The Fellowship of the Ring Review: You Shall Not Pass!

The Lord of the Rings was a series that always haunted me as a kid. From certain scenes that I watched that gave me nightmares, to the books that I couldn’t pass the first chapter without being bored, The Lord of the Rings was a daunting series that loomed over me. Now, after many long years, I’ve actually watched the first movie, The Fellowship of the Ring, and I’ve got to say, it was much better than what I thought the series would be like. The Lord of the Rings was a series that I always made fun of for all its constant walking, but after watching the first movie, I can see why it is a beloved series for many.

Should You Watch The Fellowship of the Ring?

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring is 100% worth a watch. From the plot, to the characters, to setting, everything melds together magically to weave an amazing tale. Even for a movie that was released over 20 years ago, its effects and story still hold up today.

Now, as a change of style for my review, I’ll first mention an aspect about the movie, whether it’s plot, characters, setting, or the like. After a brief overview, I’ll delve into my thoughts. Second thing, since this movie is over 20 years old, I’m going to be discussing spoiler points throughout this review. So, if you haven’t had the chance to watch this movie, give it a watch then come back here.

With that out of the way, let’s get started.

General Thoughts

Before we delve into specifics, I want to first get my general thoughts out. So, before actually watching The Fellowship of the Ring, my Lord of the Rings knowledge was quite limited. Pretty much only knew what happened in The Hobbit and any other memes I saw around. So, after watching this almost three-hour long movie, I have to say that I’m quite impressed with what I watched. With all the walking the group does, it still carried a solid pace, and nothing felt too long or drawn out. The heavier scenes are balanced nicely with some lighter ones, which made the pace feel even smoother. When it comes to CGI and the effects, even today, most of them still hold up, which was a nice surprise. The only time it felt weird was after Frodo was stabbed by the Ringwraith and woke up in the elven town. With how bright everything was, I thought he was in the afterlife. Other than that, it was a solid movie that I really enjoyed. 

What Happens in The Fellowship of the Ring?

As usual, let’s start with the plot. In this review, I’ll jump to certain parts of the story that I enjoyed or didn’t, and it’ll follow the events chronologically.  

Now, this story takes place 60 years after the events of The Hobbit, where Bilbo Baggins is in procession of the Ring. If you want to read our thoughts on that novel, you can click here to read more. As hobbits are lower leveled creatures, the corruption from the Ring takes a much longer time to manifest. After those long 60 years, Bilbo begins to feel the corruption. After using the Ring one last time, Bilbo leaves The Shire, and his cousin Frodo finds the Ring. During this time, we are also introduced to Frodo’s travelling companions, Sam, Merry, and Pippin.

As an intro to our protagonists and the state of the world, I found this little intro great. It was a solid way to introduce our characters, and since I’ve read and watched The Hobbit, it was a bittersweet farewell to the previous protagonist.

Now, skipping a bit, I want to cover a few details that I thought were facepalm moments. Now, I know most of the hobbits don’t have experience outside The Shire, but dang is Pippin really bad at adventuring. From causing the Ringwraiths to attack because of bacon, orc attack in the mine, to even revealing Frodo’s name in the tavern, Pippin really can’t catch a break. At the time of writing this review, I haven’t seen the other movies, but I hope he gets some redemption.

Speaking of some facepalm moments, another moment that really stumped me was when Gimli tried to slice the Ring with his axe. I know that the group met together to destroy the Ring, but if it could’ve been destroyed by bashing it, it for sure would’ve been destroyed by now. Anyways, just another observation.

Back to some plot points now. We’ll explore the other characters in the next section.

So, another memorable scene that happened in the movie was Gandalf’s famous, “You shall not pass!” scene. Before watching The Fellowship of the Ring, I thought that that scene was in the last film, so this surprised me. I also didn’t realize Gandalf dies right after that. This death took me by surprise, and I like how this part of the story was used to develop Frodo in his hero’s journey.

Final plot point I want to discuss is the ending. Now, from my limited and fractured knowledge of the series.  I was always confused on how Frodo and Sam were on a separate journey from the others. Since I now understand how they split up, I really liked how this scene played out. I liked that this was Frodo’s method to prevent the collapse of the Fellowship, while also giving some of the other characters a chance to shine.

Overall, solid plot. I originally thought I would be making fun of all the walking involved in this movie, but The Fellowship of the Ring has a nice balance of pacing to keep me entertained.

Who’s in The Fellowship of the Ring?

Here in the character section, there’s only a few I want to touch on to share my thoughts on.

Now, first things first, Pippin and Gimli are the two characters that made me facepalm the most, as you can probably tell. If these guys are used as comedic relief or not, I can’t really tell, due to the serious nature of the movie. They do bring a nice pause to the action though, which I do appreciate. I look forward to seeing what happens to them, especially since Pippin’s now captured.

Boromir is a character that I didn’t expect to kick the bucket this movie. It is true that he was a bit of a nuisance, stirring up trouble with Aragorn or trying to take the Ring from Frodo many times, I really liked his small redemption arc when he tried saving both Pippin and Merry. He was a true trooper and he carried himself like a true warrior. It’s too bad that whole fight was in vain since Pippin and Merry get captured regardless of Boromir’s sacrifice. I think his final moments also redeemed him a bit in my eyes when he admitted that Aragorn was his king, granted I saw this from a mile away.

Final character I want to touch on, and this more of a comment more than anything, but Frodo Baggins becomes a human, or hobbit, punching bag this movie. It is insane how many times he gets booted all over the place. I know he isn’t some trained warrior, but I find it hilarious how often he gets injured this movie without even trying.