Lord Of The Rings Extended Editions on Blu-Ray

TheIrishGrover · 07-03-2011 1:20pm #1

Amazon trailer so must be coming soon. As much as I liked the cinema versions I really preffered the EEs. For me, Boromir and Faramir and Denethor's deleted scene in TTT is probably my favourite added scene. Plus the commentaries are brilliant. (Esp Jackson, Boyans and Walsh one and Billy Boyd and Dominic Monaghan's one). Anyway, link to the trailer

http://www.amazon.com/gp/mpd/permalink/m3LI8C9D4PMBMT/ref=ent_fb_link

Galvasean · 07-03-2011 1:28pm

Also, The Return of the King isn't absolutely riddled with plotholes when you watch the extended edition.

Sad Professor · 07-03-2011 1:35pm

I love the EE of FOTR, but the other two films had some questionable scenes added back in. Jackson once talked about revisiting the films and fixing things up. Gollum in FOTR, etc. I hope he does it at some point, but it'll probably be after The Hobbit.

I would have really liked to see the Galadriel narrated epilogue from ROTK (which I assume was shot). Unfortunately Jackson was probably reluctant to put it in due to all the complaints about multiple endings.

TheIrishGrover · 07-03-2011 1:56pm

Sad Professor wrote: »

I love the EE of FOTR, but the other two films had some questionable scenes added back in. Jackson once talked about revisiting the films and fixing things up. Gollum in FOTR, etc. I hope he does it at some point, but it'll probably be after The Hobbit.

I would have really liked to see the Galadriel narrated epilogue from ROTK (which I assume was shot). Unfortunately Jackson was probably reluctant to put it in due to all the complaints about multiple endings.

Just as long as he doesn't go all Lucas on it. Don't want to see a whole Orc/Uruk-hai musical number

krudler · 07-03-2011 1:56pm

fcuking hell its easy to forget Fellowship came out 10 years ago this Christmas, can remember it like yesterday

irish_stevo815 · 07-03-2011 2:50pm

10 Years.....WOW :eek:

Have all the Extended editions on DVD but would definately consider adding the Blu-Ray set to my collection, especially if there is some new material!

rednik · 07-03-2011 11:54pm

Bluray.com have just put this up. 9 dvds of special features in a limited deluxe box set. If they are going to release a blu ray box set well make it blu ray not just the feature films.

http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=5974

filmbuffboy · 08-03-2011 1:09am

if you look at the review of the theatrical edition on blu ray on bluray.com you will see that the reviewer had some major issues with the picture quality of the release.

So a little bit of advice to those who buy blu rays for the superior picture quality..... wait for a review of this product from bluray.com before buying. you dont wanna spend a big wad of cash on somthing that has sub par hd quality. you want the real deal.

im hoping im being overly pessimistic and warner have treated this version with the hd release it deserves!!!

The Mad Hatter · 08-03-2011 1:18am

Galvasean wrote: »

Also, The Return of the King isn't absolutely riddled with plotholes when you watch the extended edition.

Yes, and on Blu-ray it presumably won't be clumsily split across two discs with the cut in the middle of a scene.

Kess73 · 08-03-2011 11:39am

filmbuffboy wrote: »

if you look at the review of the theatrical edition on blu ray on bluray.com you will see that the reviewer had some major issues with the picture quality of the release.

So a little bit of advice to those who buy blu rays for the superior picture quality..... wait for a review of this product from bluray.com before buying. you dont wanna spend a big wad of cash on somthing that has sub par hd quality. you want the real deal.

im hoping im being overly pessimistic and warner have treated this version with the hd release it deserves!!!

True. There is a big difference in picture quality between the FOTR on and ROTK in the theatrical versions on blu ray.

Was given the trilogy on blu ray at Xmas, and I was quite underwhelmed at the quality of the first film, and whilst the second and third film looked good on blu ray, they did not look as good as they should have done. They were probaby 4/5 in terms of quality rather than the 5/5 one would expect from parts two and three. FOTR would be a 2.5 or 3 out of 5 in my eyes in terms of pic quality.

Voodu Child · 08-03-2011 12:01pm

The Mad Hatter wrote: »

Yes, and on Blu-ray it presumably won't be clumsily split across two discs with the cut in the middle of a scene.

If they have any regard for PQ they'll split them across two discs.

More likely they'll put them on one BD-50. And because they're putting a documentary and a few commentaries on the same disc, ROTK will end up with about 20Mbps or less video bitrate. Don't expect any major upgrade in PQ compared to the so-so theatrical editions.

johnny_ultimate · 08-03-2011 1:49pm

Galvasean wrote: »

Also, The Return of the King isn't absolutely riddled with plotholes when you watch the extended edition.

I've been meaning to rewatch Two Towers and RotK actually (watched Fellowship relatively recently). I think I've seen the extended edition of TT, but I always thought RotK was too long in the first place. So... many... endings

Sad Professor · 08-03-2011 2:29pm

There's really only one ending, but Jackson screwed up the editing. Nearly everyone of the final scenes ends with a fade to black which audiences are hard-wired to associate with the movie being over. If he had replaced all the fade to blacks with dissolves, ran a consistent musical score through all the final scenes, and added a voice-over from Frodo or Galadriel, there wouldn't have been any complaints about multiple endings.

Johnny Bitte · 08-03-2011 3:20pm

Sad Professor wrote: »

There's really only one ending, but Jackson screwed up the editing. Nearly everyone of the final scenes ends with a fade to black which audiences are hard-wired to associate with the movie being over. If he had replaced all the fade to blacks with dissolves, ran a consistent musical score through all the final scenes, and added a voice-over from Frodo or Galadriel, there wouldn't have been any complaints about multiple endings.

Any chance he'll do this because everytime I get to the end the memory of half the cinema on their feet/Loudly complaining WTF/Just leaving springs up everytime

purple_hatstand · 08-03-2011 3:35pm

Sad Professor wrote: »

I love the EE of FOTR, but the other two films had some questionable scenes added back in. Jackson once talked about revisiting the films and fixing things up. Gollum in FOTR, etc. I hope he does it at some point, but it'll probably be after The Hobbit.

I would have really liked to see the Galadriel narrated epilogue from ROTK (which I assume was shot). Unfortunately Jackson was probably reluctant to put it in due to all the complaints about multiple endings.

I'm not sure anything like this exists.....?

filmbuffboy · 08-03-2011 3:48pm

Voodu Child wrote: »

If they have any regard for PQ they'll split them across two discs.

More likely they'll put them on one BD-50. And because they're putting a documentary and a few commentaries on the same disc, ROTK will end up with about 20Mbps or less video bitrate. Don't expect any major upgrade in PQ compared to the so-so theatrical editions.

Well if the picture quality hasnt improved I wont be buying them and Ill stick with my extended dvd box set. Im sick of studios trumping high definition, saying that its way better than dvd....and then releasing blu ray versions of films with sub par hd quality. Gladiator is another film that springs to mind where they were careless with the first print.

If a film company expects me to double dip on a release that I already own, then there had better b a substantial improvment on the blu ray release of the theatrical version.

Personally, I think anyone who forks over a big wad of cash for a film that hasnt been given the proper HD treatment is a fool, particularly so if they already own the dvd.

After buying the Gladiator blu ray blindly I learned my lesson and now always wait for a picture quality review on bluray.com:cool:

Sad Professor · 08-03-2011 4:03pm

purple_hatstand wrote: »

I'm not sure anything like this exists.....?

Maybe so. But on the commentary track for FOTR one of them said that Galadriel would have the last line in the third film. Given that Sam has the last line in the book and there's not much room for a voice-over at that moment, I always assumed this meant a epilogue. How substantial this was and how much of it was shot, I don't know.

The prologue was created in editing and was originally supposed to be told by Gandalf during a later scene, so it's possible this idea of an epilogue was something they came up with afterwards but never got around to shooting it.

Antar Bolaeisk · 08-03-2011 4:15pm

Sad Professor wrote: »

There's really only one ending, but Jackson screwed up the editing. Nearly everyone of the final scenes ends with a fade to black which audiences are hard-wired to associate with the movie being over. If he had replaced all the fade to blacks with dissolves, ran a consistent musical score through all the final scenes, and added a voice-over from Frodo or Galadriel, there wouldn't have been any complaints about multiple endings.

I can only presume he did it on purpose to highlight the multiple endings bringing each part of the journey to a close. It's not his fault that most of the audience were stupid/impatient and couldn't wait for the credits to roll.

Everytime I hear someone complain about the ending of Return of the King I slap them and ask them what did they expect, a two minute wrap up to a nine hour epic?

Granted the visual cues were there but were people really that impatient to leave the cinema that they jumped to leave at the first sign of it ending (although I suppose after nearly three and a half hours there were a lot of people dying for the loo).

purple_hatstand · 08-03-2011 4:22pm

There should have been an Epilogue. It would have provided a nicely-symmetrical book-end for the final instalment and, more importantly, it would have vastly improved the pacing of the ending of the trilogy. It could have begun after the Eagle rescue and shown a compilation of short clips of reunions, coronations and farewells. It could even have been used to allude to the Scouring Of The Shire (an omission which seriously irks me to this day).

I recently re-watched all 3 EE's over a weeekend and the most striking aspect is how unwieldy and over-indulgent ROTK is.

johnny_ultimate · 08-03-2011 4:32pm

Antar Bolaeisk wrote: »

Everytime I hear someone complain about the ending of Return of the King I slap them and ask them what did they expect, a two minute wrap up to a nine hour epic?

Granted the visual cues were there but were people really that impatient to leave the cinema that they jumped to leave at the first sign of it ending (although I suppose after nearly three and a half hours there were a lot of people dying for the loo).

Why would you want to slap someone for criticising a major structural and pacing flaw of an otherwise fantastic achievement? I couldn't wait to see RotK as a teenager, and was super excited when I got into a press screening. But the ending was crushing - forty five minutes or so of circle jerking and back-slappery. At least the book had the Scourge of the Shire to break it up, but in the film it's just an endless succession of increasingly redundant and repetitive send-offs.

No doubting it was a monumental achievement - both the film and the narrative itself - but such a major problem was a disappointing end to a wonderful experience, and ultimately what was left in my mind as I left the cinema.

Sad Professor · 08-03-2011 4:45pm

Antar Bolaeisk wrote: »

Everytime I hear someone complain about the ending of Return of the King I slap them and ask them what did they expect, a two minute wrap up to a nine hour epic?

I agree, but film audiences are used to quick resolutions. And when they see scenes of the characters all standing around smiling, they just think "oh happy ever after" and get ready to go. I think Jackson could have done more to emphasis Frodo's sacrifice during the early post-Doom scenes so that the audience had a better idea that the story wasn't over yet.

purple_hatstand wrote: »

I recently re-watched all 3 EE's over a weeekend and the most striking aspect is how unwieldy and over-indulgent ROTK is.

There's too much going on in it. The decision to shift Shelob and the Voice of Saruman into ROTK robbed TTT of a proper ending and made ROTK rushed. Instead of fleshing out TTT (which really didn't need it), they should have fleshed out Frodo and Sam's journey through Mordor, particularly Sam's efforts to rescue Frodo.

Even though it wouldn't have been true to the book, I would have liked to have seen more conflict between Frodo and Sam over the ring as well. It would have added to the tension and given them more to play with in ROTK. Although Tolkienites would probably burn me at the stake for suggesting that Sam should be anything but pure hearted.

johnny_ultimate · 08-03-2011 5:01pm

Sad Professor wrote: »

I agree, but film audiences are used to quick resolutions. And when they see scenes of the characters all standing around smiling, they just think "oh happy ever after" and get ready to go. I think Jackson could have done more to emphasis Frodo's sacrifice during the early post-Doom scenes so that the audience had a better idea that the story wasn't over yet.

In my eyes it isn't down to attention span issues or prior expectations that make it so unwieldy (although admittedly I haven't seen the film since the cinema, hence it being on my rewatch list!) - in fact, the audience would actively be awaiting a satisfactory conclusion having got that far. It's that it makes the "happily ever after" point again, and again, and then again. It was almost condescending in delivery - it was well established that everyone lived happily ever after, but they kept rubbing it in, for me stressing a point I was confident I understood far earlier in the lengthy concluding hour. It made for a rather lobsided, one-sided conclusion IMO.

I feel strongly about it because at the time it was a true disappointment. While I don't respect Jackson quite so much after The Lovely Bones (which was beyond a dud) at the time he could do no wrong in my eyes - having made two three hour plus epics that felt like half that length they were so engaging (as well as his terrific fun earlier films). I'm not doubting it needed a suitably epic, complex ending. It's epic alright, but the latter is what's missing. The conclusion as it stands - however true to the book it may have been - was so absurdly self-indulgent and poorly paced that it was a genuinely fatal mistake IMO. I look back at FotR and TT with great fondness, but RotK's legacy was always somewhat tarnished. It isn't a result of impatience, I just thought it was dull, repetitive film-making.

david75 · 12-03-2011 2:08am

If you think about it, the fade outs at the end are a good way of bringing all the characters arcs to a close and they tie up lots of loose ends. I agree about TTT needing to be fleshed out, but the timeline Jackson follows in the film with his editing is actually the timeline from Tolkien himself. You couldn't film it as it is in the book, what would you say after the chase for the Hobbits..'now back to Sam and Frodo, 3 months ago' or whatever? it wouldn't work.

If he is considering a re-edit I wish he'd cut out the completely unneccessary fall Aragorn takes in TTT. it's pointless and holds the story up.

TTT definitely feels like the runt of the three.

Sad Professor · 12-03-2011 2:57am

Yeah, I agree about Aragon's fall in TTT. The trilogy had far too many fake-death scenes and that was definitely one too many as it was so bloody obvious that he wasn't dead.

But re: the timeline, I don't think Jackson was too concerned about the chronology of events in the book. The main reason that so much material from TTT got put into ROTK was because Jackson was originally commissioned by Miramax to make two films which involved merging most of the events of FOTR and TTT into a single film. This was when they decided to integrate Shelob into the events of ROTK, then called "The War of the Ring" which would have been the second film.

Then when New Line took over and decided to make three films, they had to very quickly separate that first script into two films and spent most of their time working on FOTR, as that was the first film and the one that they felt needed the most work. They hadn't enough time to work on TTT and were afraid to take Shelob out of ROTK in case there wouldn't be enough Frodo/Sam material left. This is why TTT is the runt of the trilogy.

rednik · 12-03-2011 1:13pm

If the transfers are done properly I have no problem if they are on single 50gb discs. The picure quality should be excellent. Take the Apocalypse Now release, both the TE and Redux are on a single 50gb disc and the transfer is excellent for both editions. Together these two add up to almost six hours so they should have no problem putting the EE versions on one disc.

Voodu Child · 12-03-2011 2:17pm

rednik wrote: »

If the transfers are done properly I have no problem if they are on single 50gb discs. The picure quality should be excellent. Take the Apocalypse Now release, both the TE and Redux are on a single 50gb disc and the transfer is excellent for both editions. Together these two add up to almost six hours so they should have no problem putting the EE versions on one disc.

Apocalypse Now has two versions via seamless branching. There isn't actually 6hrs of footage on one disc.

Kess73 · 12-03-2011 2:56pm

Voodu Child wrote: »

Apocalypse Now has two versions via seamless branching. There isn't actually 6hrs of footage on one disc.

Still should be no problem to put each of the extended editions on one disk each though, and put the extras on seperate disks.

Got the Dirty Dozen on blu ray lately, and it has the full length version of the film, plenty of extras which include two new docs on the film and the entire second film, and all on the one disk. Giving it a total of 363 minutes of footage on one disk, slightly over six hours.

Voodu Child · 12-03-2011 3:24pm

Kess73 wrote: »

Got the Dirty Dozen on blu ray lately, and it has the full length version of the film, plenty of extras which include two new docs on the film and the entire second film, and all on the one disk. Giving it a total of 363 minutes of footage on one disk, slightly over six hours.

The Dirty Dozen extras are all standard-definition.

Kess73 · 12-03-2011 4:13pm

Voodu Child wrote: »

The Dirty Dozen extras are all standard-definition.

Have only watched the main feature on it so far, so had not checked what the rest was shown in.

But there are films over the 200 minute mark already out on blu ray and on one disk. So I fail to see why the extended versions could not each be shown on one disk if the extras were kept on seperate disks.

Voodu Child · 12-03-2011 5:10pm

Kess73 wrote: »

But there are films over the 200 minute mark already out on blu ray and on one disk. So I fail to see why the extended versions could not each be shown on one disk if the extras were kept on seperate disks.

Its not that it can't be put on one disc, its whether it should.

I explained it already. Encode ROTK (251min) to about 45GB with a ~4000kbps audio track and you'll have about 20Mbps for video.

Some movies can look great at that kind of bitrate, but we already know that the Theatrical Editions had a similar bitrate and didn't look great. They DNR'd the heck out of them to help with compression.

Its not impossible that it'd look great on a single disc, but considering the amount of times some people have bought and re-bought the trilogy, personally i'd be happier if they split it across two and really went to town on the PQ. High-bitrate, no DNR, no excuses. I don't watch movies from discs so its a trivial matter for me to rip two discs and join them together into a single file.

Phony Scott · 23-03-2011 2:18pm

Full specs here

Entertainment Video have announced the UK Blu-ray Disc release of The Lord of the Rings Motion Picture Trilogy: Extended Edition on 28th June 2011. A 15-disc collection, the UK RRP is TBC but just like the US set from Warner you get all three of Peter Jackson’s films in their extended editions complete with more than 26 hours of extras.

Features are essentially identical to the US set (the only bullet point that appears to be missing is the ‘BD-Live Enabled’ feature), so if you read our news story for that then what follows may look familiar…

Due to the length of the extended editions each film is presented across 2 Blu-ray Discs (to “present each film in the highest possible picture quality”). The set features English 6.1 DTS-HD MA audio and a new transfer of The Fellowship of the Ring which was remastered from the original 2k digital files. Extras include the rare behind-the-scenes documentaries created by Costa Botes that were first seen on the 2006 Limited Edition DVD releases of the films, along with the acclaimed special features by Michael Pellerin from the original extended cut releases.

The set will be packaged in multi-disc elite packaging inside a premium rigid slipcase.

Below is a full breakdown of each disc in the set…

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
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

JRR 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 Two 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 Created by Filmmaker Costa Botes during filming of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

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

JRR 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 for 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 Filmmaker Costa Botes during filming of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

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

Commentary with Cast

Disc 13 (DVD)
The Appendices Part 5: The War of the Ring

Peter Jackson Introduction

JRR Tolkien: The Legacy of Middle-earth

From Book to Script

Designing and Building Middle-earth

Home of the Horse Lords

Middle-earth Atlas

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 Created by Filmmaker Costa Botes during filming of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

Lord Of The Rings Extended Editions on Blu-Ray

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