The Lord Of The Rings - The Fellowship Of The Ring (DVD 2002)

I can't disagree with the last review more. Yes, large sections of the book were sacrificed but in my opinion, that doesn't matter one jot. This is not a book, it's a film. To have translated every single part of the book into the film would have made for a pretty terrible film. They are two radically different media, accept it. The important thing to realize is that the main themes and spirit of Tolkien's work survived the transition.
Looking at the film qua film, there's nothing to fault here. The casting is spot on, nail on the head perfect with top-notch acting. The special effects, make up and cinematography are breathtaking - New Zealand IS Middle Earth. Even with a running time of 3 hours, it doesn't feel 3 hours. The fast editing pace ensures that the audience never gets bored yet the narrative remains comprehensible. Howard's Shore's score is beautifully evocative; it underscores the themes and emotions wonderfully. Also, despite taking in many different musical styles (Celtic, psuedo-religious choruses,bombastic fanfares and eerie modal passages to name a few) he somehow manages to make the whole thing stylistically coherent. Take a bow Mr. Shore.
As an adaptation, this is as good as you're going to get. The film is meticulously researched and so what if certain roles have been expanded? Arwen, although having little page time in the book does play a very important part. There's plenty of textual evidence to suggest that she is always on Aragorn's mind. That can be evoked easily in text as background but it's nigh on impossible to achieve a similar thing in film so it makes sense to bring Arwen out of the appendix and make her a fully fleshed out character to make Aragorn's motives make sense. Secondly, the extra Arwen material was not written "for" Liv Tyler, she was simply hired to play a role, that's how the part was written anyway. As for Saruman's expanded role; a flesh and blood person makes for a much more effective cinematic villain than "a great eye, lidless and wreathed in flame" would. It works fine in the book but not for a film. Any changes made were sensible, they make for a better movie. I would much rather have a very good film with changes than a slavishly faithful bad one. Thankfully, this film falls into the former camp. And with the DVD extras, it should become even better!