Return of the king extended edition reviews

In comparison between the two Extended Editions, the additions to Fellowship seem stronger, because the longer, Hobbit-centric opening and the explanation of the Elven gifts were so obviously missing. The Two Towers: Extended Edition is presented in a spotless widescreen 2. The film has four audio commentaries.

The second one is with the design team, costume designer and Weta workshop supervisor Richard Taylor, Weta workshop supervisor Tania Rodger, production designer Grant Major, art directors and set designers Alan Lee and Dan Hennah, art department coordinator Chris Hennah, and conceptual designer John Howe.

There are also easily found Easter eggs on both discs. Though not attempting to be a biography, it does speak of Tolkien's friendship with C.

Lewis, while it also suggests how his time in World War I as a soldier influenced the book especially the dead marshes sequence. It's also interesting to note that the commentators are at times a bit critical of his writing style, and are surprised that the thing was published at all.

Tolkien's structure told basically multiple stories linearly through, while Jackson felt to create a timeline they had to be intercut, which forced some reshufflings of events, specifically "She" being pushed into Return of the King. This is also where the writers explain why they changed Faramir's character as they also note on the commentary.

In this section is also a large stills gallery with some of the stills featuring audio commentaries for both the peoples and realms of Middle Earth. The documentary shows how much of the character was modeled on Serkis, who shot his scenes with the actors, and then was later replaced with his digital incarnation.

Watching Serkis's commitment as he flops around in a freezing-cold river explains why Gollum has become an indelible cinematic figure. The final chapter in this section, Gollum Stand-in 3 min. There's also a design gallery here so you can see the different attempts at getting Gollum's look. Those looking for "Hobbitized" vacation ideas may benefit the most from this.

The first talks to and about the stunt people involved and the work they went through, and Viggo Mortensen's penchant for head butting. The second is the more standard "making-of," where they cover the difficulties involved in making the picture especially the money sequences , though producer Barrie Osborne does mention that since all three were shot at the same time, it's sometimes hard to differentiate between what was for what.

This section also has a production-photos gallery. Also in this section is a still gallery for Abandoned Concepts, featuring the talked about Slime Balrog. Here they were Michael Horton and Jabez Olssen, and Jackson talks about the process where in which he gets to see a rough cut put together first, with often crude animation filling in for the uncompleted sequences.

From there the fine-tuning begins. These are very endearing, and let the cast goof off like the hams they could be. Aragorn and Gandalf try to rally troops, and Aragorn finally claims his role as the king of Gondor - which lets him use the army of the dead to fight Sauron.

Part of the reason that it is easy to overlook is due to the focus of the story. The outline of his drama is present in the theatrical cut but only becomes fully understandable with the scenes included in the Extended Edition. But he also gradually reveals that he fears that he and his own time do not measure up to the heroism of his storied ancestors.

He is torn between the two sides of his character — drawn on the one side by the call of ancient heroism, and on the other by the everyday practicality of ruling his kingdom. What do we owe Gondor? However, despite his initial reluctance, when Gondor does call for his help, the pull towards heroism again ignites and he leaps into action, calling out for the marshaling of all his forces.

Whether consciously or not, when the intersecting concerns of heroism, practicality, and responsibility are all deadlocked in his unquiet conscience, the desperate situation of Gondor finally tips his character in one definitive direction.

This extended edition, spread over two discs, corrects that. Colors are darker and more solid. Blacks are darker and richer, although one or two scenes got a bit murky. Edge enhancement has been tossed into Mount Doom. The prints are flawless, as always, with zero print errors.

So what's the problem? Jackson really likes his long shots. There are many throughout the movie. And with those long shots comes a noticeable loss of detail. It first struck me when Gandalf and company returned to Isengard and confronted Saruman, and shots from Saruman's perspective really revealed the problem. Gandalf and company turned to fuzz.

Mind you, close-up shots were gorgeous. Close shots of faces reveals wonderful detail and excellent skin tones and textures. CG shots look more organic than ever before. Watching Fellowship… , it struck me how much the CG shots stuck out.

With Return… , the effects look much more natural. Before you scream about this score, in retrospect I find myself in disagreement with our previous scores and I think we were too generous.

Score: 9 out of 10 Languages and Audio Now here is where the discs once again excel. You get a choice between a Dolby Digital 5. The DTS mix is a leap and bound above the Dolby Digital mix of the theatrical release, with better balancing and improved separation across the channels.

The surround channels, particularly the rears, are extremely active. When Gandalf and company confront Saruman, Saruman's voice echoes from all speakers. Sauron's voice filled the room. Faramir's ill-fated attack on Osgiliath is amazing, with arrows whooshing from the left and middle channel to the right.

At the same time, they have mixed Howard Shore's Oscar-winning score so it's better balanced with the film without being overpowering, as it was in previous releases.

The film has a rich, bassy sound without being as bottom-heavy as the theatrical cut. This is it. Score: 10 out of 10 Packaging and Extras The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King Special Extended Edition comes in the same leather case as the previous extended editions, this time painted blue. Inside is an advertisement for a slipcase to hold all three extended editions and a replica of Frodo's Sting short sword, which can glow blue. A booklet maps out all of the extras on the discs, plus includes a chapter listing.

This extended edition comes with four, count 'em, four commentary tracks. This is certainly overkill and not necessary. Some commentaries have up to a dozen people, which can get confusing. Fortunately, when they talk, their name appears on the top center of the screen.

This qualifies as a subtitle, so you can't use subtitles while listening to the commentaries. A nice touch is separating the participants into channels. Jackson comes from the center channel, Walsh comes from the left speaker and Boyens comes from the right.

Jackson is his usual funny self, with all kinds of stories, like eating the Lembas bread when he couldn't find anything to eat on set and getting scolded by the women for it, since he was eating a prop. He talks about some pickup shots being done as late as this year, four years after some scenes were originally shot. Jackson also says the shots in the new scene, The Decline of Gondor, were his favorite of the deleted scenes, since the camera goes up one side of Minas Tirith and down the other.

He points out Royd Tolkien's cameo and admits that the Sword of Elendir was too long to wear in its scabbard, so Viggo had to carry it unsheathed through the rest of the movie. If you listen to one commentary, this is it. Once again, Mumbles Mortensen didn't show up, but he's all over the extras discs.

This clearly was recorded in pieces and stitched together. Their insight and comments range from good Lee, McKellen, Weaving to inane banter the Hobbits, as usual.

Serkis talks in his own voice and as his two alter egos. I was hoping for something split between the speakers, the way Stephen Soderbergh did with Schizopolis , but there wasn't much, although it did make for comedy. This one really goes into production detail, often in very specific detail on how uniforms were made, where they used miniatures or matte paintings, and so on.

Or maybe you won't. I found this the hardest to follow, for a number of reasons, and spent the least amount of time on it. He also jokes about being back for the 25th anniversary. Best part of all of this material: anamorphic, 1. The audio is two-channel, which is fine, but the video for these interviews is just beautiful. Subtitles are available in English and Spanish. Tolkien: The Legacy Of Middle-earth is a minute piece involving Tolkien experts, from professors to some serious geeks, discussing how Tolkien's experiences studying Finnish and Welsh languages influenced his Elvish languages.

He had created two languages by the time he was World War I also had a major influence on him, since he rode in a cavalry group. From Book To Script is a two-parter. Forging The Final Chapter is 24 minutes long, and I love the opening.

John Rhys-Davies tells us Tolkien let the film rights go for next to nothing because he felt the book was "unfilmable. Abandoned Concept: "Aragorn Battles Sauron" is a five-minute animatic storyboard sequence. This was replaced with the troll in the movie.

Designing And Building Middle-earth is a four-part series. First is Designing Middle-earth , a minute segment on the development of conceptual designs from Alan Lee and John Howe, and how they built the sets and miniatures. I realize that's a contradiction in terms, but that's what it was.

The "miniature" of Minas Tirith was scale, but considering Minas Tirith is 1, feet tall in Tolkien's books, that puts it in perspective. The "miniature" was seven meters tall and six-and-a-half meters in diameter.

It had over 1, houses. The result was realism you just don't get with CG. They also cover the Necropolis with the Army of the Dead, the trebuchets in Minas Tirith and the Grond, the wolf's head battering ram. The crew realized they had nowhere near the experience they would need, but they learned as they went and became experts very quickly, out of necessity if nothing else. They had to create unique looks for every culture, from Gondor to Hobbiton to the orcs to the Horadrim.

Costume Design is a three-parter, looking at the people and realms of Middle-earth plus the miniatures. Costume Designer Ngila Dickson discusses the different costumes, some of which were really detailed and then never made it onto the screen. Finally, there's a Design Gallery with drawings and photos of the whole design process. Home Of The Horse Lords is a minute piece on the heavy use of horses on screen. In the Tolkien bio, they talked about the author's love and knowledge of horses since he was in the cavalry.

This segment expands on it, with everything from the troubles with using the animals to funny stories on who was a bad rider. Let it be said, with as much distance as this new cut provides, these are masterpieces. Here, even the minor players get to shine as often as the special effects departments; thespians Bernard Hill's nuanced performance as Theodin and John Noble's arch Denethor help keep the film grounded; Elf leader Elrond's Hugo Weaving ability to be noble and yet a parent Weaving's performance as he gives his daughter away is perfection in an aside.

We feel for all of them. Granted, Jackson and company are working with well-respected fantasy material and have a text to fall back on, but the series takes such films as the prequel efforts of this date out to the toolshed and give them the spankings they deserve. This is art, crafted from one of the least respected genres in cinema that's previous "bests" consisted of the Conan and Beastmaster titles.

It couldn't happen to a nicer series of films. And here the journey has changed. In the theatrical cut it's Samwise Gamgee's Sean Astin film, here it becomes his. It's safe to say that Jackson felt theirs was the most important narrative, and cut little from it. Though there are a couple moments, with the longest being when Frodo and Sam dress as Orcs and unintentionally get suckered into marching to battle. What may be most surprising to those who were looking for some of the "important" scenes trimmed but rumored to be filmed is how the majority are brief.

The long spoke of "Mouth of Sauron" scene, in which a nefarious ambassador Bruce Spence meets Aragorn's army at the Black Gates, takes about a minute. The "House of Healing" sequence is only marginally longer and is conveyed non-verbally, while future lovers Eowyn's Miranda Otto and Faramir's David Wenham extended courtship amounts to more shots of the couple making googly eyes at each other. Gandalf's confrontation with the Witch King clocks in at a minute; Aragorn Viggo Mortensen grabbing the palantir to tell Sauron that he's the returned king is also succinct.

They are welcome, but it points to how much was sacrificed to get the film down to its already unwieldy theatrical length. The longest addition is the one that fans and Christopher Lee have been clamoring for since it was announced that it was snipped: the resolution of Saruman Lee and Grima Wormtounge Brad Dourif. But in finally seeing the sequence, it's easy to see why it was excised; though it caps off two characters who were prominent in the last film, their fates don't really advance the plot that much, and the movie already has too much to cover before the battle for Minis Tirith.

But it's a welcome addition just the same. Fan favorites Legolas Orlando Bloom and Gimli John Rhys-Meyers offer more comedy with a drinking game and from Gimli during the army of the dead sequence.