I usually don’t acknowledge or love when movies come out with extended editions. It was a neat phase that was truly given birth by the emergence of the DVD format. Some films took the opportunity to throw in things that normally couldn’t be thrown in. Nowadays ‘extended editions’ is common practice, mostly used by comedies (such as Hall Pass) to entice the viewers to come see things they originally couldn’t show in the theater for whatever reason.
With this set that’s completely different. The Lord of the Rings movies all exceeded the three-hour mark in their original theatrical releases and for Hollywood that is pushing the limits of your viewing audience. With that said, this isn’t a typical Hollywood production. The Lord of the Rings trilogy was and has been one of the hardest projects to develop. The sheer size of the world that Tolkien created with his Middle-Earth demanded intricate details and long moments for developing characters and plot points. For it all to come together on film it had to be treated delicately and the material had to be known very well by the filmmakers and cast. If you need a comparison to how hard it is to translate an epic like this to film then you only need to turn your attention to Frank Herbert’s science fiction novel Dune, which was destroyed on film by Universal Studios and David Lynch (though Lynch’s version was much longer and probably more respectful to the book — according to reports). The theatrical version of The Lord of the Rings trilogy had to be delicately cut to not only maintain the story, but also satisfy Hollywood restrictions.
As you know by now, the movies took off and the cut material that Peter Jackson and crew originally had in the films had to make their way back in through extended editions via DVD (though not all the material made it back). So after a paragraph of rambling, what am I getting at? Well, the extended footage for each movie fits the bill. The footage is not forced in the story, it doesn’t look oddly placed, and it actually adds to the overall connection that many fans of the book need for these movies to work. For example, in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, you have a wonderful song at Théodred’s funeral from Éowyn, which wasn’t in the original film. It doesn’t add extra story, but it does add a bit more emotion with his death and the people it affects. If you need another example then you’ve also got Éowyn and Faramair’s silent love story in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, as each character recovers from injury; this is vital because they end up with each other at the end of the film. These sorts of things make the extended editions worth the money and the wait. Warner Home Video just didn’t say, “Hey Peter, just add some more footage, so we can make billions”, they did these additions to make the films better (which is a tough gig, considering the films were great to begin with). Unlike other ‘extended editions’ that solely just ‘extend’ a movie experience for no good reason, the extended versions of The Lord of the Rings actually makes the experience better, as well as the story. Not a lot of films that release extended editions can claim that, which makes this release even more enticing.
Anyway, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy Extended Editions are beautiful pieces that had plenty of intricate, precise thought put into them before they were completed. The movies might be nearly four hours in length a piece (The Return of the King spills over the four-hour mark), but you won’t find yourself looking at your watch once. Simply put, Peter Jackson did justice to the trilogy by adding the extra footage and you won’t be disappointed. For fans crying they wanted the extended editions after last year’s LOTR theatrical Blu-ray release you’re going to be satisfied with what you get from these.
Now, you didn’t come here to get a review of the films, as you already know how positively wonderful they are; you want to know how the Blu-ray turned out. There has been controversy the last two weeks with reviewers slightly complaining about the over-saturation of the green and red in the color correction that Peter Jackson and crew made in this current release. There are moments in the three films where you will say, ‘Wow, that’s really some rich colors’. For example, in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring you will immediately notice the green fields of the Shire, especially when Frodo and Gandalf are crossing the bridge to go into the main part of town. The green is so saturated in the scene that it actually does take away from everything around it that isn’t green, if not just a little bit. I’m not sure of the technical reasons why this occurred (because several sources are reporting that Jackson’s changes weren’t that extreme), but in comparison to the theatrical release of last year it’s a pretty significant change. Will it ruin your experience with that particular scene in the Shire? It shouldn’t, but it will be more than noticeable. There are other moments in the films where you will notice other pieces of over-saturation. For example, Gimli’s red forearm cloth stands out during the open field battle in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers when the residents of Rohan are on their way to Helm’s Deep. Again, it doesn’t ruin the scene, but it’s really rich and noticeable to the eye.
There are scattered moments where the colors of the film do stand out more than they should, but it’s not enough to knock the color correcting that Jackson and crew did on their own. The fact that he took time out to enhance the viewing experience for the fans of the film, during pre-production of The Hobbit, is nothing short of commendable. There aren’t a lot of directors who want to deliver the best possible experience to their fans, but this guy seems to respect the consumers and the quality of product he is producing.
With that said, there are moments where their color tinkering stood out quite well. During Frodo’s infamous battle with the Ring Wraith in the first film, when he puts on the ring and the Wraith’s true form is revealed, you will see some details in the ghastly figures that you may not have noticed before. The skin texture of the Wraith really stands out and the little, horrifying intricate details of their facial shapes comes to life (or to death — horrible joke) because of the color correcting and the clean-up job of the film. Pretty much any black/white contrast looks positively phenomenal in this release of the trilogy. I was honestly blown away by the light/dark HD upgrade that this release got in comparison to the last release of the films. Every time Frodo puts on the ring there are more details of the scene that I didn’t previously notice.
So what’s the verdict on the video quality? The verdict is a huge thumbs up. Again, while many reviewers have to find something to complain about in the Blu-ray release, I can’t in good faith say that the green/red over-saturation is enough to turn away from the HD quality of these films. There is little to no noise or artifacts in the picture, the details of the characters, the scope of the environments and the overall visual draw to the picture has been improved dramatically. If there is truly anything to complain about it’s the fact that the special effects in the first film didn’t translate well to Blu-ray. As with older films (and the first in the series is nearly 10 years of age) special effects generally don’t translate well to Blu-ray; only because the details of the ‘real’ action stand out more prominently. If you can suspend your disbelief, as we all can, then you will be able to ignore that and move on. That is a problem that can’t be helped and shouldn’t be helped, as we don’t want another Star Wars reimagined special effects disaster to ensue with a trilogy like this.
So, in short, you will be absolutely satisfied by the visual quality of The Lord of the Rings Extended Editions on Blu-ray. They truly are a masterpiece on so many levels, especially HD.
As for the audio portion of these releases, you get them all in DTS-HD 6.1 audio. The mastering and balance of the music and sound effects is something to behold. Warner Home Video did a spectacular job of making the music, audio and special effects mix together perfectly. I’ve never had such good sound coming out of my speaker set-up, which is saying something considering that bass usually overpowers everything else when it comes to Blu-rays. Howard Shore’s masterfully created composition sounds unbelievable on these Blu-rays. As I’m typing this I’m reliving it in my head (no seriously, it blocks out the voices — so kidding).
Now what do you get in terms of special features? You get 9-discs worth of features. While the features are disappointingly on DVD (not sure why that decision was made — maybe costs), the SD driven features are worth your time and effort. Each release has commentary on the Blu-ray from a variety of members (including cast, crew, design team and production and post production members), so you get some great information and insight on how the production went as you want the film. Outside of the Blu-ray discs, the DVDs are packed with loads of information regarding J.R.R. Tolkien, cast and crew experiences during the filming of the movies, how they visualized and translated the stories and loads of snippets about every aspect of the film. Two of my favorite featurettes were a piece on J.R.R. Tolkien’s life (I didn’t know much about the author) called J.R.R. Tolkien: Creator of Middle-earth and a cast driven piece called From Vision to Reality, where you get to see interviews with cast and crew regarding their experiences in a timeline driven explanation of the production. Pretty much everything that you wanted to know about the films, the books and the experiences can be found in this Blu-ray set release.
Here’s a full list of what you get by disc:
Disc 1 (Blu-ray)
– The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring Feature Extended Edition Part 1
– The Lord of the Rings: War in the North — The Untold Story trailer
– Commentary with Director/Writers
– Commentary with Design Team
– Commentary with Production and Post Production
– Commentary with Cast
Disc 2 (Blu-ray)
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring Feature Extended Edition Part 2
– Commentary with Director/Writers
– Commentary with Design Team
– Commentary with Production and Post Production
– Commentary with Cast
Disc 3 (DVD)
– The Appendices Part 1: From Book to Vision
– Peter Jackson Introduction
-J.R.R. Tolkien: Creator of Middle-earth
-From Book to Script
– Visualizing the Story
– Designing and Building Middle-earth
– Middle-earth Atlas Interactive
– New Zealand and Middle-earth Interactive
Disc 4 (DVD)
– The Appendices Part 2: From Vision to Reality
– Elijah Wood Introduction
– Filming The Fellowship of the Ring
– Visual Effects
– Post Production: Putting It All Together
– Digital Grading
– Sound and Music
– The Road Goes Ever On…
Disc 5 (DVD)
– Behind-the-scenes Documentary by Costa Botes
Disc 6 (Blu-ray)
– The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers Feature Extended Edition Part 1
– The Lord of the Rings: War in the North — The Untold Story trailer
– Commentary with Director/Writers
– Commentary with Design Team
– Commentary with Production and Post Production
– Commentary with Cast
Disc 7 (Blu-ray)
– The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers Feature Extended Edition Part 2
– Commentary with Director/Writers
– Commentary with Design Team
– Commentary with Production and Post Production
– Commentary with Cast
Disc 8 (DVD)
– The Appendices Part 3: The Journey Continues
– Peter Jackson Introduction
– J.R.R. Tolkien: Origin of Middle-earth
– From Book to Script: Finding the Story
– Designing and Building Middle-earth
– Gollum
– Middle-earth Atlas Interactive
– New Zealand as Middle-earth
Disc 9 (DVD)
– The Appendices Part 4: The Battle of Middle-earth
– Elijah Wood Introduction
– Filming The Two Towers
– Visual Effects
– Editorial: Refining the Story
– Music and Sound
– The Battle for Helm’s Deep is Over…
Disc 10 (DVD)
– Behind-the-scenes documentary created by Costa Botes
Disc 11 (Blu-ray)
– The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King Feature Extended Edition Part 1
– The Lord of the Rings: War in the North — The Untold Story trailer
– Commentary with Director/Writers
– Commentary with Design Team
– Commentary with Production and Post Production
– Commentary with Cast
Disc 12 (Blu-ray)
– The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King Feature Extended Edition Part 2
– Commentary with Director/Writers
– Commentary with Design Team
– Commentary with Production and Post Production
Disc 13 (DVD)
– The Appendices Part 5: The War of the Ring
– Peter Jackson Introduction
– J.R.R. Tolkien: The Legacy of Middle-earth
– From Book to Script
– Designing and Building Middle-earth
– Home of the Horse Lords
– Middle-earth Atlas Interactive
– New Zealand as Middle-earth
Disc 14 (DVD)
– The Appendices Part 6: The Passing of an Age
– Introduction
– Filming The Return of the King
– Visual Effects
– Post-Production: Journey’s End
– The Passing of an Age
– Cameron Duncan: the Inspiration for Into the West
Disc 15 (DVD)
– Behind-the-scenes documentary by Costa Botes