Directed by Peter Jackson. Starring Ian McKellen, Elijah Wood, Viggo Mortensen, Sean Bean, Sean Astin, Ian Holm, Cate Blanchett.

Working equally as both an epic, effects-laden, cinematic treat and an intimate, intelligent adaptation of a beloved fantasy classic, Peter Jackson's first instalment of the Lord of the Rings trilogy had fans sighing with relief as Tolkien was perfectly conjured onto celluloid.

The DVD does the epic tale great justice, offering a first-rate video and audio transfer where every Orc-grunt and sword-clash can almost be felt. But if fans needed anything other than the motion picture event of the year to part with their hard earned, the 2-DVD set is loaded with extras.

The bulk of the bumph comes in the form of three making-of featurettes which, while offering a few behind-the-scenes glimpses, are too laden with existing film footage to really excite. 'Quest for the Ring' features extended sequences and the odd frivolous on-set moment while 'A Passage to Middle-Earth' looks at the incredible production design.

Fifteen featurettes originally designed for the movie website are here in all their glory while home-grown chanteuse, Enya, belts out her Oscar-nominated 'May It Be' music video. The rest of the extras are mainly promotional and, as such, fairly useless. Akin to telling you that you should have saved your money for a few months, there's a preview for the extended Special Edition DVD due for release in the autumn.

The best extra, however, must surely be the 10-minute preview of the second instalment in the series, 'The Two Towers' - complete with battle sequences that blow the original out of Middle Earth. The extras are definitely worth a gander - but DVD purists will undoubtedly wait for the Special Edition. Still, they could have stuck a scratched, film-only disc in a greasy brown bag and we'd still have lapped it up.

Neil McGreevy