Rob: I recently finished watching The Lord of the Rings Trilogy Extended Edition on Blu-ray over two sessions. I figured since I watched them as one entity, I would review them as one as well. I had seen the theatrical versions of The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers, but had never watched The Return of the King in any form. For some reason, the original versions of the film did not connect with me on their first viewings. Maybe it’s because I’ve been listening to more Led Zeppelin recently, but I really enjoyed my most recent watching of the saga.
I watched these films with a friend of mine who is a fan of the Trilogy and had watched both versions of each movie and read the books on which they were based. He was able to tell me which scenes were extended and how certain scenes and character developments were different from the books. Although the extended scenes did add a little over two hours total to the films, they didn’t seem redundant or out of place. I felt like I was getting a better experience from the viewing because all of the characters were more fleshed out and the story was more true to the source material. I’m sure anyone watching the movies who had read the books would be more than happy to see all of these additional scenes.
I think part of the reason The Lord of the Rings is so popular is the character development. Not one character really stands out as the main character. Even though Frodo is carrying the ring, Aragorn is the character that has a more interesting overall plot. It’s also hard to ignore Gandalf as a wise wizard with power and restraint. Each town that is visited brings on a set of characters, each with a story that either stands on it’s own or intertwines with a previous character’s. The amount of depth involved works well to enthrall the viewer and keep them focused on the long tale.
One thing that was fortunate while I watched the films was that I thought I had originally watched The Return of the King, and not The Two Towers, so I thought I knew how the story would wrap up. But thankfully, The Return of the King was all new to me. I believe this helped me enjoy the Trilogy that much more. The films still had that unresolved feeling, so that combined with the extended scenes added a lot of depth to the experience. There was a couple of scenes where the films got to me emotionally. I thought the build up and execution of the final battle was great and the very ending of the movie was a bit heart warming.
Overall, I wouldn’t just recommend this film just to people looking for a great fantasy adventure, but anyone who enjoys well made film. The amount of detail in the story and effects are superb. This movie will also, most likely, stand up to the test of time thanks to the special effects that director Peter Jackson employs. They are reminiscent to Dead Alive and really made me want to rewatch that film. The use of scaled miniatures (similar to those used for movies like Bladerunner) really help added a level of nuance that is lost with computer generated effects. It just shows that these films were made with the art of cinema in mind and that alone should be reason enough to watch The Lord of the Rings trilogy. However, there is so much more involved that these films should not have a hard time appealing to anyone who loves a good story.
