Finally, after waiting much longer than I'd intended, I saw Fellowship of the Ring and was thoroughly impressed. I first read the trilogy many years ago and have read it numerous times since. I doubted that any movie could come even close to the magic and power of the books; however, Peter Jackson has succeeded in being very true to Tolkien's creation. Most of the changes were simply omissions, and surely no one could have expected every part of the book could be included in a 3-hour movie. Although not all of the cast lives up to my own vision of the characters, I thought they were excellent and created their own very genuine versions of the characters they played. I agree with several of the points made by JayS but definitely disagree with the conclusion he makes in Update . I have read and appreciated the trilogy for a very long time but was not annoyed by the movie at all -- in fact, I enjoyed it thoroughly and can hardly wait for the release of The Two Towers.