The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King EE

[edotherocket 0]

I just picked up my copy after work tonight.

 

I'm starting in reverse and watching the extras before the film.

 

My thoughts so far:

 

- I'm watching The Passing of an Age chapter and at end of production it showed them throwing out all the prothstetic ears and feet and stuff and it also

showed them destroying the unused film stock. Why the hell do they do that?

 

- Nice to see Christopher Lee on there. I thought he might have been too pissed off after being cut from the theatrical cut of Return of the King that he wouldn't be involved.

 

- There's a whole section with Billy Boyd and Dominic Monoghan talking about pipe-weed~!

 

- Funny story where Peter Jackson tried to explain to Christopher Lee what noise to make when he is stabbed in the back. Christopher Lee then very sternly tells him he knows because he himself had been stabbed in the back when he was younger and in the British Secret Service (!?!)

 

- Good god, there is a scene where Gimli and Legolas have a drinking contest. John Rhy Davies, improvising as Gimli, gets totally pissed and says "Back home, we get drunk and go swimming with little hairy women. Yeaaaaaah!!!"

 

- Billy Boyd has kissed five members of the Fellowship.

 

- The Easter Egg on disc one is Dominic Monoghan pretending to be a German journalist interviewing Elijah Wood via satellite (i.e Elijah doesn't realise it's him). It's pretty funny stuff Ali G style stuff. Goes about eight minutes long too.

[kkktookmybabyaway 0]

- Billy Boyd has kissed five members of the Fellowship.

Woah, that's a little gay there.

 

I'll be getting it when it comes out...

[Anakin Flair 0]

Where the hell did you get a copy? It doesn't come out untill next Tuesday!

[Guest jm29195]

SPOILERS................................

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It came out on the 10th in the UK, I've just spent from 2pm to 130am watching all 3 of the extended editions with me mates and it's just incredible!

ROTK is by the far the best extended edition with my favorite added bits being the resolution of wha happens to the Orc general on Pellenor Field (which has about 10 minutes of additional footage on it). The Frodo/Sam as Orc bits in Mordor (much needed added comedy). The extended orc riot in Cirith Ungol (in addition to the dropkick from the original film we get to see a spear and an airplane spin!!!),and of course the bits in the houses of healing with Faramir and Eowyn... Special mention also goes to the Gimli comedy moments in Rohan and the Halls of The dead, the attack on the Corsairs (another Jackson cameo), the resolution of the Saruman/Wormtounge characters, and Aragorn's revelation to Sauron and meeting with the Mouth of Sauron at the final battle.

Overall just an awesome, awesome film, get it asap!!!!

[Anakin Flair 0]

I forgot all about the dropkick of death before I saw it today- god, that had me cracking up.

 

Special note- they have a deal- if you go to www.lotrdvdbox.com, you can get the box to contain all three extended editions for only $3 s&h. Pretty cool if you want to get a boxed set, but already have the first two.

[BlackFlagg 0]

I forgot all about the dropkick of death before I saw it today- god, that had me cracking up.

 

Special note- they have a deal- if you go to www.lotrdvdbox.com, you can get the box to contain all three extended editions for only $3 s&h. Pretty cool if you want to get a boxed set, but already have the first two.

Saw that, was going to get it till I saw they don't take debit cards, bastards

[kkktookmybabyaway 0]

I just got it today.

 

Umm, the blue cover is sure pretty. That's all I can say about it for now...

[Anakin Flair 0]

One thing I don't get-

 

Gandalf destroy's Sarumans staff.

The Witch King destroy's Gandalfs.

Yet, at the end, he has a staff again.

So, 1.- did the Witch King destroy Gandalfs staff in the books? because I don't remember if he did or not. And 2. If a Wizard can fashion a new staff, what was the point of Gandalf breaking Sarumans?

[El Psycho Diablo 0]

One thing I don't get-

 

Gandalf destroy's Sarumans staff.

The Witch King destroy's Gandalfs.

Yet, at the end, he has a staff again.

So, 1.- did the Witch King destroy Gandalfs staff in the books? because I don't remember if he did or not. And 2. If a Wizard can fashion a new staff, what was the point of Gandalf breaking Sarumans?

From what I remember of the book, it was a symbolic thing.

 

There are only a handful of wizards on Middle Earth, and out of those, Saruman the White was the most powerful of the order. When Saruman turned, and Gandalf died, those who sent the wizards in the first place basically reincarnated him as Saruman.

 

So, Saruman's got no place, and his power is basically nothing compared to what Gandalf is now.

 

As for the Witch King bit..I honestly don't know. It's been a while since I've read the book.

[Kaertos 0]

The Witch King did not break Gandalf's staff in the books. In fact, the confrontation was far less adversarial in the novels. Gandalf is sitting there when the gates break and the Lord of the Nazgul rides in. Gandalf tells him to go away, he says no, rooster crows, Rohirrim charge...

 

there you go.

[cabbageboy 0]

Yeah the old 1980 cartoon is actually closer to the book on this, aside from WK sounding like Mysterio from the Spidey cartoons. But lord does that cartoon ever suck ass...Gollum looks like a frog in it, he basically dances around and falls into the volcano ON HIS OWN, and there are some mind numbing music numbers involving the orcs (singing Where There's a Whip, There's a Way) and Sam having a musical fantasy about taking the ring and gaining power. I shit you not.

 

Anyway, I am getting this for Christmas so I can't comment on the EE for now.

[Guest pinnacleofallthingsmanly]

Yeah the old 1980 cartoon is actually closer to the book on this, aside from WK sounding like Mysterio from the Spidey cartoons. But lord does that cartoon ever suck ass...Gollum looks like a frog in it, he basically dances around and falls into the volcano ON HIS OWN, and there are some mind numbing music numbers involving the orcs (singing Where There's a Whip, There's a Way) and Sam having a musical fantasy about taking the ring and gaining power. I shit you not.

 

Anyway, I am getting this for Christmas so I can't comment on the EE for now.

I was under the impression that in the book, Gollum DID fall into the volcano because he was dancing around.

[Anakin Flair 0]

Yeah the old 1980 cartoon is actually closer to the book on this, aside from WK sounding like Mysterio from the Spidey cartoons.  But lord does that cartoon ever suck ass...Gollum looks like a frog in it, he basically dances around and falls into the volcano ON HIS OWN, and there are some mind numbing music numbers involving the orcs (singing Where There's a Whip, There's a Way) and Sam having a musical fantasy about taking the ring and gaining power.  I shit you not.

 

Anyway, I am getting this for Christmas so I can't comment on the EE for now.

I was under the impression that in the book, Gollum DID fall into the volcano because he was dancing around.

That is corerect. In the book, Gollum gets the ring, and starts dancing around in joy. In his joy, he steps to far and goes over the edge.

[cabbageboy 0]

Yeah well just picture how lame that is in your mind, and then imagine a frog like Smeagol dancing around like a dork and just tripping and falling into the volcano. Then imagine how Peter Jackson did it with the epic fight for the ring, Frodo and Gollum tumbling off the cliff, and Frodo barely hanging for dear life.

 

Jackson > book in this regard, easily.

[Kaertos 0]

Actually, I like it both ways, but I'll give you that the "dancing fool" version doesn't work visually. In the books, it makes it clear that it was fated for Gollum to be there, and that, had he been killed (at any of the numerous times hecould have been) all would have been lost. That he falls in by accident sort of drives home the "fate takes a hand" type of thing.

[algrim 0]

I actually like that Saruman dies, as opposed to the book. It made more sense for him to get his comeuppance that way. One question I have is why didn't Jackson have Sam weqar the ring briefly, like in the book?

[DMann2003 0]

I'm surprised the EE got a PG-13 rating too considering-

 

Sauruman getting impaled and the Mouth of Sauron getting decapitated

[Guest Beingz0wningj00]

^See if those two bits were in the movie... it would have been 20 times better for that alone^

[cabbageboy 0]

Just wondering but does the Mouth even die in the book? I didn't think he did.

 

The Saruman thing I read a long while ago on theonering.net. It isn't a big shock.

[brokentusk16 0]

I finished watching it yesterday, and I like the movie more now. It feels fleshed out, especially the battle at Gondor. It feels more like the big battle it's supposed to be and less like a clip-job that it felt like before. Two Towers is still my personal favorite, but I can fully accept why people consider this the best of the three films.

 

$27 very well spent.

[algrim 0]

One thing that bothered me was: why didn't they explain that the reason for Denethor's madness was that he had a Palantir of his own that he used quite often?

[cabbageboy 0]

I'm not sure. I mentioned the 1980 cartoon of ROTK and Denethor DID have a palantir in that. I figured that would be a logical addition to the EE personally, and am surprised they didn't add it.

[Guest SP-1]

My guess would be that Jackson wanted to concentrate more on the character elements of that father/son relationship.

[El Psycho Diablo 0]

They do reference it at one point..something along the eyes of.."Did you think the eyes of the White Tower were blind?"

[bobobrazil1984 0]

Saw it over the last two days. Excellent stuff. I vehemetly disagree with PJ's decision to remove the Saruman scene. It didn't fuck with the pacing at all, on the contrary, it gave the film a little jolt earlier.

Also there were more explanations. one thing though, showing Aragorn and the pirate ships did suck the drama a bit out of Aragorn's arrival to the battle. I felt that PJ should have sacrificed some of his 40 minute epilogue to put some of these deleted scenes back in (for the theatrical edition).

 

I watched a few of the featurettes, and so apparently, there actually were plans and footage shot of Aragorn having a swordfight with Sauron (looking like he did at the beginning of FOTR). Interesting, but I'm glad they left it out.

 

I still want to watch it again to absorb everything.. then watch/lsiten tot he commentaries, then the rest of the features. This will keep me busy

[cabbageboy 0]

Metr0Man did you actually see the Aragorn/Sauron footage? I found a link on Disc 3 that had a storybook drawing type deal of it, but no actual footage of the fight. While the Frodo/Sam cut in stuff there was cheese galore the actual idea of that fight is awesome I think...I would have much preferred it to "Aragorn fights giant ogre, ring destroyed, eye crashes." Instead we would have had Aragorn vs. Main Heel Sauron, and then the great visual of Sauron exploding when the ring is destroyed.

 

The long ending isn't as big of a deal in the EE...I mean hell I was there 4 hours anyway so what does another 10 mins hurt? It was however incredibly wrong to cut out Lee from the reg. version, and also the Mouth of Sauron scene. Both are vital to the film.

[bobobrazil1984 0]

^ I saw a few glimpses of it during the Featurette (which you can access from the same screen as the link to the storybook drawing thing). It was like, camera footage, Sauron was dressed similarly to how he was in the beginning of FOTR. They also did an overlay, showing how they replaced Sauron with the giant ogre troll, etc. It was mostly just a few seconds here and there, no sustained look at the footage.

[Guest Cerebus]

That scene would have made no sense though. Throughout the movie, and the books even more so I might add, w're constantly reminded that Sauron can't take physical form unless he has The Ring. Just think back to the opening scene of FotR during the Last Alliance when Isildur cuts The Ring off Sauron's hand making him crumble into dust. You're going to throw away all semblence of continuity just to have a cool looking scene? Besides, what could Aragorn DO against Saurom besides try to do what Isildur did again (cut off The Ring)?

[cabbageboy 0]

Well, the entire basic setup is flawed....I mean a heel that is an unseen presence? What kind of shit is that?

 

It wouldn't have been that hard to do though. I think Sauron actually WAS in human form in the book, although it's vaguely mentioned as such. I thought he might just be hiding in his tower or something, then we see him blow up when the ring is destroyed. Thus, he could be in human form but not really all powerful because he didn't have the ring.

[{''({o..o})''} 0]

Well, the entire basic setup is flawed....I mean a heel that is an unseen presence? What kind of shit is that?

Not a christian, huh?