**The Return of the King Extended Edition**

[Nilturiel]

On the whole I think the EE is good; a couple of small scenes from the book who are gorgeous and some other scenes who also works.
But one thing I just can't stand. Why is PJ always making fun of Gimli.. WHY ?

[Morgul Queen]

Something that I noticed the first time I watched the EE was that, when Aragorn looks at the Dimholt Road, the King of the Dead appears. I'd never seen that before and other, similarily obsessed friends had never seen it before either. Was it in the Theatrical? Or was it added to the EE as a last minute thing?

Also, I have Houses of Healing Screen Caps along with several others. Would anyone be interested in them?

[Lord Melkor]

Alright, here's my review of the EE. Spoilers ahead!!!!

Death of Saruman: Quite nicely done, even though the fireball was rather cheesy. Theoden gives Grima a second chance, Grima obviously wants to leave but Saruman slaps him down. Grima gets angry and grabs his dagger and stabs Saruman multiple times in the back. Legolas shoots Grima who falls back (no cheesy shots of Legolas missing Grima and Grima laughing before being hit by the arrow falling from the sky, so rest at ease, people). Saruman falls from the top of Orthanc and is impaled on some kind of wheel. The wheel starts to turn and Saruman is submerged under the water as the palantir falls out of his hand.


Denethor: I think we can all agree that PJ's portrayal of Denethor has some flaws and none of them are adressed in the EE. There 's an added discussion between Faramir and Denethor about Frodo and Denethor blames Faramir for sending the halfwitted Halfling into Mordor instead of bringing the Ring to Minas Tirith (some drool flies out his mouth as he yells at Faramir) before lamenting about losing Boromir after which his stumbles and falls on the ground. We then see him practically crying as he has a vision of Boromir walking towards him. The vision disappears and he snarls at Faramir to get out. We also get some snide comments from Gandalf talking to Pippin about Denethor being a madman and how the rule of Gondor was entrusted to 'lesser men' after the last of the kings. No mention is made of how Denethor was the next best thing after Aragorn and how he was an excellent Steward for many years. They even claim Denethor was more like Boromir instead of Faramir! No mention is made of the Palantir. Defintiely the lowpoint for me in the entire movie. Here we have an interesting grey character and he's turned into an incompetent, malignant, insane buffoon of a man. Too bad really, since John Noble is an excellent actor and could've easily played a Denethor with at least a shred of Numenorean dignity.


Mouth of Sauron: Quite a creepy guy. Has a very nasty grin which he uses a lot. He also makes weird sounds while showing off his tongue. His death is rather odd though. He taunts the fellowship about Frodo's painful end and Aragorn slowly rides up to him. The Mouth sees him and says it takes more than some old sword to make a king, after which Aragorn rather unceremoniously chops of his head. Gimli then cracks a joke about how this act apparently ends the negotiations after which the fellowship retreats back to their army as the Black Gate opens to reveal Sauron's legions.

Other things added are: The Crossraods, Houses of Healing, the Corsairs, Frodo and Sam's march with the Orcs, some extra scenes of Sam and Frodo crossing through Mordor and some other stuff.

Overall grade: 8/10

-1 because no DVD can be a 10 and some minor flaws and -1 for the continued butchering of Denethor. Overall this DVD is a must-have for any fan of the movies and I can heartily recommend it to anyone.

[Essex]

Negative points first .

First of all, I don't understand why Jackson left out the Gandalf / witch king scene from the theatrical release. still, he may explain this on the commentaries that I've yet to watch.

The first thing I noticed when the film ended was where was the 48 minutes of new scenes? It just didn't feel like there was that much extra.

Houses of healing. Really, there was hardly anything at all. Just Aragorn squeezing some water over eowyn's face. And, what, 30 seconds between Eowyn and Faramir to fall in love?

And final negative point. I was desperatly waiting for any scenes of Merry's entrance into Minas Tirith and Gandalf's best line that Merry should have been brought inot the city in great honour. Also, Eowyn's line to eomer that Merry should be made a Knight of Rohan. Pity, really.

Anyway, enough negatives, now positives.

The Mouth of Sauron. Whow, best 'monster' in the film by a mile. Absoultely rivetting. The way he quickly snaps his head towards each person as they talk or make a sound. Really creepy. And hey, I don't mind him having his head chopped off by Aragorn.

crossroads. yay! although it's sam that noticies the shaft of light lighting up the king's head, not frodo. one of my favourite parts of the book back in.

aragorn with the palantir. really explains how he diverts sauron's gaze from the hobbits. I know this happens earlier in the book, but it seems to me to be faithful to what actually happens. although the evenstar smashing to pieces???? why?

voice of saruman. excellent. why are people complaining that theoretically they could not have heard saruman's voice from that far up. What, and they're ok with a magic ring making someone invisible????

Eomer explaining to eowyn that war wasn't for women and hobbits. ha ha ha, you silly fool, with one quick stab from a hobbit and a final blow from a woman, the fate of Middle-earth was saved. without the death of the witch king, minas tirith would probably be raised to the ground, and more importantly, the two orc hunters that frodo and sam stumbled upon would have no doubt found the hobbits and captured the Ring. end of story......

sam and frodo caught by the travelling orcs. pretty much as the book is, except I don't remember frodo picking a fight with Sam in the book!

What a lot of these scenes give us, as in TT, is explanations to some of the sticking points in the theatrical release. for example, Pippin now seing Minas Tirith in flames (rather than Aragorn later on) has more credence, as Gandalf is told by Saruman that 'something festers in the heart of middle-earth' (ie denethor / minas tirith) and Gandalf doesn't know at that point exactly where Sauron will strike. when pippin explains his vision, gandalf understands.

corsairs. at least he didn't waste too much time over this with a major fight scene. one quick shot of jackson taking a fall and it was over.

Lots of other points to mention, but we'll no doubt pick up on them over the next few weeks on these boards.

[Boromir88]

Essex,

Eomer explaining to eowyn that war wasn't for women and hobbits. ha ha ha, you silly fool, with one quick stab from a hobbit and a final blow from a woman, the fate of Middle-earth was saved.

You got to love irony .

although the evenstar smashing to pieces???? why?

I'm guessing PJ needed a way to explain why Aragorn would die if he was giving Evenstar. Arwen gave Evenstar to Frodo. So, I think PJ just wanted to show, well, heck if Aragorn has Evenstar why does he die? I know I have been asked that many times.

Don't get me started on Denethor, that'll get me in a bad mood all day .

Overall though I enjoyed the extra scenes, I thought it tied up a lot of the loose ends.

[Turin]

My overall impression from the EE is that it doesn't reconcile many of my disappointments that I had with the theatrical version. In fact, it has rather deflated my (already deflating) enthusiasm for the Trilogy, in general.

Some of my observations:

1. Voice of Saruman scene just didn't do it for me. There is no ominous atmosphere created and Saruman's death was pretty pathetic: they could have at least made it so that his body disappears and his spirit departs.

2. The swaggering Aragorn. I think the over-use of the Army of the Dead lessens the impact that Aragorn and co have in determining a successful outcome to the Battle of Pelennor. I think it would have been nice to show that there were many Gondorians who had been freed from the Corsairs and aid Minas Tirith at the last moment. Also, are Gimli and Legolas still playing their Orc-counting game? Talk about over-egging the pudding!!

3. The dialogue. To put it mildly: Inconsistent. At times moving and well-thought out, at other times, appalling and laughable!! Especially Gandalf's lines.

4. Denethor. Still no improvement and probably the worst characterisation in the whole trilogy. Awful.

5. Mouth of Sauron. I always imagined him to be an ominous, creepy character, more man than orc (which is how I feel he is portrayed in the movie). Instead it is almost comical the way he is portrayed. I wanted to laugh, not hold my breath in dreaded anticipation!

6. Gandalf Vs Witch King. I thought that this would have been one of the most dramatic scenes in the whole of the trilogy. I would have liked this scene to have been more closer to the book: Gandalf holding his own at the Gate and not being intimidated. It's ridiculous, after all that Gandalf has been through (including having his powers enhanced) that he should succumb so easily to the Lord of the Nazgul and have his staff broken. Come on!

7. Eowyn and Merry. I thought that they could have suffered a bit more in the Houses of Healing! I agree that Gandalf's words in the book when Merry is being led by Pippin would have been particularly poignant.

[Essex]

I know I've already had my say, but let me point out one thing re the Witch King / Gandalf confrontation:


Gandalf could NOT have Killed the Witch King.


This is pretty much fact. The Propechy (which was Fulfilled) was that no man could defeat the Witch King. Now, you may say Gandalf was not a Man, but Gandalf was given that form, along with its strengths and weaknesses, and to me, this therefore makes the Witch King impervious to him.

Gandalf's staff. IMO I believe this was broken to make the next scene with him confronting Denethor more of a contest than just being able to zap him with his staff. Remember Gandalf had to nab a spear off one of the guards to knock him down with.....Just my opinion and I'll be interseted to hear Jackson's point on this on the commentary if he has one.