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It has sadly come to my attention that my girlfriend has never seen Lord of the Rings. Given that we've been together for over two years, I find this unacceptable.
As such, we are going to spend the day marathoning through them. My copy is not in our apartment (how foolish of me) and we're going to the movie store so we can have DVD quality. Question: regular or extended for her first time?
Posts: 2705 | Registered: Sep 2006
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I'd definitely go with extended, if you've got sufficient time for it and the requisite bathroom breaks and such .
Posts: 5656 | Registered: Oct 1999
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Yeah, I haven't watched the regular versions since the theaters. RotK can drag, but for the first one at least go with the Extended.
Posts: 2827 | Registered: Jul 2005
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midway into the second movie sane people are like "uhhhhhhrg why are we doing this, one more epic drawn-out exterior shot and my brain is going to melt"
then you get a drawn-out exterior shot and your brain melts
Posts: 15421 | Registered: Aug 2005
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I prefer the extended versions to the regular versions now, but they're probably less accessible to a newcomer. The extended versions are really more for big Tolkien fans than they are for a casual viewer.
Posts: 6026 | Registered: Dec 2004
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It should be noted that marathon watching the extended versions requires a sizable investment of time -- something around 12 hours.
Posts: 6026 | Registered: Dec 2004
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The answer was decided for us. The first store had nothing, the second only widescreen left. It seems we weren't the only ones with this idea.
Posts: 2705 | Registered: Sep 2006
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I watched the extended version of The Two Towers and have to say it felt like a real drag. Only watch the extended versions if you're an avid fan of the books who cares more about fidelity to the source material than pacing issues. Taken individually, the added scenes are rather nice, but they don't add enough to make up for how they slow down the plot.
Posts: 1029 | Registered: Apr 2007
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I think extended makes things so much more clearer. All the Boromir stuff from the first movie, comes into so much better focus in the second movie in the extended scenes.
Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
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I have only seen the three one time each and at regular. They were beautiful and good stories, but waaaaaay too long for a casual observer. It's up to you but extended may wear out a noob. Everytime I think I want to watch them again, I look at the run time and find something else to do.
Posts: 1766 | Registered: Feb 2006
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The extended version includes material that allows the story line to make more sense. Like in ROTK, the theatrical release version left out the king of the dead coming out of the mountain and telling Aragorn, "We fight." Without that, the ensuing events are puzzling, and do not seem to follow logically what went before. It is too painfully obvious that something crucial was left out.
If you find yourself truly enamored of LOTR, you will relish every extra minute of the movies in the extended versions. Remember, the extra half hour or so are scenes Jackson meant to include in the telling of the story, but had to be cut out to reduce the movie to a length that theaters would accept. So the real movies are the extended versions.
When The Fellowship of the Ring came out on DVD, I immediately purchased the theatrical release version. But when I learned that an extended version was out, I traded in the theatrical release (Blockbuster Video at that time was buying back used copies of DVDs) and used that to trade up to the extended release. After than, I made sure to wait for the extended version to come out before I bought the DVD.
Posts: 3742 | Registered: Dec 2001
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The army of the dead, as portrayed by Jackson, is pretty stupid anyway, so it's not like it makes much of a difference.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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It was a teeny, tiny part of the story. It wasn't the deus ex machina that ended the entire battle of the Pellennor Fields in 45 seconds.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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The attack of the Heradrin had turned the tide of the battle, and the bad guys would have won without the army of the dead intervening. Even in the novel, it was the Return of the King that saved the day. Too bad there was no way the ships could have sported the flag of the King, as in the novel, but there was obviously no time or means to make the flags.
Posts: 3742 | Registered: Dec 2001
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Haradrim. As pertaining to the land of Harad.
Things were much more dramatic and much more believable in the book. It was the armies of Ethir and Lebinin on the Black Ships that provided the final turn of the tide, not the army of the dead, who never left the area directly surrounding their mountains.
The flag absolutely should have been added. It wouldn't have taken long at all. They found time to send Elrond, magically, all the way from Rivendell down to Helm's Deep to deliver Anduril at the behest of Arwen. He couldn't have sent a flag as well?
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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I'd suggest watching the extended cut, but not marathon watching them unless you're pretty sure your significant other is really going to love them.
There's nothing worse than forcing someone to watch something you know is 'the best thing in the entire world ever'... and then having them find excuses to leave half way through. And there's also nothing worse than being the person trying to find a way to escape from 12 or so hours of lovingly imposed boredom and misery without hurting anyone's feelings.
Hell, I find it a challenge to watch the extended LOTR in one go and I absolutely adore all three movies. Give them space, watch one and then remember to ask if they want to watch more before changing the disc. And if they say 'no, I loathe this, it's stupid', don't cry. Believe me, it doesn't improve matters.
Posts: 1528 | Registered: Nov 2004
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quote:Originally posted by Lyrhawn: Haradrim. As pertaining to the land of Harad.
Things were much more dramatic and much more believable in the book. It was the armies of Ethir and Lebinin on the Black Ships that provided the final turn of the tide, not the army of the dead, who never left the area directly surrounding their mountains.
The flag absolutely should have been added. It wouldn't have taken long at all. They found time to send Elrond, magically, all the way from Rivendell down to Helm's Deep to deliver Anduril at the behest of Arwen. He couldn't have sent a flag as well?
I think you get as riled about LotR as you do about unions and guns and politics.
Maybe more. More fiery, less resigned, maybe?
Either way it cracks me up. Posts: 3580 | Registered: Aug 2005
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She made it through all three, though it was probably in large part because she knew I wanted her to like them. In any case, she said she liked it but was clearly falling asleep at various points.
Posts: 2705 | Registered: Sep 2006
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