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The Lord of the Rings - The Return of the King (Platinum Series Special Extended Edition)
- Color
- Closed-captioned
- Widescreen
The Editors Desk:
The greatest trilogy in film history, presented in the most ambitious sets in DVD history, comes to a grand conclusion with the extended edition of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. Not only is the third and final installment of Peter Jackson's adaptation of the works of J.R.R. Tolkien the longest of the three, but a full 50 minutes of new material pushes the running time to a whopping 4 hours and 10 minutes. The new scenes are welcome, and the bonus features maintain the high bar set by the first two films, The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers. What's New?
One of the scenes cut from the theatrical release but included here, the resolution of the Saruman storyline, generated a lot of publicity when the movie opened, as actor Christopher Lee complained in the press about losing his only appearance. It's an excellent scene, one Jackson calls "pure Tolkien," and provides better context for Pippin to find the wizard's palantir in the water, but it's not critical to the film. In fact, "valuable but not critical" might sum up the ROTK extended edition. It's evident that Jackson made the right cuts for the theatrical run, but the extra material provides depth and ties up a number of loose ends, and for those sorry to see the trilogy end (and who isn't?) it's a welcome chance to spend another hour in Middle-earth. Some choice moments are Gandalf's (Ian McKellen) confrontation with the Witch King (we find out what happened to the wizard's staff), the chilling Mouth of Sauron at the gates of Mordor, and Frodo (Elijah Wood) and Sam (Sean Astin) being mistaken for Orc soldiers. We get to see more of Éowyn (Miranda Otto), both with Aragorn and on the battlefield, even fighting the hideously deformed Orc lieutenant, Gothmog. We also see her in one of the most anticipated new scenes, the Houses of Healing after the battle of the Pelennor Fields. It doesn't present Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen) as a savior as the book did, but it shows the initial meeting between Éowyn and Faramir (David Wenham), a relationship that received only a meaningful glance in the theatrical cut.
If you want to completely immerse yourself in Peter Jackson's marvelous and massive achievement, only the extended edition will do.
| And for those who complained, no, there are no new endings, not even the scouring of the Shire, which many fans were hoping to see. Nor is there a scene of Denethor (John Noble) with the palantir, which would have better explained both his foresight and his madness. As Jackson notes, when cuts are made, the secondary characters are the first to go, so there is a new scene of Aragorn finding the palantir in Denethor's robes. Another big difference is Aragorn's confrontation with the King of the Dead. In the theatrical version, we didn't know whether the King had accepted Aragorn's offer when the pirate ships pulled into the harbor; here Jackson assumes that viewers have already experienced that tension, and instead has the army of the dead join the battle in an earlier scene (an extended cameo for Jackson). One can debate which is more effective, but that's why the film is available in both versions. If you feel like watching the relatively shorter version you saw in the theaters, you can. If you want to completely immerse yourself in Peter Jackson's marvelous and massive achievement, only the extended edition will do. How Are the Bonus Features?
To complete the experience, The Return of the King provides the same sprawling set of features as the previous extended editions: four commentary tracks, sharp picture and thrilling sound, and two discs of excellent documentary material far superior to the recycled material in the theatrical edition. Those who have listened to the seven hours of commentary for the first two extended editions may wonder if they need to hear more, but there was no commentary for the earlier ROTK DVD, so it's still entertaining to hear him break down the film (he says the beacon scene is one of his favorites), discuss differences from the book, point out cameos, and poke fun at himself and the extended-edition concept ("So this is the complete full strangulation, never seen before, here exclusively on DVD!"). The documentaries (some lasting 30 minutes or longer) are of their usual outstanding quality, and there's a riveting storyboard/animatic sequence of the climactic scene, which includes a one-on-one battle between Aragorn and Sauron. One DVD Set to Rule Them All
Peter Jackson's trilogy has set the standard for fantasy films by adapting the Holy Grail of fantasy stories with a combination of fidelity to the original source and his own vision, supplemented by outstanding writing, near-perfect casting, glorious special effects, and evocative New Zealand locales. The extended editions without exception have set the standard for the DVD medium by providing a richer film experience that pulls the three films together and further embraces Tolkien's world, a reference-quality home theater experience, and generous, intelligent, and engrossing bonus features. --David Horiuchi
Avg. Customer Review: 
 Latest Details On ROTK: Extended Edition
Not sure why there's such a vacuum of information available here on ROTK- the platinum extended edition release.Its no secret that Peter Jackson has finished the version - and that it contains a whopping 65 minutes of additional footage that was cut from the theatrical version, putting the final movie at four hours and ten minutes. Awesome! Apparently there was some rumor that New Line Cinema was going to cheap out on the special effects for the extended release version - and go with a cut-rate American outfit instead of the New Zealand firm they've worked with on the prior two films - but this was just that - a rumor, as far as I've been able to obtain. New Scenes from the book to appear in the extended release version include the following: Confrontation with Saruman at Isengaard in which the Palantir is acquired (tossed out tower by Wormtongue), Parley with the Mouth of Sauron outside the Black Gates, Merry pledging his swoord and allegiance to Theoden, Sam and Frodo, disguised in Orc garb, marching with (and then escaping from) Orc Troop in Mordor, Eowyn and Faramir meet in the Houses of Healing in Gondor, and finally, a scene in which Aragorn reveals himself to Sauron in the Palantir. All in all, good stuff. The only liberty it sounds Jackson has taken with the material is that Saruman is killed in the confrontation at Isengaard - falls to his death from the tower - rather than simply cast from the order, stripped of his power and humiliated by Gandolph, as the book. We can certainly live with that, can't we?
The KING of the Entire Trilogy
I loved "The Return of the King" in the theater. I thought it felt much different than the previous films, with more humor, more story, and definitely more battle sequences. Some people might wonder why I gave the film 4 stars. Well, it's because I didn't enjoy the ending. After the Mount Doom sequence, I think the film gets pretty boring. But, it is a great movie. In this Extended Edition, we will see the death of Saruman, which was covered up in the theatrical release with a few cheesy lines from Gandalf and Treebeard. We will also see a pledge scene from Merry to King Theoden. There are many other extended sequences, including a song from Arwen (which makes the White Tree of Gondor grow), a new Palantir sequence where Aragorn reveals himself to Sauron, and a Houses of Healing scene revealing the romantic backstory between Faramir and Eowyn. Another scene that will be added is the confrontation at the Black Gate between the Mouth of Sauron (played by Bruce Spence) and our heroes. Also, an awesome battle sequence between Gandalf and the Witch King will be added and the death of Gamling on Pelennor Fields will be able to be viewed, along with a scene where Frodo and Sam (disguised as orcs) escape a column of orcs marching to Cirith Ungol on their final leg of the journey to Mordor (this is the stupid "Where There's a Whip" scene in the Rankin/Bass "Return of the King"). As for the special features, Peter Jackson will proabably include his usual documentaries, the commentaries by all of the cast members, a few pre-viz and photo galleries, along with a special easter egg of an MTV "Lord of the Ring" spoof (as he has done before with "The Council of Elrond" parody with Jack Black and the MTV Awards Gollum acceptance speech). All in all, this Extended Edition of "The Return of the King" will be a great way to end the Special Edition series. I look forward to watching it.
Greatest movie ever!!!!
After reading these reviews, I can't believe that anyone could not give this movie 5 stars. Sure, it may have strayed from the book a little ... okay alot. But in the end, did that matter? The movie was beautifully shot, the fight scenes were amazing to say the least, the characters 3 dimensional and easy to relate to. I especially liked what he did with Smeagol/Gollum's character. In the book, he's presented as purely evil, while in the movie, we get to see that even though he's generally a spiteful and bitter little creature, he still retains some of his human elements as well. I felt that the actors portrayed the characters wonderfully. I thought Legolas was gorgeous (sorry, had to throw that in there). True, it deviates from the original storyline. However, I feel that Peter Jackson's changes did not alter the basic premise and outcome of the story -- good triumphing over evil. LOTR is by far the best movie of all time in my opinion. It would be great if Jackson shot a movie for The Silmarillion (another Tolkien book that gives the history of the formation of Middle-Earth and its inhabitants) but I think only diehard LOTR fans would be interested in that. So get this movie if u dont already have it!! Trust me, you wont be disappointed!!!
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