Lord of the Rings: Extended Edition

[SineSwiper]

Just watched the last of the full set the other day. (No, we didn't do it in one sitting.)

Good stuff. This entire series is close to 12-13 hours, but it doesn't feel like it's overly long. All of the cut material was well polished, and it really felt like it belonged in there.

[Julius Seeker]

I agree. I craved a lot more of the story than what was delivered; the movies felt very much an abridged version... but found what we got very satisfying. There isn't really anything I can think of that compares to these movies.

In my opinion, the Two Towers easily benefitted the most from the extended edition. I wish they would have included the Scouring of the Shire in the Extended version; Peter Jackson argued it didn't translate well into film, but I think a lot of people would have liked to see that... It gives an outlook of how the Shire was effected by the War of the Ring, and really acts as a contrast of how the characters were at the end in their homeland compared to how they were at the beginning.... It was my favourite chapter of the book. I feel a DVD release with that chapter, another 20 minutes, would have been fitting and rewarding to the old fans.

[SineSwiper]

Haven't read the books. What was that about?

[Zeus]

Haven't read the books. What was that about?

Wormtongue and Sauruman didn't get defeated in the tower like in the flicks. They went back to the Shire and burned it down. The hobbits proceeded to pwn them and all was well. You actually get a glimpse of the scouring when Frodo sees his vision with Galadriel

[Julius Seeker]

Haven't read the books. What was that about?

Well, it's not what Zeus had said, the Shire wasn't burned down or anything like that.

The four Hobbits were gone for a considerable amount of time, stopping off in Rivendel among other places on their way back home. When they returned, they discovered that men had come up from the South and had conquered the Shire under the command of a mysterious stranger who turned out to be Saruman. He had converted the Shire into what seemed like an Industrial aged Middle Earth. The last battle of the War of the RIng was fought here when Frodo and company rallied up the Hobbits to stage a revolt against Saruman. Wormtongue stabs Saruman at the end of this.

[SineSwiper]

The four Hobbits were gone for a considerable amount of time, stopping off in Rivendel among other places on their way back home. When they returned, they discovered that men had come up from the South and had conquered the Shire under the command of a mysterious stranger who turned out to be Saruman. He had converted the Shire into what seemed like an Industrial aged Middle Earth. The last battle of the War of the RIng was fought here when Frodo and company rallied up the Hobbits to stage a revolt against Saruman. Wormtongue stabs Saruman at the end of this.

The timing of that seems...ummm... dumb. So, after go through the huge journey to go to Mt Doom, destroying the ring and returning home, they have to deal with this shit?

After going for the climax, there shouldn't be another attempt at trying to encourage more action. It seems rather badly placed. The book/movie is about the ring, the lord, and the lord of the ring. Once that is destroyed, there should be some epilogue, and that's it.

[Julius Seeker]

The book is not nearly so simple to examine as the movie; as will always be true since the boundaries of what a film can convey do not come close to approaching what a book can convey. Hundreds of millions of people have read it and there is no concensus about what it is all about. The most popular idea (before the movie) was that main theme of the Lord of the Rings was the transformation of Middle Earth (a land of magic, harmony with nature) into the world of humans.

The scouring of the Shire wouldn't fit into Peter Jackson's movie; because as I said previously, Jackson's version is VERY cut out of the original story. It was a creative decision that worked out very well; but this isn't accurate to the fullness of the original story.

[Shrinweck]

And Jackson probably didn't want to sway from the 100% feel good ending.

Tolkien was a veteran and wanted to convey partly how his return home felt. Returning from World War 1... Not good times.

Edit: Ah, Bombadil takes part in this section, so there's another reason why it wasn't included.