So what’s with this ring anyway? Yes, once again I did not read the book on which the movie is based. I’m starting to feel illiterate. Why do so many movies lately involve reading? At least now, after all these years, I know what a “hobbit” is. Well, kind of.

The ring in question is the focus of the movie. If the bad guy gets a hold of it, it’s curtains for the world. The keeper of the ring is Frodo Baggins, a hobbit boy played by Elijah Wood. A hobbit is, well, kind of a Lucky Charms leprachaun thing. Little people who seemed to live a happy, charmed life until this ring messes things up. It’s been “missing” for many years and right about the time Frodo is given charge of it, the supernatural evil thing comes to “life” to retrieve it. If he can do that, his ugly armies will take over the world and we’ll all face the darkness.

Of course, Frodo can’t just smash the ring with a big anvil. It has to be transported to ground zero of the evil empire and destroyed there. That trip is what consumes most of the three hours of this movie. It is a trip fraught with dangers as the goons of the evil guy constantly show up and try to destroy Frodo and get that ring. Frodo is not alone. He’s accompanied by eight others. Among them is Gandalf the Grey, a good wizard, played by Ian McKellan. Also along for the ride is Aragon, a good warrior who wants to see evil defeated. He’s played by Viggo Mortensen. The others are sort of a representation of the rest of the good tribes who seek to destroy that ring. Most of them have funny ears and are either dwarves or elves or hobbits. Collectively, they are known as the “fellowship of the ring”. You got all that?

I’m not sure when it was, but at some point in the movie, probably after the fifth fight between good and evil over that ring, I became bored. I started noticing how the good guys, Frodo and his crew, were starting to resemble Dudley Moore. Well, they’re short and supposed to be cute and comical and a few of them have British or Scottish accents and they have that shaggy haircut he always wore. Then I started looking at the evil goons and they reminded me of Oakland Raider fans. Big ugly guys, dressed up in silver and black, with face paint and bad teeth, it worked for me. So it became the Dudley Moore guys versus the Raider guys. I think it was one of the few times that I realized I’m not really in the target audience for this movie.

I had that problem I’ve had before. Nobody playing the good guys seems in danger, the bad guys start to look very fake and the fight scenes get repetitive. It is, underneath it all, the “Star Wars” story all over gain. Yes, I know these “hobbit” books were written many years ago. But I’m sitting there now getting very bored. I’ll admit some of the production scenes are top notch and the special effects pretty good, but I’m not fourteen years old and a little more depth would have helped. I like to pride myself with the fact that I can judge almost any movie because my tastes are so varied, but that didn’t work this time.

With “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring” I went from puzzled to captivated to bored. At least that was a variety of emotions. But the closing scenes of this movie linger on my mind as they end up not with a fantastic finish, but a set-up for the next movie. Yes, they’ll be two more of these coming up. I give this one a “6.0”. At least, for now, the evil Raider fan guys lost.