Zelda-Rocks
The King of all Rocks
- Joined
- Nov 12, 2011
- Location
- Death Mountain
Return of the King, so many cool battles in that one.
Mine is the Two Towers because they introduce Gollum in that volume
The Jackson adaptation is really the only way to go. And it has to be the extended versions. You're doing yourself a disservice by sticking with the theatrical versions. They're not like most "extended versions" which add three to six minutes of useless footage. The Lord of the Rings extended versions are impressive and add roughly 40 minutes of valuable scenes to each film, basically adding another two hour movie's length to the series.
Of the three, I'd have to say that Return of the King is my favorite. But really I don't much think of them as three movies. It's more like one big movie split into three parts.
I could be wrong, but I think it's something like 30 more minutes to Fellowship, 40 to The Two Towers, and a full hour to Return of the King..
I did like how it added to it instead of being just filler. Not that I mind filler. I always like more. But I did like that what was added was so valuable.The Fellowship Extended Edition is nearly essential--it helps deepen the world of the film and adds in a few key points from the book. Fellowship is a very fast-paced film, but that's not what the book is like. The extra padding helps soften the tone, making it feel like less of an action film and more of an epic. For something like Star Wars, this would be fatal. For Lord of the Rings, it's very, very good. That's what I appreciate about the Extended Edition--little extra action is added, but there's much more narrative, which is the important stuff.
The added scenes completely change several things. They fill in certain plot points that the original version just skipped over. It gives a better resolution to Saruman than either the theatrical version or the books (the book's version was frankly terrible). It handles the ghost army sequence far better, explaining how they got on the boats.Return of the King's Extended Edition is absolutely essential. The theatrical version skipped out on a good amount of important stuff. Even with the Extended Edition, the film doesn't feel very relaxed.
What I took out of the added scenes here that really stands out was the stuff with Boromir. The scenes are incredibly important. However, they don't much affect The Two Towers film itself. Only a bit with Faramir's decision making in the end. But really it affects the perception of Boromir's actions in Fellowship, and Faramir's in Return. The other two films needed it more than Towers did. The other two films just don't feel the same without these flashbacks, and this film is the best place for them. It ruins the suspense if they were played when they happened in Fellowship, and would be out of place in Return.The Two Towers is an interesting one. I've always thought the book pretty much tread water, and the movie does the same. An Extended Edition was entirely unnecessary. It doesn't seem to deepen the film very much, as it's already pretty slow. I sometimes watch the theatrical version instead of the extended one and feel like I'm missing nothing. That said, it's doesn't really hurt the film either, and it's always nice to get a little additional backstory. I especially like the scene with Boromir.
I've done it a few times. I pretty much have to dedicate an entire day to it. But the extended versions, blu-ray and DVD, are split into six disks. Two for each film each roughly two hours long. So if you wanted, you could watch one disk each night for six nights.That's how the movies (and books) were meant to be seen. That said, it still helps to have natural stopping points, especially for the movies. I've only managed a LotR marathon once in my life.