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
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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]
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Hi Xo!
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.’
Last Thursday, I received an e-mail from AOL/Moviefone informing me that I had been chosen to attend the special screening. As excitied as I was to receive this news, my enthusiasm was somewhat tempered by the fact that I had a 240 mile, 3 1/2 hour drive from Miami to Orlando if I wanted to see it. Seven hours of driving (plus $50 in gas and tolls) to watch something on the big screen that I’ll be able to watch seven days later at home did sound kind of extreme. Fortunately however, I noticed the words “digitally projected” on the invite which piqued my curiousity even further, which eventually led to my deciding to go. So yesterday at 1:15PM, ignoring the voice in my head that said, “Fly, you fool,” I loaded the LotR:FotR soundtrack into my car’s cd changer, and hit the road for the drive to the AMC Pleasure Island theatres in Lake Buena Vista, Fl.
Three and a half hours later I found myself in ‘Downtown Disney’ (sigh … you just can’t escape the Mouse when traveling to Central Florida), presenting my pass, and receiving in return, entrance to the theatre AND a coupon for a free popcorn and a drink courtesy of DLP Cinema/Texas Instruments (see scan). Unfortunately, the concessionaire didn’t have a clue when I asked for a ‘proper 1420,’ so I had to settle for a coke instead. I then proceeded to theatre 19 (of 24) and was delighted to find a center seat, four rows up in the stadium seating section, so that my eyes were center screen, both horizontally and vertically. As I sat down, I couldn’t help but wonder how much better could the digital projection viewing experience possibly be when compared to the last time I saw LotR:FotR on the big screen. That was back on March 29th, when The Two Towers preview was added to the final final reel of what turned out to be a perfect print. Fifteen minutes later when the lights dimmed, I would have my answer.
The screening began, appropriately enough, with the current T2T trailer, and although I was immedately struck by how incredible the visual quality was, it was the audio that blew me away! From the moment that Sir Ian says, “I return now at the turn of the tide,” the timbre and resonance of his voice, coming through the theatre speakers, made me realize just how special this presentation was going to be. Two minutes later, with my heart still racing, the special extended version began.
I’m not going to go into the added and extended scenes — others before me have done that quite nicely, thank you, except to say that they were a delight to watch. I was worried that these scenes might decrease my appreciation of the original release because of feeling cheated by the fact that said scenes were not in the original, but I’m happy to report that this was not the case — with the sole exception of Lothlorien. I’m afraid New Line dropped the ball when they forced PJ to cut that scene. The other added/extended scenes were not as critical, but definitely enhanced the Fellowship experience. But what REALLY enhanced the experience, was digital projection. Everything was crystal clear in perfect focus (and will remain so — no print degradation), with perfect sound — every word of dialogue, every note of the soundtrack, every sound effect from the wind gently whistling through the trees to the monstrous Balrog, all heard in perfect clarity. I can still hear the ring hit the floor when Bilbo drops it even as I type this. The experience was, in a word, perfect, and well worth the trip, even though I didn’t return home until 1:15AM.
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EAdamns writes: I thought you might be interested in the following disappointing bit of news in my e-mail this morning. Greetings from Amazon.com. We are sorry to report that the release of the following item has been cancelled: “Lord of the Rings 2003 Daily Calendar” [More]
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Vittorio sends along this Cadbury wrapper with our very own Dominic Monaghan (Merry) on it, take a look! [More]
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I saw the Extended Edition in Chicago on Tuesday. While the pass said to arrive early, there were plenty of empty seats. The epic-masterpiece-now-ten-times-better was shown in the McClurg Court Theater located downtown. It is large space, and it still contained the digital projector installed for Attack of the Clones, so it was perfect for this event. New Line definitely made all of us feel like a group of friends rather than a group of sardines because they didn’t overbook the space, and we each got a free drink and popcorn.
Plenty of people will write in about the movie, and there are detailed descriptions out there now about what makes the Extended Edition remarkable. In a few words, it comes down to this: New Line took one of the greatest films ever and perhaps made it THE greatest film ever. You decide when you get the DVD. Having watched the theatrical release DVD countless times, my mouth opened in awe when I saw the extensions, the additions, and other changes (there are MANY tiny changes, even ones that people have not reported — for example, new music has in some cases been placed behind what seem to be unaltered sequences).
The additional aspects of character development that we see in this version will undoubtedly make a huge impact on our experience in seeing TTT.
Simeon
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