When I first bought the FELLOWSHIP soundtrack released at the time of the movie, I was disappointed with what was missing. That CD featured an opening track that I have yet to find in the film (and was missing the beautifully haunting Ring theme that opened the discs for the other two films) - and there was an entire stretch that was missing from the soundtrack which covered the beginning of the journey of the Nine and was missing the trek over the mountain, the doors of Durin, and the early part of the Moria journey.

But now we have all of this music restored, as well as the additional music from the extended cut of the film, and basically EVERY piece of music in the film! I for one feel that the $50 is a worthy price, for this is more than just music slapped on a CD and sent out in a cheap case. You can HEAR the work that went into restoring the complete soundtrack! I believe that much of this music was likely re-recorded for this release. Furthermore, the packaging does not scrimp on the niceties - you get a Box that (like the Extended DVDs) is made to look like a book on your bookshelf. Inside, you'll find a seperate "book" containing the three audio CDs, a nearly 50 page booklet with notes concerning the themes and motifs from the score, and the DVD itself which contains the entire 3 hour piece uninterrupted and in 5.1 stereo surround (assuming you have the equipment to play it). All this is covered with art and photos from the film as well. All told, it is a splendid package, and is great for any fan, or for a gift to a fan.

With this complete score, one can now completely lose himself in the brilliance of Shore's work, rather than the chopped up "best of" bits that we got with the original soundtrack. In fact, you can sit back and relive almost the entire film in your mind (since ALL the music is here in sequence, and almost every scene in the movie contains music).

Despite my praise, I do have three quibbles with the set - not enough to ruin my enjoyment, but enough to stick in my craw a little:

1) I agree that the DVD storage is annoying. It is on a thick plastic nub glued to the inside cover. Once you get it off, you'll never feel like you can quite get it back on right again.

2) I understand that they wanted to keep all three audio CDs at equal length - however, in an attempt to be anal, they kind of screwed up the flow a little. Moving from disc 1 to 2 is no big deal, as it corresponds to somewhat of a break in the film narrative (corresponding to the "cut" between the hobbits leaving with Strider at the end of Disc 1, and picking back up at the campfire atop Weathertop with Disc 2). But it is the transition from Disc 2 to 3 that bothers me a little more. Basically, you are following the score along through the Mines of Moria and up to the battle in Balin's tomb, getting all absorbed in it. Then you have to stop and switch to continue the "scene" as they encounter the Balrog. Imagine you are watching the DVD and the group have battled in Balin's tomb, are running for their lives as Orcs poor out of every nook and crevice, and then they hear the gutteral growl of the Balrog. Then the DVD stops and you have to get up and change discs to pick the scene back up again as they run for the Bridge. That would really break the mood, would it not? Well, that is what the soundtrack does. Seeing as how each disc is only 60 minutes and could hold 20 more minutes, why could they not shift the Bridge track back to Disc 2 and have Disc 3 pick up with the approach to Lorien? Seems like a much more natural transition to me. I know it seems like a minor quibble, but I just think it should have been done this way for the continuity of the music - as it stands, it seems like Disc 2 is "incomplete."

3) My final quibble is the most significant to me. It seems a decision was made that EVERYTHING that is musical in the movie must be on this disc. Thus, even a snatch of singing from one of the characters is included. So, as you are losing yourself in the pastoral beauty of the shire in your car, SUDDENLY Ian McKellan is in your backseat singing very poorly a muttered version of "THE ROAD GOES EVER ON" - and later Ian Holm does the same (only this time not even in tune with the music). This in itself doesn't bother me, except that the mix is AWFUL! When the singing comes in, it is TOO LOUD and nearly covers the music completely! If they had been incorporated more as background or "offstage" as they were in the movie itself, I may have actually enjoyed it. As it is, it is a booming distraction from the music, which is what I really wish to hear! Furthermore, the later inclusion of the Hobbits Drinking Song sounds like it was recorded off of a TV speaker, and again seems "inserted" into the score rather than part of it. And, much as I appreciate the inclusion of the Elves singing as they leave the Shire (from the Extended cut), it is here at about two minutes longer than it was in the film for some reason, and . . . well, the repeated melody gets old pretty fast!

But, these are all minor annoyances next to the joy of having the full 3-hour score to enjoy! I recommend this set at the $45 to $50 price - absolutely!

It's not hard to see with the string of positive reviews that this set containing (finally!) the complete soundtrack score of the Fellowship is a 'must have' item for any fan. I don't need to tell anyone reading this review how wonderful the score itself is. Nor do I need to go on about the technical rating of the disks themselves as several others have done a wonderful job with that here already. The collection of the music is very well worth five stars but here is why it gets 4 out of five stars from me:

I agree with most here that this set is simply overpriced and the packaging leaves a lot to be desired. For such a high price tag, the pagacking is cheap and poorly produced. The entire set is flimsy and care will be needed to make it last over time and frequent use. The DVD disk is attached to the inside cover via a glued on rubber knob that barely fits the center opening of the disk. Anyone who owns any high end music boxed sets will instantly know this set's production was a complete miss. One has to wonder what kind of design and producing amateurs were behind the approval of the final product. We can only hope word gets back to the studio and the next two sets are produced with the care the subject matter so deserves.

Also, when it comes to the high price, I can do without the DVD disk here. While it's nice to see this option, if I had my way, I'd rather not pay the extra to own it. Like most here, what I was really looking for was to upload the whole soundtrack onto my Ipod (which I did with ease). Ideally, we should have been offered a three disk set by itself for, say, around $29.99 retail (tops!) and the DVD disk sold seperately for those who so desired.

In the end I'm very happy to own the complete recordings of this film and look forward to owning the next two. But we were definitely gouged for the privlage.

This is without a doubt the greatest total score ever released mainly because of how it was released. The music on three CD's which is great, but the DVD-Audio made the pain of $63.99 go away with its insanely clear highs and mids. I recommend this to anyone who likes the LOTR music and even if you have the short single CD score, upgrade as I did. I just can't wait for the other two film scores to come out now. The DVD-Audio makes the greatest reproduction of music I have heard yet. Be ware as I found out that the only way to play the DVD-Audio with High Resolution as I havd, is through the DVD analog outputs, I was trying it throught the optical cable and it did not work, due to copyright? The DVD-Audio come with either Dolby Digital or High Resolution depending on your player's ability, the High resolution is the better quality, I have A Marantz Dv6500 so it luckly plays the insanely clear High Resolution. I wish other great films would release a score like this one, but most don't have enough music to. THIS IS A GREAT SCORE, I STRONGLY RECOMMENT IT.