Lord of The Rings is the epic story of Frodo Baggins and his friends Merry, Pippin and Sam, who have to leave their home in The Shire and set out on a quest to save Middle Earth. I don't want to spoil the story for anyone who may not have seen this film yet, so I'll keep the rest of the summary minimal. They end up in Rivendell, a great Elvish city, and are joined by Aragorn, Gandalf, Boromir, Gimli and Legolas: The Fellowship of The Ring. They set out together to destroy the One Ring and defeat the evil forces of the Dark Lord Sauron.
This four disc DVD has tons of new and extended scenes carefully added back into the film, and as Peter Jackson himself has pointed out, this is not a "Directors Cut" of the movie. This version is for fans of LOTR books who really wanted to see a little more in the movie.
The cinema version of The Fellowship of the Ring was 178 minutes long, and this extended version runs at 208 minutes! The DVD menu tells you that new scenes are marked with a( *) and extended scenes marked
with (**) If you simply skip directly to these scenes you'll miss out on little additions throughout the film. There are small changes all over the place that those who have seen the film a lot (like myself) will catch.
Bilbo Baggins gets a long commentary at the opening of this movie, whic details a lot more about The Shire and what Hobbits are like as a race. This is great for fans of the book as many chapters are dedicated to explaining what/who Hobbits are. It also puts things in perspective more as far as Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin's journey goes, because we can understand exactly how out of their depth they are (no pun intented). Other races of Middle Earth are explained in greater detail with new scenes like "The Passing of the Elves" and characters we all know and love (or hate) from the book are here for a short while too - like the Sacksville Bagginses. There is also some new footage which is added purely for viewer entertainment - e.g. during the Fellowship's stay in Lothlorien we see Aragorn sharpening his sword, Sam trying to make a poem about Gandalf's fireworks, and a funny moment where Gimli's snoring annoys Aragorn and earns a quick slap by the ranger.
The film is split into two discs because of how long the extended version is (it splits after The Council of Elrond). There are also FOUR commentaries on the two movie discs. Commentary 1 - The Director and Writers Commentary 2 - The Design Team Commentary 3 - The Production and Post Production Team Commentary 4 - The Cast
There are so many awesome little things about this edition of the DVD which make it a sensational collectors item. All four discs feature fully animated menus set to Howard Shore's music. Each disc is presented like a book, which each menu being a page of that book complete with John Howe and Alan Lee conceptual artwork used as the background.
There are two discs jam packed with extras: ---Disc three covers the adaptation of Lord of the Rings into a movie as well as detailing how the epic film was planned and designed. There's a lot of stuff on JRR Tolkein here too. "Designing and Building Middle-Earth" is an astonishingly in-depth look at the creation of this fictional world for the film and is split into multiple documentaries and galleries. ---Disc four chronicles the translation of their vision of the movie to the reality with details on the cast, the visual effects, post-production, and the final stages of editing the film together.
For a long time there hasn't been an outstanding fantasy film which would thrill and entrance audiences. There was a huge gap in the market - until Lord of The Rings. Rarely does everything come together in a movie to create a thoroughly entertaining film that pleases audiences of all ages. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring is one of those rare films. There has never been a DVD that offers so much in-depth knowledge of a film as this, and one which is presented in such an imaginary and distinctive way.
My overall opinion: This extended cut includes some scenes that fans of the books will know and love. However, those who complained about the length of the theatrical release had best steer clear of this one as it runs for about a half an hour longer and it's pace is a little slower than that original version. AND you're not only getting an extended film for your money, there's two more discs packed full of documentary material that runs for more than SIX HOURS. That doesn't even include the wealth of image galleries on the disc.
VERDICT: If you have a DVD player then this DVD should be in your collection - no excuses!
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