LOTR: The Two Towers Special Extended DVD

[The Dames 0]

For those of you who have purchased it, have you watched the film yet?

 

I have and so far, these are my thoughts.

 

The scenes with Boromir REALLY add to the film and truly flesh out Faramir's character. I had no idea why he was such a raging asshole in the theatrical version of the film and the added scenes not only made him sympathetic, but redeems his actions at the end. There's a lot more foreshadowing into the "dark terror" that awaits Frodo and Sam in ROTK as well.

 

The Merry and Pippin added scenes are those that aren't necessary as far as I can tell.

 

Those are my preliminary thoughts...I'll add more as people contribute to the thread.

 

Dames

[Downhome 0]

I can't wait to get it, as it's on it's way to me along with the Flair DVD set.

 

IGN gave the Two Towers Edtended set a 10/10 rating though, so that's a good thing.

[The Dames 0]

By the way, the only Easter Egg on the Two Towers DVD is the MTV Award Acceptance speech by Gollum. You can access it on the first disc by highlighting the last chapter, pressing down and a ring will be highlighted. Then press enter.

 

Dames

[Lord of The Curry 0]

Now THIS is what The Two Towers was missing out on in the theatres: Emotion. That was my main issue w/ this movie. The action and the look itself was infinetly better then Fellowship, but for some reason I couldn't care about this like I cared about Fellowship. Some, great, really great scenes in here though...........

 

Massacre at the Fords of Isen- The character of Eomer was one of my favorites in the whole book and I was a little more then pissed when I realized how little of him their was in the movie. Karl Urban still turns in a great performance, acting like the type of guy who knows his role is going to be limited, but still gives it his all.

 

The Song of The Entwives- It was pure joy for me to see this scene make it into the movie. I always felt that Treebeards storyline and character itself was never given enough credit and it makes me smile knowing that Peter Jackson does in fact listens to the fans (sometimes.)

 

Ent Draft- Fuckin hilarious. Merry and Pippin work so well together on screen and the pipe smoking references were gold. Anybody who's read FOTR will dig the Tom Bombadil reference made by Treebeard.

 

Theodreds Funeral- Miranda Otto has a seriously haunting voice. Very cool to see all of Edoras turn out to honour their prince.

 

The Ring of Barahir- More Saruman = always good. Hyping up Aragorn = very good.

 

One of The Dunedains- Miranda Otto is a fox and Viggo Mortenson is a pimp. I'm glad that more Eowyn/Aragorn interaction made it into the movie, seeing as how the movie mostly was about Aragorn/Arwen beforehand.

 

Sons of The Steward- Best new scene in the movie. It gives us a window into why Faramir is such a dickhead to Frodo and Sam, as opposed to the quiet, more gentle Faramir we meet in the books. I'm stoked as hell to see John Noble try on the character of Denethor and Sean Bean proves once again that he is one of the best supporting guys on screen today.

 

Fangorn comes to Helms Deep- I'm still marking out over this scene.

[kkktookmybabyaway 0]

By the way, the only Easter Egg on the Two Towers DVD is the MTV Award Acceptance speech by Gollum. You can access it on the first disc by highlighting the last chapter, pressing down and a ring will be highlighted. Then press enter.

 

Dames

NICE

 

Oh, I loved the Boromir scenes as well.

 

The scene with all the baddies running into the woods could have been a lot better, and it seemed to be poorly edited because it went from a bunch of moving trees to everybody hugging.

 

Enjoyed the Ents, too. One of my favorite lines was when Treebeard said (paraphrasing) "we just said good morning to each other"

 

Merry: "But now it's nighttime!"

 

Liked all the little extra touches of violence, although I wish they would have shown some kids getting sliced at Helm's Deep...

[Kahran Ramsus 0]

I won't be getting this until Christmas, but the FOTR EE was much better than the Theatrical Version. I would have been happier if they just released the EEs into theatres in the first place.

[Guest Choken One]

This is what Pisses me off about the Hollywood World today the most...They release 10 different Editions of a Movie and blindly rob the fans.

 

They say one movie is "The Special Edition"...4 months later when sales die down..."The Ultimate Collectors edition" and then its the "Ultimate Deluxe Director Cut Uncensored" version...

 

This is why I never buy DVD's other then Wrestling ones and the movies I HAVE to own...because I don't trust that I won't get buttfucked.

[LaParkaYourCar 0]

Lordoftherings.net says there will be a limited and short theatrical release of the extended versions of Fellowship and Two Towers in certain cities.

[cabbageboy 0]

Oh sure, I am going to see them both hopefully. Here's how it goes:

 

Dec. 5-11 is FOTR EE in major cities.

Dec. 12-TTT EE in major cities

Dec. 17--ROTK everywhere.

 

If you are truly insane you can go to an all day marathon of the first two EEs and then at midnight see the first showing of ROTK (Dec. 16).

[El Psycho Diablo 0]

This is what Pisses me off about the Hollywood World today the most...They release 10 different Editions of a Movie and blindly rob the fans.

 

They say one movie is "The Special Edition"...4 months later when sales die down..."The Ultimate Collectors edition" and then its the "Ultimate Deluxe Director Cut Uncensored" version...

 

This is why I never buy DVD's other then Wrestling ones and the movies I HAVE to own...because I don't trust that I won't get buttfucked.

Except they stated far in advance that there would be two different editions. The movies aren't the same, none of the extras are the same. This isn't really "double dipping" because they didn't just slap the movie on a new disc with one or two new extras.

[Vyce 0]

Oh sure, I am going to see them both hopefully. Here's how it goes:

 

Dec. 5-11 is FOTR EE in major cities.

Dec. 12-TTT EE in major cities

Dec. 17--ROTK everywhere.

 

If you are truly insane you can go to an all day marathon of the first two EEs and then at midnight see the first showing of ROTK (Dec. 16).

Sweet Jesus, I hope D.C. is one of those cities.

[Guest El Satanico]

If you are truly insane you can go to an all day marathon of the first two EEs and then at midnight see the first showing of ROTK (Dec. 16).

I'm planning on it if it comes near me and I can get someone to go with me.

[cabbageboy 0]

I saw a list that had the trilogy Tuesday info of all the cities but can't find it now. Just check out lordoftherings.net under the extended edition tickets and enter your zip code. I don't think there are any tix left for that epic Tuesday deal but you can see the first two extended versions in back to back weeks.

 

Now, the extended Two Towers. I really enjoyed the hell out of a lot of this new stuff. The Boromir scene was one of the best scenes in the movie, not just the new footage. This scene did 3 things:

 

1. Showed Boromir under pressure from his dad (Denethor) to bring the ring back.

 

2. Showed Faramir's desire to prove his quality, hence his treatment of Frodo and Sam.

 

3. Introduced Denethor to the audience instead of waiting till the 3rd movie to introduce a major character.

 

I also enjoyed Legolas and Gimli doing their final tally, that was great. Gimli was even MORE the man in this version.

 

Also enjoyed some exposition scenes like Eowyn and Aragorn talking while he eats her horrible stew (who knew he was 87?? I was shocked), as well as Saruman and Wormtongue discussing if Aragorn is the heir to Gondor.

 

I didn't like the Merry and Pippen stuff they added with the Ents. It really weighed down the 1st half of the movie I thought. None of these scenes were really needed and they are slow as molasses.

 

If this makes sense I'd say the Two Towers was a better movie in the theatrical version than FOTR, but in the EE version I'd almost give the edge to FOTR. I thought the EE of FOTR seriously added to my knowledge of basic plot and characters, but here in TTT a lot of the extra footage (while interesting) wasn't especially crucial.

[The Dames 0]

Just so you guys know...I'm going to the day long marathon in December, baby.

 

Dames

[cabbageboy 0]

That's cool, Dames. I don't think I could take it though, man. Just going through TTT EE last night was exhausting. I can't imagine going to see the first two EEs and then seeing ROTK at midnight. I think I'd rather go to FOTR on Dec. 5, then TTT on Dec. 12, then see ROTK when it comes out.

[kkktookmybabyaway 0]

Just so you guys know...I'm going to the day long marathon in December, baby.

 

Dames

That's a whole lotta popcorn there...

[LaParkaYourCar 0]

Ent Draft- Fuckin hilarious. Merry and Pippin work so well together on screen and the pipe smoking references were gold. Anybody who's read FOTR will dig the Tom Bombadil reference made by Treebeard.

Yeah I was a little upset that Tom Bombadil never made it into the movie, but I understand that they had to cut a lot of stuff from the book to the movie.

[Conspiracy_Victim 0]

Well I just want to throw in my .02 and say that I thought most of the added scenes added something to the plot without being to distracting, but I guess Hollywood execs figure we can't sit through a 3-1/2 hour movie. By far my favorite scene is Sons of the Steward, as Sean Bean = good in my estimation. It showed why Boromir acted like he did in LOTR, and made his (and Faramir's in TTT) sacrifice to let the ring get away even more noble.

[El Psycho Diablo 0]

Yeah I was a little upset that Tom Bombadil never made it into the movie, but I understand that they had to cut a lot of stuff from the book to the movie.

My only question, though..how the hell would they have managed to pull Bombadil off? With the goofy dialouge he's got..there's no way they could have put him in.

 

At least, none that I can see..

[LaParkaYourCar 0]

Yeah you're probably right. Also to put him in they would have had to extend Frodo's journey through the woods and plains. Instead they had him show up at the prancing pony really quickly.

[Lord of The Curry 0]

ROTK SPOILERS

 

Spoiler (Highlight to Read):

There are persistent rumours around the net that PJ wants to go back and film the scene that occurs between Gandalf and Bombadil after Gandalf leaves the hobbits at the gates of Buckland. However, the ending is still planned to be................are you sure you want to know? You do? Ok...........here goes: The ending is still on schedule to be Frodo, Bilbo and Gandalf leaving Merry, Pippin and Sam at the Grey Havesns. If this is the actual ending, I'm crying like a little bitch all throughout this movie.

[cabbageboy 0]

I keep hearing how sad that ending is supposed to be but after reading it I'm just not feeling it.

 

Spoiler (Highlight to Read):

The whole concept of "going into the west" and the Gray Havens hasn't ever been truly explained to my satisfaction, so I'm puzzled as to why I would cry over Frodo going there. Why leave everyone, what does it accomplish? I can see Gandalf and Bilbo leaving since they are old and Gandalf's task would be complete. But Frodo? Dude, just go back to the Shire and get laid. You've earned it.

[El Psycho Diablo 0]

I keep hearing how sad that ending is supposed to be but after reading it I'm just not feeling it.

 

Spoiler (Highlight to Read):

The whole concept of "going into the west" and the Gray Havens hasn't ever been truly explained to my satisfaction, so I'm puzzled as to why I would cry over Frodo going there. Why leave everyone, what does it accomplish? I can see Gandalf and Bilbo leaving since they are old and Gandalf's task would be complete. But Frodo? Dude, just go back to the Shire and get laid. You've earned it.

Spoiler (Highlight to Read):

The way the movie is set up, you don't really get the feel for time you do in the books. Frodo had the Ring for years before he even left the Shire. He's had a wound that never completely healed. (When the Nazgul at Weathertop stabbed him in the first film) The Ring itself has worn on him for years, and the strain from bearing it..and fighting against it's influence was more than he could take, especially near the end of ROTK where he loses control. He's really old beyond his time, so he goes with Gandalf and company.

[Kahran Ramsus 0]

Spoiler (Highlight to Read):

He also still suffers periodically from being poisoned by Shelob.   Sam, Legolas & Gimli eventually go the Undying Lands as well. Merry, Pippin & Aragorn die on Middle Earth.

[The Dames 0]

Alright guys... If you're going to keep talking about ROTK spoilers, please do so in another thread. I'd like to leave this one for comments on the Two Towers Extended Edition.

 

Dames

[LaParkaYourCar 0]

Actually most of those are book spoilers. Only one...maybe two were ROTK spoilers. Unless we were talking about that part of the book.

 

Oh and about the book based on something said earlier in here:

 

Spoiler (Highlight to Read):

Frodo is 50 when he starts his journey and at that point he's had the ring for 17 years. Plus the movie doesn't even show the hell they went through just getting out of the shire and the forrests after.

[The Dames 0]

Book spoilers or not, they may or may not be translated into the final film, so they're still spoilers to me.

 

Dames

[Kahran Ramsus 0]

Book spoilers or not, they may or may not be translated into the final film, so they're still spoilers to me.

 

Dames

They are all tagged. What's the problem?

[The Dames 0]

I don't have a problem with the spoilers, per se, as long as I'm not spoiled. I'd just rather not see this thread go off topic into ROTK, causing myself and others to stop reading it.

 

Dames

[Guest Qonas]

Most, if not all, of the tickets for the day-long showings of the Extended Editions + RotK (called Trilogy Tuesday) are all sold up. There are a few still up for auction on e-bay for select cities. I snagged my ticket way beforehand, however, so I'll be all set come the 16th.

 

My opinion on the DVD, GOODNESS. In the appendices, a feature for the new cast members in TTT along the lines of The Fellowship of the Cast on the FotR EE DVD would've been very nice but the bits that they threw in under Warriors of the Third Age and Cameras were good and funny and informative.

 

The movie itself, ROCKED MY SOCKS. It seems that all the extra footage added to the EEs of each movie is just tons of nerd gifts. I would've killed for the revelation that Aragorn is old to be in the theatrical, but alas.