Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring is a 2001 film by Sir Peter Jackson based on a novel of the same name.

I have seen this film dozens of times. I saw the theatrical cut again for the first time in a while and I do love it.

If you don’t know the plot of Fellowship, it goes as follows. There’s the ring and boy is it no good, it will in fact turn you evil. It was made by this big jerk who wants everyone and everything to be ugly for some reason. Anyhow, they thought they got rid of that fella by taking the ring from him but turns out, no he’s back and he’s looking for that no good ring!

In the meantime, the ring now belongs to this little guy who needs to get it to a volcano to chuck it in there to get rid of the darn thing. He starts to do that and there are some battles and a lot of walking and some magic and a guy dies, like straight up dies, it’s crazy.

The movie ends with the tease that there might be a sequel.

So that’s the plot.

For me this movie has held up incredibly well. From the effects to the performances, everything is still great. Fellowship is my favorite of The Lord Of The Rings films because you get a sense of the world and are allowed to truly sit a watch and listen to some stuff that is absolutely made up. Like, not even close to what we have going on in the real world. Wizards? Nope. Elves? Nope. Birthday parties where people actually turn up? definitely not!

I’m always staggered by Ian McKellen’s performance as Gandalf, he is having so much fun and is so charismatic in that role in a way I truly didn’t fully appreciate as a child. I’m also so impressed with Elijah Wood’s performance as Frodo as he was about 19 or 20 at the time.

The only thing I will say is that the color grading is mad weird. My partner pointed that out to me and now I can’t unsee how deep the tones are when they’re all arguing about what to do with that darn ring!

A character that I will defend but other people often hate is Boromir, a dude who is trying his best and makes a choice that most people watching the movie would make if they were being honest with themselves. Boromir is a complicated and wonderful character that sheds light on the indignity of despair and how to make amends, albeit in the extreme. He gets merced so hard. It’s brutal.

I’ll never forget when I saw this film in theaters after a character cuts the head off of one of the main baddies a woman behind us just cried out “Oh good for him!”

There are few movies that I rewatch where I am instantly transported to when I first saw them. Fellowship does that for me every time. I remember being so excited and scared of the Black riders, desperately trying to get from the bathroom in time to make sure I didn’t miss much, and laughing so hard at the Hobbit’s antics.

I’m put in that headspace every time I watch it, which might be why I watch it so sparingly these days. I want that to remain special.

There’s something of course remarkable about being in Aotearoa, New Zealand where they shot The Rings films over 25 years ago while watching the movie.

You’d think that it might spoil the magic, but it doesn’t. Lord Of The Rings isn’t less magical for being New Zealand, Aotearoa is made more wondrous for it.

The runtime is 178 minutes