Fuzzy Mushroom › Films of 2001 › The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Spore Score: 97/100 · The Pros: 96 · The Punters: 100 · 3 sources
Must-see. Spore Score 97/100. The Pros and The Punters broadly agree.
By Fuzzy Mushroom · Updated 11 November 2026 · The Pros 96 · The Punters 100 · Spore Score 97 · How we write our takes
The Fellowship of the Ring is one of the few modern blockbusters with almost no split at all. The Pros give it 96, The Punters 100, and the Spore Score is 97, verdict Must-see. Critics admired the scale and seriousness of Peter Jackson's adaptation; audiences fell for the characters and the world. Both sides were won over by a film that treats fantasy as if it matters.
The hobbit Frodo Baggins (Elijah Wood) inherits a plain gold ring from his uncle Bilbo (Ian Holm). The wizard Gandalf (Ian McKellen) discovers that it is the One Ring of the dark lord Sauron, who wants it back. Frodo leaves the Shire with his friend Sam (Sean Astin), and a fellowship of nine sets out to destroy the Ring in the fires of Mount Doom.
The film earns its length by taking its time in the right places. The Shire feels lived-in before it is left behind. Rivendell, the Mines of Moria and the elven wood of Lothlórien each have their own look, made with a mix of New Zealand landscapes, huge miniatures, forced perspective and Weta's effects. The cave troll fight and the bridge of Khazad-dûm are thrilling, but so is the quiet scene of Gandalf and Frodo talking in the dark about the time we are given.
Not a lot. It is long, and the first hour has a lot of explaining to do. Tolkien purists noticed the changes, including the absence of Tom Bombadil and a bigger role for Arwen (Liv Tyler). As the first part of a trilogy, it ends with the story far from finished.
Filmed back to back with its two sequels, Fellowship was released in December 2001 and won four Oscars, for cinematography, visual effects, make-up and Howard Shore's score.
Must-see, with a Spore Score of 97. The start of the best fantasy trilogy on film, and the rare epic that also feels personal.
Genres: Action, Sci-fi/Fantasy.
| Site | Side | Site score | Adjusted /100 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rotten Tomatoes | The Pros (critics) | 91% | 89 |
| Metacritic | The Pros (critics) | 92/100 | 99 |
| IMDb | The Punters (audiences) | 8.9/10 | 100 |
The Pros' sites said 92, adjusted to 96; The Punters' sites said 89, adjusted to 100. Every review site has habits: some score high, some low, some bunch everything in the middle. We measure each site's habit across thousands of films and iron it out, so a 7/10 from a generous site and a 7/10 from a harsh one aren't treated the same. Then critics and audiences each get one figure, and the Spore Score sits between them. How the Spore Score works.
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