[MartinSE]

I just finished watching the extended version of the Lord of The Rings. Eleven hours in three movies and it left me wanting more.

Peter Jackson's Master Class in converting a novel into a movie. It will be a long time before anyone sees work like that again. In my opinion a true Master.

I don't know if anyone else noticed, but the eleven hours was in addition to the credits which scrolled the cast and crew names 6 per line for 25 minutes for each movie. Almost a hour and a half of credits. It was indeed a monumental undertaking.

The is a lot of controversy about the movies and how they portrayed the Novels, but I don't think it is possible to make a movie that perfectly matches a novel - they are two different media. But, I think Jackson's representation of the novels are as perfect as one can get. I can't think of another movie that comes close to doing its book justice.

What do you think?

[MartinSE]

Off to watch The Hobbit next.

[ThirdOfFive]

I particularly enjoyed the extended version of Return of the King. The theatrical version, good as it was, was even better in the extended version. The scene where Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas went to recruit the king of the dead and his army to fight on his behalf was longer--in my opinion better--in the extended version, as was the scene where Treebeard was guarding Saruman. Overall the extended version gave more attention to the Aragorn character and a better look into his character; important because (after all) the returning King WAS Aragorn.

[MartinSE]

Originally Posted by ThirdOfFive

I particularly enjoyed the extended version of Return of the King. The theatrical version, good as it was, was even better in the extended version. The scene where Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas went to recruit the king of the dead and his army to fight on his behalf was longer--in my opinion better--in the extended version, as was the scene where Treebeard was guarding Saruman. Overall the extended version gave more attention to the Aragorn character and a better look into his character; important because (after all) the returning King WAS Aragorn.

Yup agree completely, next up Hobbit Extended version.

[JerryLBell]

I loved the theatrical releases of the LotR movies and loved the extended versions even more. With these movies, Jackson took three major dramatic books (which were originally planned to just 1 or 2 massive books), stripped them down to the essentials and shot them with all the seriousness and majesty they deserved, turning out three wonderfully crafted films. When re-reading the books, I realized how slow-paced they were (Gandalf was gone for several months after Bilbo's party to figure out what the ring actually was, Frodo took several months to sell Bagend and to move to another town, etc., etc.). Jackson streamlined parts like that and added a wonderful sense of urgency and speed.

With the Hobbit movies, he took a fairly short and somewhat humorous fantasy novel aimed at children, combined it with trivia from the Silmarillion and other appendixes plus threw in a "forbidden dwarf/elf" love story and made three bloated dramatic movies that were bloated even more when he released the inevitable extended editions. While it was lovely to return to Middle Earth, this books should have been made into a single movie.

I'm waiting for the "prequel" series on Amazon to finish its release and will binge-watch it. I don't expect it will reach the majesty of the LotR films but I am hoping it is better than the Hobbit movies.

But hey, that's just my opinion. Your mileage may vary.