21 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
The movie is still great but why keep buying new ones
Man you gotta be kindin' me! Another one. Don't get me wrong I'm not complaining except for the fact I've bought the extended already. My brother bought both versions of each films. This has got to be one of the best marketing schemes in history. In my option they are pumping more money out of fans and that ain't right. If you don't have either version, get them, if you...
108 of 116 people found the following review helpful:
THANKS....BUT NO THANKS!!!!!
Let me accept the fact that LOTR is my most beloved film and I already own the extended editions of the films in one set! I'm really not surprised to see New Line coming up with another edition of the trilogy. With films like these they will squeeze the collectors as much as they can!! Still, inspite of this new set containing both the theatrical versions and the extended...
Let me accept the fact that LOTR is my most beloved film and I already own the extended editions of the films in one set! I'm really not surprised to see New Line coming up with another edition of the trilogy. With films like these they will squeeze the collectors as much as they can!! Still, inspite of this new set containing both the theatrical versions and the extended cuts of the films and also the much hyped Costa Botes documentaries, my advise to anyone buying LOTR for the first time is- DO NOT BUY THIS SET! Spend a little more and you get all the movies in full 6.1 DTS EX glory, alongwith hours of endless in-depth bonus features which probably you'll spend rest of your life watching!!
Please be aware, these new editions DO NOT contain DTS tracks, no commentary tracks by the director, Weta workshop or the cast. All you get is both versions crammed into one single disc and just one documentary as a bonus on the second disc...AND NOTHING ELSE. It would have been a better idea had New Line released the documentaries separately without forcing the consumer to buy the films again....And even this is not the end, once the HD format gains a little more acceptance, they'll have another excuse to come up with a new version of the trilogy!
Beware, Extended edition set is the ultimate LOTR experience, in terms of films or bonus features. Go get it...Its worth all the money spent!!
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DVD double dipping, it's become a standard of the home video world. Case in point, Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy. When the films first saw the light of day on DVD, they were released on New Line's Platinum Series DVD line, featuring two discs of mostly fluffy extras. Then, the four disc Extended Editions would be subsequently released, featuring extended versions of the films with a horde of commentaries and extras that brought fans to their knees. While I always recommended the theatrical versions to casual fans and the Extended Editions to the Tolkien fanatics, New Line has once again dipped into our wallets by releasing the Theatrical and Extended versions in one set, with some "new" extras thrown in for good measure (because they need to sell it to those of us who bought either or both versions before). Now, I'll say right off the bat, each of the three films are technical marvels of modern film making, with incredible battle scenes, effects, and everything else that's made these films the Star Wars trilogy of a new generation. That in mind, these new editions of the film are only worth owning for those who don't already own any of the previous releases; the rest of which should leave the new editions of the trilogy on the shelf where they belong, and maybe then and only then, will the studios stop with the double dipping frenzy that's been going on forever now.
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I can't figure out who this is marketed to. It seems like New Line is trying to come up with every combination of LOTR footage they can get onto different DVD editions. Let me explain exactly what you get here:
2 discs for 3 each movie, 6 discs total. 1 disc contains the theatrical edition of the film on one side and the extended edition on the other. The second disc contains a brand new two-hour featurette by filmmaker Costa Botes. The featurettes are basically a guy walking around with a camera while people get ready on the set and filming people. They are not comprised of 30 minute "making of Helms Deep set" specials or anything like that.
Apparently, New Line has to release the films with the documentaries due to contractual obligations, however, I still can't see anyone but the most hard core of fans buying these. The documentaries are actually quite good, and it's too bad they weren't on one of the other versions that has been released. But unless you are solely buying these dics for the documentaries (and even then, they're not so good as to charge this much), you don't not want this set. The dics do not contain Dolby DTS surround sound, and they contain literally NOTHING aside from the films. No commentaries or anything.
As I said, the documentaries are pretty interesting if you're a huge fan and can afford that much money to watch Sean Astin make jokes about his makeup or scenes of bloopers and stuntmen falling off their horses, but if you are looking at purchasing this for any other reason or to own a copy of the movies, I strongly suggest you get one of the other trilogy sets instead.
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There really isn't a lot of anything very new in this bundle. Even a couple snippets of the documentary footage seemed a bit familiar and wasn't 100% new.
To its credit, the documentary/behind-the-scenes footage did get progressively better and was mostly unfamiliar. The one for The Fellowship of the Ring is a bit of a snoozer, in my opinion, but it picks up in The Two Towers, and is truly fascinating in Return of the King, where we get a combination of hilarious cast interactions along with some of the more interesting insights into the making of the film, such as overlaying CG elements onto the live action.
I can really only recommend this bundle to those who won't miss the money spent for the documentary parts and/or are missing either the extended or theatrical versions of the movies, and want them. If you're strapped for cash, I suggest you wait for more used copies to become available if you really want the documentaries.
Lastly, and sort of tangentally, I really wish someone could give me a satisfactory explanation for why two halves of a movie can fit on a disc (or in this case, one side) but they can't fit the entire movie on one disc or side.
At any rate, the movies are fantastic, and if you need copies, this is as good a bundle as any. But don't rush out to get this bundle-- particularly brand new-- just for the documentaries unless you really have the cash to spare or you really cannot live without them.
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While still feel that Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings movie trilogy is the definitive version of the classic novels - if you're Lord of the Rings fan don't bother with this edition.
One - if you feel you MUST purchase this limited edition buy the movies individually - you'll save yourself a bit of cash (stupidly the studio released it with a higher cost to buy the box set which has NOTHING extra compared to buying the movies individually.
Two - the documentaries leave much to be desired and don't let it be believed that these documentaries are entirely composed of unreleased footage - there is plenty of 'encore' presentation of the same tired footage (Astin's shard in the foot a prime example). I don't need to see or know that there was a semi-heated discussion regarding the distribution of walkie-talkies during the production. I would much rather have seen more of the stuff while they set up scenes on the mountainside with the fellowship or at Rivendell or....
Basically - this is New Line looking for a way to pull in a bit more cash - I suspect they're missing the gobs that the movies raked in over the course of three years.
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This really is kind of pointless to get. If you already own both the Theatrical and Extended Edition DVD's. Sure you get a documentary. There are more documentarys on both the Theatrical and Extended Edition.
Don't take me giving this stars 2 as meaning there bad movies. They are not they are very great movies. It's just for this DVD set. If you are someone who has not been able to get either the Theatrical and Extended Edition then I say go for it and buy it. But if you already own them then save your money.
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- The Extended Edition trilogy from Amazon costs $63.87, and has very extensive extras (two DVDs of extras for each movie) including very elaborate documentataries on costumes, sets, editing, etc. -- most of it is great stuff and very much worth watching. It also has multiple commentary tracks by the director, the art team, the cast, and the production team. It's mostly great stuff and like crack for film geeks. While even hardcore geeks might not listen to all of the commentaries, I found myself playing at least two or three of them in the background (without watching) to learn more about the amazing production process.
- The Widescreen Edition trilogy (theatrical release) goes for $32.99. The extras on those disks are different (and considerably inferior) to the much more extensive and polished extras on the Extended Edition trilogy, and include fluffy filler material from National Geographic TV specials, with a lot of "Mysteries of the Ancient World," and "Did Middle Earth Exist?" stuff. True geeks who can explain the difference between a catapult and an trebuchet will be insulted. However, they _do_ have music videos for "May it Be," "Gollum's Song," and "Into the West," all quite nice, and I think the EE ROTK is missing the video for "Into the West," IIRC.
OK, enough detail. If you liked the theatrical edition and thought that they were plenty long enough, and you aren't a serious geek who can explain the parallels between the legend of Beren and Luthien and the story of Aragorn and Arwen, buy the widescreen edition, watch it, and be satisfied, smug in the knowledge that you actually have a life. If, however, you have bought or plan to buy the Extended Editions, please believe me that there is not much value to be gained in _also_ purchasing the Widescreen Edition. The Widescreen Edition is for Muggles, not Wizards, although it can also be useful for Wizards who want to play the movie for people with shorter attention spans.
If you buy both, you've spent almost $100. Whoah. (I have both, but actually did not _buy_ both; the Widescreen edition; it was a gift. Yeah, a gift).
If (like I have) you also bought the three soundtrack albums, and are buying the very fine and expensive "Complete Recordings" series, consider just how much money you've handed to Mister Jackson and his fine associates over the years. I know I'll be out for upwards of $300 or $400 by the time this is all done, not including multiple sets of movie tickets. And I'm sure in another decade or so he'll manage to hit my up for the twelve-hour CGI-enhanced Ultra Geek edition where Gollum shoots first and Treebeard is replaced by an all-CGI version.
So, what does this new package give you? You could spend $55.76, for both sets of films, but you would miss out on the extras from the EE trilogy. You also still have to flip, though apparently not swap, discs to watch any of the films all the way through, so there's no real advantage there.
So, logically, we can recommend this new packaging to people who want to see both versions, but who don't care about the excellent extras on the Extended Edition discs.
Is there really such an audience? I don't think so. Jackson already catered lovingly to the geeks with the EE set.
But _illogically_, of course, the not-so-secret secret is that they intend to make money off of the geeks like me again because event though we already have both editions, we want the new documentaries. It's tempting, but my recommendatation is to give it a pass.
But, damn, I'd love to see the new documentaries! This movie is... precious to me. Yes, precious... must resist evill marketing gimmicks... Gollum...
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Man you gotta be kindin' me! Another one. Don't get me wrong I'm not complaining except for the fact I've bought the extended already. My brother bought both versions of each films. This has got to be one of the best marketing schemes in history. In my option they are pumping more money out of fans and that ain't right. If you don't have either version, get them, if you spent the money buying the ones that came last year, keep your money in your pocket, but I guess most of you probably knew that. For those of you looking for a review of the films, you ain't gettin' here, this is just a comment and opinion on the new releases, so I know you'll mark it down that this wasn't helpful to you. For a review I would say that all three of these films are some of the best films in history and I'm going to go watch them right now.
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I think the movie companies are stuck for new ideas. It's bad enough we have remakes and sequels of old films (The Omen, Pink Panther, Charlie And The Chocolate Factory to name but a few), but now DVD's are being revisited and rehashed. This is basically the 4-disc set squeezed onto 2 discs with lots of material removed and a little added. The only reason to buy this disc is to be able to watch the extended edition without changing discs albeit without the DTS and multiple commentary. The only reason this get's 3 stars is because the films are fantastic. It's worrying though to think that we just keep buying into these rereleases. Oh well, I'm off to buy the latest Star Wars repackage and King Kong and Superman and...
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I started collecting the "Lord of the Rings" movies very late in the game: I started in July, 2003, when I got "The Fellowship of the Ring" Extended DVD Edition. Later, I was able to buy the Theatrical version, then the Theatrical versions of "The Two Towers" and "The Return of the King," the Extended version of "The Return of the King," and then, "The Two Towers."
I loved the movies, the epic quest to rid the land of Middle-earth from the greatest evil it ever knew was retold, for the most part, faithfully. Of course, when a book is made into a film, they do things to the story. There are Omissions, Changes, and Additions, which often annoy fans. "Lord of the Rings" was no exception. Today, having recently re-read the book(s), I can tell you that these movies are riddled with them. But, on the other hand, looking at it from an amateur screenwriter's perspective, this is not an easy story to adapt into a film. (Thankfully Peter Jackson and Company were allowed three films.) I believe that this is probably the best job that could be done to fit the tastes of today's mainstream movie audiences.
Even though each film was about three hours long (except "The Return of the King," which was about three hours and twenty minutes long), some fans did not feel the films were long enough, some even thinking the films should be extended until each doubled in length!
New Line gave the fans Extended Editions almost a year after each film was released. So, their franchise followed the pattern of 1. Release movie, 2. release DVD, 3. release Extended DVD, 4. release next movie...
The Extended films gave fans a wider view of Middle-earth brought to life on screen. The new footage added helped further develop characters and subplots. In a few cases, the new footage would contain characters seen nowhere else in that specific film, or even the whole trilogy. Fans complained with the Extended Edition of "Return of the King": the ending of the film had not been extended, and thus the ending was not strong enough to support the Extended films.
Each release also contained special features. The Theatrical versions would have trailers, behind-the-scenes videos that had been on the Internet, music videos (except "Return of the King," leaving the door open for YouTube users to create their own), and TV "making of" specials. The Extended versions went into the making of the film in higher details with documentaries and image galleries covering every part of the production process, from writing the script to the world premieres of each film.
Later, Peter Jackson mentioned he was interested in "Ultimate Editions" with the Extended film, a documentary on the making of each film, the deleted scenes that did not make it to the Extended Editions, and blooper reels. Fans wanted those, because they did not appear on either edition of the film.
Sadly, Peter Jackson did an audit on how much New Line Cinema owed his company for the films and found a deficit: New Line had shorted him. He approached them, but they refused to pay him what was due. This led to his suing New Line. The head of New Line announced he would refuse to work with Peter again.
Nonetheless, New Line went ahead and released the Limited Editions: two disc sets with the Theatrical and Extended cuts on one double-sided disc, and a feature-length documentary on the second, which are supposedly the documentaries Peter had intended to use for the "Ultimate Editions."
I bought the Limited Edition set from Amazon just for the documentaries. As stated before, I want to become a screen writer, and always want to find out more about the film making process. Plus, I'm a "completist" collector. Give me widescreen (or for old movies and TV movies and shows, the original aspect ratio) and all the possible special features on my DVDs!
Should you buy it? Only if you want even more of a look into how this three-part epic film series was made, or if you're a completist, or if you just want the movie and don't care too much about special features, but can't decide between theatrical and extended.
I would give this five stars, but because there aren't more special features (I'd trade in ALL of my LOTR DVDs for a set with both versions and ALL special features!!!), such as deleted scenes and blooper reels, and the box the complete set comes in is not very satisfying, which is a pain when transporting the set.
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