The ROTK Theatrical and Extended DVD Thread - Page 5

And the fact that Gandalf confronts him at the gates of the city, not inside it.

...Because the Witch-king's on a horse, not a fell beast, which in the movie might seem a little, eh, incongruous at that point. An incredibly powerful scene in the novel, and yep I'd love to see it as is, but does present some logic problems for a filmmaker. (Why's he on a horse if his underlings have fell beasts? Are there fell beast handlers that marched, all the way from Mordor, the one that Eowyn slays? Or should he ride a fell beast that folds up its wings and, well, duckwalks under the gates?)

I don't have a problem with what I've seen, as long as the basic structure is the same. Confrotation, coldly triumphant Witch-king, Rohan shows up in the nick.

This whole EE will be interesting, though, as to me ROTK is the film least needing one. Holds up to being watched after the other two EEs quite well, and I really don't expect it to get the same kind of complete makeover T2T benefitted from. I'm just thrilled to have more of it.

Just finished watching it.

As much as I love long films, this one is too long. Most of the stuff put back into the film is definitely not necessary. Of the 50 minutes back into the film, maybe 12-15 minutes of it are worthy of being put back in. Some of the stuff just doesn't work, just like the Two Towers EE.

For me, Return of the King suffers because of some of the story choices made in the Two Towers. Both films are longer than they need to be, especially the Two Towers.

LOTR is better then SW!

I received my copy yesterday, haven't got round to seeing any of the special features yet but i managed to watch the film. What can i say? No really. I'm speechless, 4 hours and it didn't feel long at all. In fact none of the added scenes lost the film its momentum. I never found TT:EE and the FOTR:EE to drag because of added scenes and for me it didn't in ROTK:EE either. Just FANTASTIC! Worth the wait, thats all i can say!

Gimli's embarrassment at being afraid of being in the paths of the dead. At least I think that's what the moron's talking about.

I am so fucking jealous. The performance I attended by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra was great, but all we got was a taped message from Howard Shore. Did you get to talk to him after the performance?

Unfortunately, no....however, he did stick around till the end, and John Mauceri (the conductor for our show) brought him out at the end, where we pretty much proceeded to give the guy one of the biggest and longest standing ovations I've ever borne witness to. Impressive since 85% of the audience was still crying.

On a sidenote, though, I did get to talk to Susan Egan on the way out.....interesting how this lady's been doing films and Broadway for years, and she's pretty much breathless talking about how nervous she was performing at a LOTR concert, and hoping she didn't diappoint anyone who knew Gollum's Song and Into the West inside and out.....pretty much sighed in relief and smiled when I told her she brought most of the audience to tears during Into the West. That was a nice bonus.

Downside is, I missed Tammy Tyburczy (the girl who sang all Renee Fleming's parts for the East Coast shows) coming out by about a minute. Kinda had a crush on her the entire night, especially since I was 3 rows from the front....

/geekgushing

Just watched it and once again I am left scratching my head over a key scene (the Voice of Saruman, of course) excluded from the TE. Saruman sews the doubt and despair that weighs on the characters for the rest of the story, and at some point later on each of them believes their worst fear to have come true before overcoming their despair. It fits perfectly at the beginning of the last chapter and absolutely should have been included. Denethor's possession of a palantir is more cleverly implied, too, as his words to Gandalf echo Saruman's.

Also, Gandalf vs. the Witch-King and Aragon vs. the Palantir are collectively about 45 seconds long but add a ton of dramatic weight to the story. Should have squeezed them in. The rest were mostly lovely additions but I understand their exclusion from the TE. Honestly the most out-of-place sequence, even in the 4:15 minute version, is Deagol's murder, which clearly belonged in TTT, if it needed to exist at all.

I'm probably the only guy on the planet who still likes that ROTK starts off with Deagol's murder.......it's all at once backstory and a reminder of how far the Ring has taken both Gollum and as as an audience....and, as PJ says, it reintroduces the Ring as THE pivotal character in the film.

But, of course, I'm in a minority there.

But not alone! I love that sequence, too, from content to creepy score. Suddenly, instead of the sweeping epic that closed Towers and that we're expecting even bigger here, we're dropped into a small horror film. Complete with the Ring theme done on a single, weepy, Frankenstein-esque violin. Cold-blooded murder, grotesque images, Dutch angles, warped soundtrack, I thought it was an excellent grounding for the off-the-scale grandiosity of the rest of ROTK, and perfectly balances/foreshadows the smaller struggle and true climax in Mt. Doom.

So, count me in the murder-loving camp. Watched the FOTR EE last night, first time in almost a year, and damn it still kick my ass. Towers EE tonight, ROTK EE tomorrow. Can't fucking wait.

The ROTK opening sticks like a sore thumb. We get from the epic to the intimate and it doesn't really gel.

Not to mention that it is obvious that this sequebce was not directed by Peter Jackson and that it features the worst special effect i nthe whole trilogy.

you're talking about the fish dragging Deagol, aren't you?

Now, i think i was in the wrong mood to watch the EE, and i hadn't seen the other films in a while, but the inclusions mostly seemed a little silly or underwhelming. Saruman lacked drama and seemed awkwardly written/edited/acted (the director's commentary spends most of this scene commenting on how it would have been different if it had been planned to be at the beginning of ROTK, rather than shoved in there at teh last minute), gandalf vs witch king was thrown in a little jarringly and didn't do much (especially as it was set up as a stand off between the two most powerful figures on each side).

i remember being really, really impressed by teh first two EE's. this one seemed very unsubtle (eg. the scene with frodo with the fallen statue and the decapitated head wreathed in flowers).

but i've been thinking back on the moments though, and i'm growing to like them. that i've been thinking back on them at all must point to something in them worth keeping.

having only watched it on Friday, i want to watch this 4 hour beast again, which is very interesting.

Nope, there's two guys and I'm the other one. Besides the bad CGI I really liked this little aside into Gollum's backstory. So what if it wasn't as epic as the other two. I think Peter Jackson realized there was no way he could top the opening battle in Fellowship and Gandalf's descent in the opening of Two Towers so he went with a more intimate and disturbing opening of Gollum's fall from grace.

And it certainly was relevant considering that the Gollum story arc was pivotal throughout the series and in the climax of ROTK.

Would everyone has preferred Jackson's planned "fly-by" through Rohan as Aragorn wakes up from a nightmare?

Count me in here. Oh and Crovv, Tammy got me a bit too.

As if this movie isn't chock full of enough epic moments as it is. Sorry, but I rather liked this disturbing portrait of the Ring's corrupting influence. As has been mentioned before, it foreshadows Frodo and Gollum's struggle in the climax of the film. For the uninitiated, it highlights the possibility that Gollum might just succeed in killing Frodo for the Ring. The scene makes Gollum seem more dangerous than he was prior to it.

I thought Deagol's murder was a good way to start ROTK. It fits in with Gollum's death later on. My only quibble is the seque to the rest of the movie. It was a little clumsy. The focus should have been on Gollum upon return to the present rather than on the hobbits.

Still, looking forward to the EE. Especially the Appendices.

I agree that the transition is a bit clunky, but it's fine. But I totally concur on looking forward to the EE. Two days is too damned long. But it works out, since I don't get paid til the 15th.

Count me in the Deago camp to,

I simply did not expect it the first time, and it scared the bejesus out of me,

Now I see the LOTR as one complete film more so than any other trilogy, but I must say the confrontation with Saurman should of ended TTT not Sam's somewhat grating voiceover.

I agree 100%. It would have been a fantastic dramatic conclusion. {SPOILERS} Saruman falls. Hits the wheel. Treebeard delivers his "The filth of Saruman is washing away" line. The wheel turns under and the Palantir falls out of his sleeve. Cut to black. {END SPOILERS}

It would have been the perfect conclusion and would have helped to streamline the beginning of ROTK some more.

Anyone know if there's going to be a boxset for all the music from the movies coming out? Or what about some mega-boxset that has all the EE and the soundtracks?

So I finally got around to watching this last night and I think, like T'sG above, I was slightly underwhelmed. To be fair, my expectations where somewhere in the upper atmosphere; (this was the culmination of 3 years, almost to the day actually, of my LOTR experience) also I had seen the ROTK theatrical version several more times then the theatrical versions of FOTR and TTT, so the tone and pacing I had seen in the theater was more ingrained then it had been with the other two films.

Still, I think it's brilliant and once I get used to the changes I have no doubt I'll fall totally in love with it. All of the complaints I have now are really minor and mostly have to do with changing the context of moments I loved in the theatrical version. For example, the Eowyn/Merry scene on the way to Minas Tirith is well acted and a sweet little moment for the characters, but it takes away from the impact of having the Rohirrim arrive at the Pellanor. Seeing them charge away from from their base camp and then leaving them out of the film until they arrived at the battle made their entrance more powerful, at least I thought so. Same thing goes with Aragorn and the army of the dead. Leaving him with "What say you?" and the grinning commander, not to be seen again until he jumped off the ship was awesome. Plus it added to the suspense playing out like that. We have Theoden crushed, the Rohirrim getting stomped, and Eowyn about to be skewered by the Witch King and then to top it all off, the black ships arrive and it's like "Great, what NOW?" and then Aragorn jumps off and everything changes. Now, having seen Aragorn and the dead take the ships, it changes the tone when you see those ships roll into Osgiliath. Super minor complaint, I know; but like I said, I'm really used to the theatrical version.

The one thing I really didn't like was the song in the first Houses of the Healing scene as Aragorn nursed Eowyn. Yuck. The melody was nice enough and the voice was nice (was that Liv Tyler?) but I would have much rather it had been in one of the the other languages of Middle Earth. Elvish would be an obvious choice, or perhaps the middle English that Eowyn used when she sang for Theodred in TTT. As it is now, I think it just sounds really out of place and reminds me of anime or something. It actually made me cringe.