Wow.. we’ve literally been flooded with reviews from people who saw the Extended DVD during one of the ten screenings that took place all over the US last night, and don’t worry; we’ll be posting them all! And just to prove that we will; here’s the first batch of them for everyone’s reading pleasure. But beware of the !!spoilers!! [More]
Month: November 2002
grammaboodawg writes: There’s a HUGE ad in Variety magazine (Nov. 4-10, 2002 issue) highlighting New Zealand. The caption reads: “New Zealand: In our December 16 issue, Variety spotlights New Zealand, with the latest trends impacting the showbiz industry. [More]
Wow.. we’ve literally been flooded with reviews from people who saw the Extended DVD during one of the ten screenings that took place all over the US last night, and don’t worry; we’ll be posting them all! And just to prove that we will; here’s the first batch of them for everyone’s reading pleasure. But beware of the !!spoilers!!
First one to send in her review was Shawna, who attended the Seattle screening and sent in a very complete (almost) scene-by-scene review of the movie, lots of spoilerish things… [More]
Next up is plaidpjs who gave a very brief overall account of his reaction to seeing the DVD… [More]
Douglas McEwan saw the Extended DVD in LA and wrote his most memorable moments down here… [More]
From Chicago Mary dropped us a line about her thoughts on the Extended cut.. [More]
And then there was girloftheShire who saw the DVD in Chicago as well (I wonder if they know each other;)) and also wrote up a report! [More]
Switz (who was actually the first one to write us yesterday) got some sleep, thought of some more things to say and spoil about the film and wrote them down here! [More]
Well and after that I thought that maybe the wave of reviews landing in our inbox had stopped, but alas.. Edwin (who attended the Dallas screening) started the second one… [More]
Another Chicago-attandee Simeon‘s wrote up his two cents and they can be found here.. [More]
Long time reader but first time, err.. writer Dan attended the Minneapolis screening last night and wrote up his spoiler-filled review here: [More]
Well.. these are the first ones, if we’ll get more I’ll be posting those later today but first I really need some food…
grammaboodawg writes: There’s a HUGE ad in Variety magazine (Nov. 4-10, 2002 issue) highlighting New Zealand. The caption reads: “New Zealand: In our December 16 issue, Variety spotlights New Zealand, with the latest trends impacting the showbiz industry. From film production to television and more, we’ll profile the movers and shakers driving entertainment in this South Pacific production community.
We’ll also spotlight the 10th anniversary of WETA Digital, one of the leading digital effects studios in the world. With extensive expertise in 3D animation, WETA and its sister company, WETA Workshop, have raised the bar in the industry, beginning with ‘Heavenly Creatures,’ and most recently the entire ‘Lord of the Rings’ trilogy. Join us in congratulating WETA Digital on this milestone.”
A friend and I went to see the Extended Cut last night at a theater here in Minneapolis, MN. Needless to say my wife was not interested in more LOTR, she thinks I may be a bit obsessed (which I might be). Yesterday it was crazy around the state what with the elections, and the morning commute filled with snow! So I was more than ready to spend some time in Middle Earth getting away from it all. I must admit I did go in with a small amount of skepticism. I’ve been a DVD collector for a few years now and have been burned by Directors cuts before. But I had faith that Peter Jackson wouldn’t do this to us, but didn’t want to get overtly excited. However, I must say that after watching last nights cut, I was more than pleasantly surprised, I’m ecstatic!!!
I had already planned on buying this cut (somehow), and already own the theatrical cut. New Line was definitely preaching to the choir, as others I spoke to last night were also already planning on buying the extended cut. Most of us just felt privileged to see this cut in the theater. And let me start with that, the digital projection was flawless!!! I noticed details that I’ve never seen before: background action, colors popping out, etching on swords, just amazing. And the sound was killer, 8:1 is what the technician told us. They didn’t give us any pep talk on digital, just a brochure on DLP, the company that makes the digital projectors. Turns out this theater has had the digital projector for some time, but has had trouble getting the word out. Suffice to say that I am now tainted, and can never go back to regular projection.
And for the movie itself, the tone was different. I had read that what once felt like an epic, really was now an epic, and I don’t just mean the length. Everything had a better pace. I won’t go through the entire movie, others have done that. But here are some highlights that stood out for me. The Shire is now much more evolved. The storyline flows much better with Bilbo doing the Shire narration rather than Gandalf. Frodo’s story is now more involved, at an earlier stage. And more of the Hobbit characters that we only had a glimpse of are seen. Hooray for the Green Dragon, very cool!
I wouldn’t have minded a bit more of Bree, not much was changed here. But Frodo and Sam’s glimpse of the Wood Elves was fantastic! Where do I get the music for that? And a mention here for Howard Shore. I thought he might lengthen things a bit, with a touch here and there, but that the music cues would sound very similar. It did not! Some of the new music cues had choral singing, and it was fantastic! Aragorn has been fleshed out very well, and is now more of the type of character I wanted him to be. Not that before was bad, but now, if you hadn’t already wanted to follow him as King, you will. All the characters have been fleshed out well for that matter. I expected maybe one or two new memorable lines, but lost count as they just kept coming.
The two biggest stand outs for me were Rivendell, and Lothlorien. I felt myself becoming emotionally absorbed through these new sequences as much as I had in my first viewing. I was very impressed. And the great thing is that all of these new scenes are seamless. Only one was a bit out of pace, Haldir is still the only weak point for me. And not in a bad way, but for some reason his performance is a bit off. But don’t let that get in the way. The new scenes with Celeborn and Galadriel are fantastic. And the gift giving scene was probably the one I was most looking forward to. It did not disappoint! I’m going to make my wife watch at least that part (and hopefully all the rest of course), it is wonderful. And just wait till you see Gimli’s interaction with Galadriel, priceless!
So for any doubters out there, don’t bother doubting. There is now way this DVD won’t be in your LOTR collection. It is a cinematic masterpiece made even better in this new cut. I’m afraid this movie has set the bar so high, that ANY movie I see is going to be measured against it. It has moved me more than any movie has in a long time. Thank you again Peter and associates, you have truly hit the bulls eye this time. Ok, let me check my watch now, how much longer until TTT?
Dan
Miami Mofo here to say that I have seen (and heard) the future! I am refering, of course, to last evening’s screening of the digitally projected, special extended version of ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.’ [More]