Yes, it's out. And yes, it's freaking awesome.
The extended edition is better than the original in every concievable way. As with FotR and TTT the extra scenes are arguably not cruical to the plot, but they add a lot of character development. Also, heaps of them are lifted straight from the books, which fans have got to love.
My favourite aditon was undoubtedly the longer version of Aragorn in the Paths of the Dead. The bits from the oringal version were expanded on, and there was a nice little scene of Aragorn Legolas and Gimli capturing the fleet of corsairs. This addition made a lot more sense than cutting from the three of them surrounded by the undead to them leaping into the battle of Minas Tirith as in the original version.
Speaking of the battle of Minas Tirith, the extra hack-and-slash on the Pellenor Fields was probably my second favourite addition. Who doesnt like seeing orcs get slaughtered? There were some really cool shots left out. The battle had a better feel of coherency to it with a good sense of the Rohirrim sweeping in from one side, Aragorn and his army of the dead from the other, and the two meeting in the middle. In the original version the undead show up and that's basically the end of the battle, in the extended version if felt like a lot more happened between those two events.
Merry pledging to Theoden and Gandalf fighting the witch king have made their way from the trailer to the extended edition, although I found both those scenes a little lacking. There just wasnt much too them. Not that there really could have been much to Merry swearing allegiance, but it felt like that whole scene was lifted for the trailer. As for Gandalf and witch king, well Gandalf just kinda fell over and that was that. Very dissapointing. Should have been so much cooler. Still, nice that it is in there if nothing else.
Saruman gets his little goodbye speech with Wormtongue in tow in a scene which will either please or anger fans of the books, I'm really not sure. Personally, I liked it. Expanded the whole Palentir thing nicely, as did a scene with Aragorn and the magic bowling ball later on.
Faramir gets some much-deserved more screen time. He's one of my favourite characters so that's a good thing. There's also a proper ending for Eowyn and him, as opposed to just the one shot of them standing in a crowd together.
Sam and Frodo trudging through Mordor is expanded true to the books. Them dressing up as Orcs was entirely pointless in the original cut.
The Mouth of Sauron is in, and he's strangely freaky looking. Nice little scene, especially the way Aragorn handles it.
The only complaint I got is that the first disc ends in a very strange place. 10 minutes earlier before the actual battle of Minas Tirith started would have made so much more sense. As it was I felt like slamming the second dvd in and hoping my bladder held up for another 5 minutes in order to find a more natural break in the movie.
Fans of LotR, go get it. Now. Complete the set, then watch them all back-to-back. Remember, when your eyeballs start bleeding that means you're not sitting close enough to the tv.
The extended edition is better than the original in every concievable way. As with FotR and TTT the extra scenes are arguably not cruical to the plot, but they add a lot of character development. Also, heaps of them are lifted straight from the books, which fans have got to love.
My favourite aditon was undoubtedly the longer version of Aragorn in the Paths of the Dead. The bits from the oringal version were expanded on, and there was a nice little scene of Aragorn Legolas and Gimli capturing the fleet of corsairs. This addition made a lot more sense than cutting from the three of them surrounded by the undead to them leaping into the battle of Minas Tirith as in the original version.
Speaking of the battle of Minas Tirith, the extra hack-and-slash on the Pellenor Fields was probably my second favourite addition. Who doesnt like seeing orcs get slaughtered? There were some really cool shots left out. The battle had a better feel of coherency to it with a good sense of the Rohirrim sweeping in from one side, Aragorn and his army of the dead from the other, and the two meeting in the middle. In the original version the undead show up and that's basically the end of the battle, in the extended version if felt like a lot more happened between those two events.
Merry pledging to Theoden and Gandalf fighting the witch king have made their way from the trailer to the extended edition, although I found both those scenes a little lacking. There just wasnt much too them. Not that there really could have been much to Merry swearing allegiance, but it felt like that whole scene was lifted for the trailer. As for Gandalf and witch king, well Gandalf just kinda fell over and that was that. Very dissapointing. Should have been so much cooler. Still, nice that it is in there if nothing else.
Saruman gets his little goodbye speech with Wormtongue in tow in a scene which will either please or anger fans of the books, I'm really not sure. Personally, I liked it. Expanded the whole Palentir thing nicely, as did a scene with Aragorn and the magic bowling ball later on.
Faramir gets some much-deserved more screen time. He's one of my favourite characters so that's a good thing. There's also a proper ending for Eowyn and him, as opposed to just the one shot of them standing in a crowd together.
Sam and Frodo trudging through Mordor is expanded true to the books. Them dressing up as Orcs was entirely pointless in the original cut.
The Mouth of Sauron is in, and he's strangely freaky looking. Nice little scene, especially the way Aragorn handles it.
The only complaint I got is that the first disc ends in a very strange place. 10 minutes earlier before the actual battle of Minas Tirith started would have made so much more sense. As it was I felt like slamming the second dvd in and hoping my bladder held up for another 5 minutes in order to find a more natural break in the movie.
Fans of LotR, go get it. Now. Complete the set, then watch them all back-to-back. Remember, when your eyeballs start bleeding that means you're not sitting close enough to the tv.
