Did anyone see Lord of the Rings last night?

1: buy the extended versions
2: watch them back-to-back
3: play them LOUD

i saw FELLOWSHIP at the cinema, but didn't with the other two ..... the entire MINES OF MORIA is still the outstanding sequence of the entire trilogy, HELM'S DEEP is close though ..... hated that there wasn't a fight with the ghost army .....
 
Would that be a Karl Urban Legend then?? :o /coat :D

Yes, 'tis true - Arwen was originally scripted in to lead the Elven Archers to the battle at Helm's Deep... but like you say, purist fans decided otherwise. :D

Haldir and the Elves were not meant to be there either, but PJ liked the concept, so kept the scene in. Legolas is the only Elf at the battle in the book.
 
Yes and no.

It is good in the extended edition that you see some kind of ending to Saruman's story but I can understand why Jackson decided to cut it.

He had to make cuts for time and having established that Saruman was no longer a threat obivously decided that the time could be better used elsewhere than in showing his ultimate fate.
 
Brangdon, you summed up my feelings perfectly.

Although you didn't add the part where Jackson made Legolas some kind of bouncing spiderman type hero

yes, he's a talented hero, but jeez.....skateboarding down Helms deep steps? and Elephant wrangling? lol

also, did not like this part
The ghosts never went to Gondor so why did PJ make them go???

but I am a big fan of the book so although I really enjoyed the films I could never be completely satisfied
:)
 
Tell me - as you sit through multiple endings and especially the awful soft focus slow-mo bed-bouncing scene the PJ made the right cuts for time. Especially for the film audience (rather those that know the book well) who have followed the Saruman plot as pretty much the "main tangible bad guy" throughout the first two films, and then get not so much as a five minutes (either at the end of TT or at the start of ROTK) to close that plotline properly. Not a good move, IMO.

Don't get me wrong, I think the films as a trilogy are masterpieces - but all - especially ROTK - are flawed masterpieces.
 
You lot are as bad as my husband about the little extras that they put in the films that didn't happen in the book - although he still enjoys the films (extended versions I agree are a lot better than what have been televised). He was cursing when the elves turned up at Helm's Deep, and you should hear him about Arwen!

There are countless other things he goes on about too, but in the end I close my ears off.
 
There's 30-50 minutes extra on each film. Some scenes are extended and some are new. For example, in the Fellowship you see what gifts Galadriel gives to the other members of the fellowship, not just the phial she hanRAB to Frodo.

I think some of the battle scenes later are extended too and Sean Bean features in more flashbacks in the second and third films. Christopher Lee's scenes were cut from the theatrical release of the third film but they're on the extended DVD.
 
How he did them was a bit silly imo since they all felt like they could be the ending of the film but I do think we needed to see those different endings for the fellowship - Aragorn as king, Frodo and the others leaving and Sam returning to the Shire particularly.



The execution of that scene is undoubtedly cheesy but I think the audience would have felt very short changed had the Fellowship not reunited at the end.



Personally, having never read the books, I only saw Saruman as the major flunkie who was backing the bad guy through fear. They had to get past him to get to Sauron. Once he's defeated he serves no purpose so, whilst the final conclusion to his story would have been nice in the theatrical version, the character had done his job. Unlike the Fellowship, Saruman existed mostly for plot purposes, not for the sake of characterisation.
 
Didnt think much of them at the cinema.

But a friend leant me the box set and i watched em all (was quite lengthy) and i think they are really good films. A good story too.
 
There are six books. There are two books to the Fellowship of the Ring, two to The Two Towers, and two to the Return of the King.

Anyway I suggest everyone read the novel, it's a lot better reading it first before you see the films; cause if you read it after you just imagine Gandalf as Ian Mckellen and so on.
 
Seeing Fellowship of the Ring at the cinema for the first time is still one of my favourite experiences ever! Despite them being in production for 2 years before it came out and all the various trailers etc. we still hadn't seen that much of what Peter Jackson had been cooking up. I never imagined it was going to be THAT good.
 
Those of you who have read the books and seen the extended edition will know what I'm on about when I say this, but I found the following hilariously stupid. This is a huge spoiler, so if you haven't seen the films, do not read this:

When Saruman is stabbed and falls onto the spike of the wheel.

My mate and I weren't expecting that. We almost pissed ourselves laughing. Especially when you consider what happens in the book.
 
I think they'd decided long before that they weren't going to do the last events in the Shire and so wanted some way of clearing that plot up.

The actor is a big fan of the books and he seemed happy with that.
 
For me these three films, or one 12hr long film as I tend to think of it, is/are the best film(s) ever made. Not just that the finished product is so excellent but that the process of making them was so ground-breaking in so many areas. I agree that once you've seen the extended DVD versions the original theatrical versions are a let down in comparison. Also the DVD's have a huge amount of extra material which is every bit as interesting as the films. The actors' commentaries are excellent and you get a real feel of the frienRABhips that were built up during filming.

I fully understand how people find these films hard work, especially as the first one takes a while to get going (actually the Shire section is my favourite part of the whole trilogy). The story is extremely complex with too many characters, some with very similar names. You almost need to know the story before you can really enjoy the films.

Interestingly I seem to be the only one who thinks FOTR is the best of the three films. ROTK is too long (the ending in particular) & TT has too many departures from the book.

The day these films come out on BluRay I'll be down the shops to buy them along with a BD player :)
 
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