**The Return of the King Extended Edition**

[piosenniel]

Boromir88

‘The Pyre of Denethor’ is indeed where that quote comes from.

Here’s the scene:

For there were the servants of Denethor with swords and torches in their hands; but alone in the porch upon the topmost step stood Beregond, clad in the black and silver of the Guard; and he held the door against them. Two of them had already fallen to his sword, staining the hallows with their blood; and the others cursed him, calling him outlaw and traitor to his master.

Even as Gandalf and Pippin ran forward, they heard from within the house of the dead the voice of DEnethor crying: ‘Haste, haste! Do as I have bidden! Slay me this renegade! Or must I do it myself?’ Thereupon the door which Beregond held shut with his left hand was wrenched open, and there behind him stood the Lord of the City, tall and fell; a light like flame was in his eyes, and he held a drawn sword.

But Gandalf sprang up the steps, and the men fell back from him and covered their eyes; for his coming was like the coming of a white light into a dark place, and he came with great anger. He lifted up his hand, and in the very stroke, the sword of Denethor flew up and left his grasp and fell behind him in the shadows of the house; and Denethor stepped backward before Gandalf as one amazed.

[Boromir88]

Ok I remember that, thanks Pio and Essex.

[Sapphire_Flame]

The 4% off comes from Denethor. I am very sad that he wasn't redeemed a bit more.

BUT! Other than that, I loved the new scenes. I thought the Mouth of Sauron was brilliant. His posture and facial... er, oral expressions were great. Although I am surprised by Aragorn beheading him! Although, I guess PJ had license; Tolkien never did say how Mouth died. *shrug*

Anyway, very good, loved the new stuff, and can't wait to listen to the cast commentary (Gollum and Smeagol! Yay!).

Abedithon le,

~ Saphy, in a hurry ~

[Garen LiLorian]

He lifted up his hand, and in the very stroke, the sword of Denethor flew up and left his grasp and fell behind him in the shadows of the house; and Denethor stepped backward before Gandalf as one amazed.

Huh. Now, maybe I'm missing something, but I never got Gandalf striking Denethor out of that. Isn't the "very stroke" Denethor striking at Beregond?

[Tuor of Gondolin]

"He lifted up his hand, and in the very stroke,"

Actually, my reading is that "the very stroke" is the moving of the hand
upwards, not its hitting Denethor.
=======================

As for criticism seeming to be mostly negative, I think that's because it's
harder to write positive views on just about anything (other then gushing
about how nice something is) as opposed to analysing relative failings.
Witness the greater frequency of sports talk radio activity when teams are
going badly as opposed to successful.

For my part, when the films were first reported, I expected them to have a
"grade" of about "D", whereas I'd give them an overall grade of B-, with
FOTR being the best, and scenary and actor selections rating even higher.

Perhaps, changing my original views, the best PJ change was FOTR
XenaArwen, it does make movie sense, and her meeting Aragorn as he finds
Ethelas was the sexiest bit in the movies. Now if only they had cut her line:
"if you want him...." and had Frodo say:
"By Elbereth and Luthien the Fair, you shall have neither the Ring nor me."
(Oh, well).

[Guinevere]

I'm sorry I sounded so negative - it's probably just as Saucepanman said
my expectations were too high - hence the disappointment!
I think the music, the scenery, (landscape, buildings, costumes, weapons, everything to the last detail) were just perfect, the actors were (nearly) all "right" for me too (which is a big exception for me!) and by FotR I was so enchanted that I forgot that I sat in the cinema, and I went to see it 5 times! Of course I had hoped the enchantment would continue with TTT and RotK, but there were so many drastic changes, especially of the characters, that for me, the charm didn't work any more. In RotK especially the scenes changed so quickly and every time I was really moved, there followed something that caused disbelief and put me out in the primary world again. Not even "the willing suspense of disbelief" worked. Just because there is so much I like, I grieve at the changes that spoil the film for me. I guess I just know and love the books all too well by now!

[Enorëiel]

I must admit that for some reason I was expecting a bit more from EE.... Not to say that EE isn't really great - cuz it is! But it seems like it was missing something...

Anyways! The added stuff was amazing. I was so glad to see The House of Healing (even if it was so short) and to see Gandalf and The Witch King, The mouth of Sauron (Sorry... but did anyone else crack up at Aragorn's espression after TMOS 'smiles'? *Snork* I bust a gut!) and especially in the Company of Orcs. It was so nice to see more depth to some things.

As always, the EE really gave more feeling to some parts of the movie and explained certain things (- Ah - so that's why Gandalf didn't have his staff at the Pyre of Denethor...). However, I still wish most of this stuff was just included in the regular version rather than the EE... It would have helped some of my friends understand certain things, cuz heck - let's face it, many of the people who went to the theaters to see the movie aren't going to watch the EE version of it. It's mostly just us nuts who want to see certain scenes we missed from the books that weren't in the original movie.

But yeah, Overall I'd give it an 8 or 9. It was truly very brilliant!

~Enny~

[Bungo Baggins]

Since I was simply looking forward to new scenes I wasn't too picky. I am no middle earth expert yet so I really can't compare some details to my knowledge of the books. I will say, though, I liked the mouth of Sauraon (creepy) and the scene with Saruman, simply because I wanted to see Christopher Lee one last time in the film. I also loved the extended Path of the Dead sequence and the extended Gandalf and Pippin scene. The drinking contest seemed like it was tryin to hard to be funny and was out of place.