Return of the King: EE

[RussSchultz]

I just watched it last night, and I have to say, I think its the worst of the lot.

The extended footage many times deserved to be on the cutting room floor as it wrecked havok with the timeline.

You see it going from night to day; Eowyn/Faromir recovering in the hall of healing before Pippin even finds Merry on the battlefield. Pippen following Denethor to the crypt over a bridge and through a graveyard made no sense when you tried to place the crypt/graveyard are on the top of Minos Tirith(Denethor runs burning from the crypt right of the end of the point--you can see the point of courtyard through the door of the crypt, but you can't see the crypt in the far shot)

Some of it should have made it into the original film: the mouth of Sauron, for example, was a good addition. Plus the forced march of the hobbits in Mordor (though I suppose that was one of the things that screwed with the temporal continuity I was just complaining about). Gandalf's confrontation with the Witch-King of Angmar, while somewhat abrupt, showed how impressive it was that Eowyn/Merry killed him.

It also did a terrible job keeping character continuity with Eowyn. Before the battle of Pellinor plains, she is scared. Then she takes down an Oliphant (which shouldn't have been in the theatrical release, either) and proceeds to try to rescue her father by hacking and whacking her way through a horde of orcs. Next, she's all talk against the witch king, lops of the dragons head, then turns into a bumbling unskilled neophyte when she confronts the Witch-King. Perhaps you can explain it away as mortal terror--but it looks like its a completely different character from one scene to the next.

At least they didn't add another ending to the movie--it had enough to begin with.

Anyways, thats my thoughts.

 

[Guden Oden]

Many of your points are explained/cleared up if you listen to the commentaries with the director/writers trio. Of course, that's a job that takes another 4 hours 10 mins, but hey, it's worth it...

 

[Blade]

I've never seen an extended cut of any LOTR film, but I did see all three in the theater and ROTK was not my favorite.

It just wasn't.

I was rooting against it in the Oscars, even. Best Picture? Ehhhhhhhh.. maybe. I wanted Lost in Translation or Mystic River..

 

[pax]

My only 2 nit picks over the theatrical ver is that I didnt see what happened to Gamling. That scene where Eomer cries holding someone I thought from the trailer was Gamling but in fact its Eowin (sp?). I probably missed it when talking to buds while watching but I hope they didnt screw that up...

My 2nd one is why is Pippin riding with Gandalf when he goes to rescue the survivors of the overun city of Osgiliath being chased by fell beasts...

I thought that would be cleared up... def the first movie is my fav with ROTK being the action pay off of what is really a 3 part movie.

 

[Guden Oden]

My 2nd one is why is Pippin riding with Gandalf when he goes to rescue the survivors of the overun city of Osgiliath being chased by fell beasts...

Because originally, that scene is meant to take place as G&P arrives to Minas Tirith. However, the movie makers, in their divine wisdom, decided that having the meeting with Denethor first made for better storytelling in movie format, so it was moved together with one or two additional quick scenes (one showing him riding out the gates to meet the Gondorians).

One could surmise perhaps, that Gandalf feel Pippin can't be trusted to be left alone on his own. Or perhaps he's developed some strange Hobbit Fetishes...

 

[pax]

LOL did u see the egg in the rotk ee yet? At the end of the scene selection you keep clicking down and youll see a ring...

 

[Nemesis77]

I've never seen an extended cut of any LOTR film, but I did see all three in the theater and ROTK was not my favorite.

It just wasn't.

I was rooting against it in the Oscars, even. Best Picture? Ehhhhhhhh.. maybe. I wanted Lost in Translation or Mystic River..

Oscars the ROTK received were in a way meant for the whole trilogy. And the trilogy deserved every single one of them. Mystic River over the LOTR-trilogy? Yeah right....

 

[Neeyik]

I'd agree with Russ that it's the worst of the lot (in terms of being an extended edition); so much so, that some of the inserted scenes made the film worse. For example, when Aragorn talks to the undead traitors to join his cause and end their curse - the additional parts in EE version cheapen this whole section terribly...."we fight!"

The Saruman scene was perhaps the worst though; you had the characters on the ground looking at something that's...oooh, what several hundred feet high? And yet, the position of their eyes and their proximity to Orthanc fits in with them looking at something just tens of feet high - as, of course, it is in the books with Saruman being on a balcony and not the top of the damn tower.

FOTR is still my favourite, both theatre and EE versions.