Fellowship of the Ring • Film Review

I see quotes and clips of Gandalf sometimes and I just wouldn't be able to fully relate. In my entire lifetime that The Lord of the Rings has been around, I actually never saw it. At some point, I thought I was the last person yet to see the franchise. Surely, that couldn't be, but I finally made out time to watch it anyway. And to say the least, it was quite different from what I had always thought of it.

I had only played the video game a few times on my PS2 console as a kid. That was all I knew about Lord of the Rings, and I don't even remember much. The franchise is a trilogy, apparently, and what you'll read today is only about the first part, Fellowship of the Ring—what I have watched so far.

A ring with mysterious powers lands in the hands of a young hobbit, Frodo. Under the guidance of Gandalf, a wizard, he and his three friends set out on a journey and land in the Elvish kingdom.

For reasons that I'll soon get more into, watching this film felt very different. It was about three hours long, but that's not why. It was more like watching 25 years that have gone by in those few hours. The contrast between films of nowadays and classics from decades ago is stark.

I was initially not so interested in going all the way back in time for a film because of what I thought the quality would be like. To find this film released in 2001 to have good quality regardless reminded me there are always filmmakers putting in their best to produce lasting films with the technology in their time. And Lord of the Rings is such a good example.

In a way, Fellowship of the Ring was like reading a novel. Even though the visuals are there in the film, the experience of watching took some sort of semblance to the imaginative feeling from reading a book. Page after page, or scenes in this case, the storyline gradually unfolded and in a more fascinating fashion. Perhaps because magic interests me... But to my surprise, there actually wasn't as much as I expected in this part. And that brings me to Gandalf again.

Galdalf the wizard in my mind before, I expected way more from him in the film. Not like I even knew much about him, but I guess I had thought too highly of what I would find. And in a way, I kind of appreciate the way he actually turned out to be in the film, although something very surprising happened, but I really hope there's more to him and his contributions in the next series.

Something peculiar about this part of the franchise is the comic characters and dialogue for most of it. I'd like to believe that it will continue in the rest of the franchise, but my guess is that it probably wouldn't, as things got really serious in the ending of Fellowship of the Ring.

While my expectations were far from reality, I very much enjoyed the film regardless. Now I wonder how exactly I just never saw it. I have the other two downloaded now, and I'm excited for some more of good storytelling in a classic. Until then, what do you think? Tell me you know Gandalf...or not.