DVDizzy Forum

I just got my hands on this awesome DVD and I love it. Like the past Extended Editions, this DVD's extras bring us great information on how it was made. Four commentaries by the cast, filmmakers, and art directors. The picture quality is superb and the sound blows you away.

And I haven't even finished watching all the extras so it should keep me busy until New Year's Eve.

Any thoughts??..Comments.

I just finished wading through all the material the other night. The new scenes in the extended cut were good, but the confrontation between the Witch King and Gandalf was dissapointing (I still think having Eowyn killing him is just stupid - feels like some obligatory message about "girl power"). I really liked the Saruman scene though.

The extras, were of course, prime meat. The documentaries on all the EEs are superb, and the "Cameras in Middle Earth" doc on ROTK is particularly touching to see everyone parting ways - you could imagine everyone on the project would've become great friends over such a long shoot. The rest of the stuff was great too, if a little tedious at times - I must admit that I think they go into a little too much detail during some of the docs, but oh well. The galleries are the last of their kind, as you don't see any as extensive anymore on other DVDs.

So overall, it was a great package. I really feel the movies went downhill after Fellowship though, for a variety of reasons I won't go in to (I'm sick of typing out rants on this subject - I've done it on too many forums and have gotten nothing but "LOTR rulz" comments in return.) TTT & ROTK are still enjoyable to watch, but they don't come anywhere close to FOTR. That's pretty disapointing for me, but hey, at least everyone else seems to love them all.

I have the first LOTR movie but havent got round too buying the other two since theres so many movies atm i want and i know if i brought TTT and TROTK i wouldnt watch them at first id just add them too my collection.
Im hoping in afew months theyll go down even more in price

I loved it! i like saraman's death! i was shocked hehe I didnt expect it hehe

Jack wrote: The new scenes in the extended cut were good, but the confrontation between the Witch King and Gandalf was dissapointing (I still think having Eowyn killing him is just stupid - feels like some obligatory message about "girl power").

Of course this is part of the Tolkien storyline. The Witch King was living under the false sense of security knowing that he could be killed by no man. And of course his death was caused by both a hobbit and a woman. I really do not think any person would claim that Tolkien's aim in this was a message about "girl power".

Jack wrote: So overall, it was a great package. I really feel the movies went downhill after Fellowship though, for a variety of reasons I won't go in to (I'm sick of typing out rants on this subject - I've done it on too many forums and have gotten nothing but "LOTR rulz" comments in return.) TTT & ROTK are still enjoyable to watch, but they don't come anywhere close to FOTR. That's pretty disapointing for me, but hey, at least everyone else seems to love them all.

Again this is simply a reflection of the original trilogy. The first movie is much easier to follow as it follows basically the fellowship as a whole. The following two movies, as does the book, show the breaking and splintering of the fellowship into smaller and smaller subgroups. This of course makes the narrative itself more splintered and the following of the story more difficult. Keeping this in mind, the last two movies do an incredible job of telling these separate narrative threads in a way that most viewers can follow.

It is actually easier to follow the timeline in the film than Tolkien's books. Tolkien simply divides the last two books into halfs, the first half dealing with the rest of the fellowship and the final half deal withing Frodo and Sam. So when reading them there is no way of knowing how these events are unfolding in time in relation to each other. It is a credit to the film makers that they were able to create such a dynamic narrative from the very difficult Tolkien source material.

Stitch, I've read the books 2 times, and I'm well aware of the ways the movies adhere to and deviate from the movies - sorry if I sounded like I didn't. Having Eowyn kill the Witch King was not part of Tolkien's storyline - in the books, Gandalf kills him.

I agree that they did a good job of weaving the several story lines of the last 2 books together in the movies. However, the second two films had the potential to be more emotional and awe-inspiring than the first, but neither of them were, in my opinion. Why? I feel there's a number of reasons. But to put it simply, when I watch FOTR, I enjoy it immensly more than I do when I watch TTT or ROTK.

Hi Jack

Suggest that you reread the chapter entitled "The Battle of the Pelennor Fields", here are some highlights

After confronting Gandlaf at the gate the Witch king leaves the Gae and joins the attack.

"The darkness was breaking too soon, before the date that his master had set for it ... He left the gate and vanished" (paragraph one).


"'Hinder me? Thou fool. No living man may hinder me!'

Then Merry heard of allsounds in that hour the strangest. It seemed that Dernhelm laughed, and the clear voice was like the ring of steel. 'But no living man am I! You look upon a woman. Eowyn I am."

...

"A swift stroke she dealt, skilled and deadly"

and of course Merry then

"Merry's sword had stabbed him from behind"

and the Witch King dies

"The crown rolled away with a clang".

No Gandalf does not kill the Witch King!!!!

Wow, that's really odd - I remembered Gandalf killing him, and I talked with other fans of the book who said the same. I guess you proved me wrong though! Still, I have to say I don't like the idea of two untrained people who've never been in battle before defeating this all-powerful Witch King - I get the idea behind it, but it seems kind of flimsy to me . . . hu noz. I appreciate you pointing out the passage from the book!

Thanks Jack,

It is interesting to read the last book and to focus on what Gandalf does and doesn't do, amidst the war, Gandalf does not in fact kill anybody!!! He confronts the Witch King who was attempting to enter the city BUT the battle diverts the attention of the Witch King. In the whole narrative, Gandalf only overthrows the Balrog with whom he fell in the Mines of Moria.

Not that this has much to do with Disney though!!! You can find some fun discussions on the Witch King and whether or not Gandalf had the power to kill him given the prophecy that he could be killed by no man. What about an elf or a drawf????

Do a google search, it is quite fun!!!

Stitch

Gandalf is the one that organizes the troops, like most important Generals, he does not have to be directly involved. But the movies are great!!

I think I agree with Jack about the first movie being the best. Personally, the extended battle scenes don't do it for me. The build up to the battle scenes are good, especially when Theoden is giving his speeches both before they ride out of Helms Deep on horses in the morning and before the people of Rohan begin fighting at Pelennor Fields. But for the most part, all the fighting made me sick.

I think that Fellowship is the best movie because of all the details on the characters revealed in the first movie. Obviously you can't repeat that in the other parts. Also, I think the first movie has more of the Middle Earth folklore and mythology in it than the other two movies. The journey in Fellowship covers such a long distance, there are just more places to visit and learn about. Whereas TTT takes place primarily in Rohan and ROTK takes place primarily in Gondor. And Fellowship has the Shire, Rivendale, and Lothlorien, which are very peaceful and comforting places.

Or maybe it was because I was first introduced to Middle Earth when I watched Fellowship for the first time (I had not read the book, but I have read it once since), and was totally enthralled by it all. I definitely think Fellowship is the best movie, but I think it would have been hard to make the other two much better and kept to the story as well as they did.

This DVD set is dynamite! The film and extras are both incredibly well done. My favorite pieces are the director/writer commentary, cast commentary, and pretty much every main documentary piece in the Appendices.

Merry and Pippin are a delight to watch throughout the trilogy, and I particularly like Merry's line: "You've never done a hard day's work."

I agree that these EE discs are fantastic. I was a little disappointed with the not-so-well hidden Easter Egg on ROTK, but that's probably because I loved the last two. A fantastic DVD set.

I find that the EE show more important parts of the story. My husband, who has never read the books, likes the EE's better because the story fits together better then the theatre release, just little details.

Received the RotK EE DVD from a friend and I love it. The easter eggs are great (though in the exact same place as the other two EEs' easter eggs), especially the one with Dom as German interviewer Hans Jensen. If I were sitting in a seat I would literally have fallen out of it.

The one newly added scene that I disliked was the one with Aragorn and the Palantir. The role the Evenstar had to play in it (bwaha, like it's human ) just bugged me and I could have done without the entire omen bit.

Yep... Fellowship is the easiest to follow. But also by now is the one most shown (obviously, it was the first one released).

TTT was my favorite at the time, probably because all of the action but I really couldn't follow all the detalis regarding the plot.

ROK then became my favorite. Not because it was the last but because probably it has the best of the first two: the easy plot pace of Fellowship and the action of TTT; and here even more intense.

The EE was awesome. I tought 4 hours would be too much. The EE of Fellowship and TTT felt too much and the theatrical version of ROK was already long enough. But in this case I didn't notice the extra hour... for real. I enjoyed every minute of it. In the end I have to agree with almost every online review out there that says that most scenes take out the suspense and weakens the pace. But the film is so enjoyable by itself that you don't care. You just want to have fun with this one.

But I'd extremely advice that people who are going to see this for the first time (believe me there are a few... I know one ) should watch the theatrical version first.