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Ed Gonzalez (Slant Magazine) writes, "Jackson has stunningly authenticated Tolkien's mythic landscape. There is a sense of belonging here, as if we've finally stumbled across that old friend we've only seen in dreams and read about in the thumb-worn pages of Tolkien's novels."

It has even won over religious critics who, earlier this year, condemned onscreen wizards.

Lisa and Eric Rice (Movieguide) write, "Fellowship … is a wonderful 'epic' movie that vividly captures most of Tolkien's vision, including his moral vision."

Paul Bicking (The Dove Foundation) says, "The visually stunning film and enthralling adventure will capture audiences with its tale of bravery and friendship." (In spite of this, he concludes, "the graphic, gruesome battles, while true to the book, prevent our recommendation.")

J. Robert Parks (The Phantom Tollbooth) has mixed feelings: "I had expected to either love it or hate it and instead found myself squarely in the middle. It's an engaging tale told with panache, but it's not without its flaws. At three hours, it often feels too long, and yet I was disappointed when it was done."

Peter T. Chattaway at Canadian Christianity reports, "The film paints a vivid, compelling portrait of an ancient world and the fascinating creatures that lived, fought, and died there. The film gets even better when it settles into its main story, and for one simple reason—despite the vast sums they spent on sets, props, and special effects, the filmmakers pay close, careful attention to the relationships between individual characters, and the actors, almost without exception, do a marvelous job of bringing the inhabitants of Middle-Earth to life."

I cannot offer a completely objective perspective on the film. I first read Tolkien when I was 7, and I remember more specific details from Bilbo and Frodo Baggins's journeys than I do about my own childhood. Tolkien gave me strong metaphors for the battlegrounds of my own life and my own heart, for the forces in conflict that are described in Ephesians 6:12. Every reader's imagination is different, and different viewers will respond differently, but when I saw Fellowship on Wednesday night, it was as though director Peter Jackson had tapped into my memories. With the first sighting of Gandalf moseying into Hobbiton, I felt right at home.

Almost everything was just as I had imagined it. Okay, maybe I imagined Aragorn as slightly darker, more weatherbeaten. But Ian McKellan's performance as Gandalf seemed flawless, from the gleam in his eye to the ferocity of his temper. The Hobbits are perfectly childlike, the Ringwraiths and the Balrog perfectly terrifying. Most Tolkien devotees will quibble over what director Jackson got right, what he got wrong, what should have been left in, what should have been cut.

But good literature and good movies are two different things. If the film had included all of Fellowship's beloved events—Tom Bombadil, the Barrow Wight, Bilbo's songs, and Frodo's dance—detail-obsessed fans would have nodded knowingly while others might have lost interest or gone for more popcorn. Tolkien once said of movie adaptations, "The failure of poor films is often precisely in exaggeration, and in the intrusion of unwarranted matter owing to not perceiving where the core of the original lies." Jackson has admirably and efficiently streamlined the story, while honoring the book's "core." This is his interpretation of Tolkien's romance, just as Arthurian legend has been interpreted by T.H. White, Thomas Malory, Steven Lawhead, and Monty Python. As moviegoers are drawn to the book and its sequels, those gaps will be filled.

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December (Web-only) 2001, Vol. 45