in the three-part film version of J.R.R. Tolkien’s 1,000-page Middle-Earth trilogy is a genuine treat. It’s a lovingly faithful, action-packed distillation true to the spirit of the book in every important respect, if necessarily breezier and more popcorn-friendly. Jackson previously created a believable fantasy realm with Heavenly Creatures , and here again takes the right approach—childlike wonder and an unapologetic sense of grandeur. He’s helped enormously by lavish CGI effects and the natural beauty of his native New Zealand, which stands in nicely for Tolkien’s craggy mountains and valleys. But the movie wouldn’t work if the characters were twee or wooden. As in any great film, script and acting are the saving graces. Ian McKellen’s nuanced portrayal of Gandalf holds the film together, but special mention goes to Viggo Mortenson’s heart-throb hero Aragorn and longtime horror villain Christopher Lee, icily evil as the corrupt wizard Saruman.