The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)

·      Starring: Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Liv Tyler, Viggo Mortensen, Sean Astin, Cate Blanchett, John Rhys-Davies, Billy Boyd, Sean Bean, Ian Holm
·      Directed by: Peter Jackson
·      Studio: New Line Home Entertainment
·      Video: 2.35:1 Anamorphic Widescreen
·      Audio: English DD 5.1 EX, English DD 2.0 Surround
·      Subtitles: English, and English Closed Captions
·      Extras: Welcome to Middle-earth: Houghton Mifflin In-Store Special, Quest for the Ring: FOX-TV Special, A Passage to Middle-earth: SCI-FI Channel Special, 15 featurettes created for lordoftherings.net, The Two Towers behind-the-scenes preview, LOTR Special Extended Edition DVD preview, 6 TV spots, 2 teaser trailers, final theatrical trailer, Enya May It Be music video, EA The Two Towers video game preview
·      Length: 178 minutes
·      Rating: *****

Ages ago, the Dark Lord Sauron created the legendary One Ring, a ring so powerfully evil that it can destroy all of Middle-earth.  The ring's power is only of value to Sauron and when it was cut from his hand, it remained lost for centuries.  When the ring resurfaced, it eventually found itself in the hands of a young Hobbit named Frodo.  Frodo has been entrusted with the ring to deliver it into the fires of Mount Doom in the land Mordor, the only place where it can be destroyed.  Frodo is joined by eight others on his journey (three other hobbits, a wizard, an elf, a dwarf, and two human warriors), and this nine-member assemblage is proclaimed as the Fellowship of the Ring.  In addition to attempting to stave off the ring's powers of corruption, the Fellowship is relentlessly hunted every step of the way by Lord Sauron's dark riders, Orcs, trolls and goblins.

The video quality of this DVD is excellent.  Images are pristine and razor sharp.  Black levels are consistently dark.  Colors are rich and deep with fully saturated hues.  Picture defect mastering is perfect with no major flaws or digital artifacts.  Overall, audio is reference quality with the English Dolby Digital 5.1 EX track serving as the basis for this review.  The soundtrack mix aggressively utilizes all of the discrete channels.  Dialogue is natural sounding and clear.  The surround channels are very active, used for both music and sound effects, and include numerous split rear effects.  Deep bass is present throughout the soundtrack and it will enable a powered subwoofer to rumble both you and quite possibly your neighbor's windows.  Tactile effects are present in the vast majority of the DVD's chapters and they are simply awesome.  With the greatest quantity of heavy impacts I have yet encountered on a DVD, The Lord of the Rings is a must-own tactile DVD.

Reference equipment used for this review: [Video projector- Studio Experience Cinema 17SF; Projection screen- Da-Lite 106 Da-Snap; DVD player- Pioneer Elite DV-37; A/V Receiver- Sherwood Newcastle R-963T; Speakers- BIC DV62si mains, DV62CLRs center, Adatto DV52si rears, D1210R subwoofer; Tactile Transducers- Clark Synthesis TST 329 Gold; Cables and Wires- Bettercables.com]