Rating: 
Summary: A masterwork perfected!
Review: I'm going to be brief, for a change. The theatrical version of "The Fellowship of the Ring" was beautiful, and easily the best adaptation of the book that I have ever seen, until now. The extended edition only adds about thirty minutes to the overall running time, but those thirty minutes make an amazing difference. Little details that were glossed over before are added. More depth is given to the characters. More time is devoted to events that will have significant impact in the second and third films. Basically put, this version is (hard as it may be to believe) truer to the book than the theatrical version, just because it has a little more time to invest on those all-important details. Oh, and the fact that those of us who are stuck on VHS finally get a Widescreen Edition is a nice touch too. I highly recommend this film to anyone who loved the Theatrical release, but felt that too much was left out. This movie goes a LONG way toward fixing that. Also, if there were some things that those of you who haven't read the book had trouble understanding, the extra details in this version may help clear things up. That's all from me!
Rating:
Summary: Great work of art!
Review: Though nothing on the screen can fully express the mastery of Tolkein's art of storytelling, this movie is a wonderful visual depiction of the first book in the epic trilogy. The acting is very good, the costumes are perfect for each charcter, and Enya's music is a beautiful piece of the artful soundtrack. I only wish every moment in the book could be captured on film in this manner.
Rating: 
Summary: Why not 1 DVD for the feature?
Review: My only complaint about both extended versions (standard and collector's) is this: Why did the feature have to be on two DVD's?! Because its half an hour longer? Yes, that's true, but I don't think that's why. I think the reason the movie had to be split to two DVD's is because there are seven settings for the sound! Seven! Three for the type of surround sound and four for the audio commentaries. Why not produce one DVD with commentaries and one without so as to keep the viewer from having to stop his/her movie experience so they can switch discs. That is the great thing about DVD's over laser discs. DVDs are smaller and you didn't have to switch between discs (I remember Aliens taking three laser discs).
It's too bad the makers of the movie didn't follow one simple rule: One disc to rule them all...
Rating:
Summary: This one is the best of them all!
Review: As a life-long fan of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, I am ecstatic that Peter Jackson has recreated the story so powerfully on film. The cinematography is beautiful, and Howard Shore's soundtrack hits the mark dead center! In this excellent extended version, 30 minutes of additional footage contains the drama and dialogue I knew I would want to see: the Rivendell discussion is longer with more input from the men present (and Elrond is much more cautious about Frodo taking on this challenge). More is shown from the stay at Lothlorien, particularly the gift-giving scene where Gimli tells Galadriel that a lock of her hair would be more valuable than the gems of a dwarf mine. Several other snippets of drama enrich the story on screen, and being a fan of the books already, I'm more interested in seeing Tolkien's ideas than Jackson's adaptation. The hours of documentary and commentary from many actors and crew make this edition worth the wait. But more incredible than these things is that Jackson filmed scenes with the special edition DVD in mind. There is new music added to the original score and new footage not shown in the theater or on other DVDs. This plantinum extended edition or the collector's edition must not be passed by for any Tolkien lover, as the sales have already shown.
Rating:
Summary: Focus on the EXTENDED version
Review: W00t. The extended version of Fellowship of the Ring is definitely the version that should have been in the theatres.If I had seen all the additional Lothlorien scenes in the theatre, I wouldn't have been griping for the better part of a year about how badly they messed up Lothlorien and Galadriel. This version gives you a much warmer Cate Blanchett, not to mention more lines for Celeborn - he doesn't look like such an idiot in this version, either. (Though I admit I still would have liked to see Sam at the Mirror of Galadriel, and I still prefer the animated Bakshi version of Frodo's offering Galadriel the ring--where she laughs with that beautiful crystalline laugh and says, "And I came to test your heart!") The other thing I was excited to see was the Midgewater Marsh scene, and Aragorn singing the Lay of Luthien. Wow. And the Sackville-Bagginses! Definitely setup for the third movie, when Frodo will return home to find Lotho was living in his house. There was a lot more humour, as well. You see more interaction between Gimli and Legolas, and Frodo gets a cute little line as the Fellowship leaves Rivendell. Not to mention the humour of Bilbo's reaction to the S-Bs. All-in-all, the Extended Version is amazing. I highly recommend watching it straight through, rather than looking at your menu and watching only the extended or new scenes. This watches like a whole new movie. Peter Jackson rearranged bits of the theatre version and interlaced them with new scenes--it's really very seamlessly done, and an exciting viewing experience. I didn't get a chance to listen too closely to the additional score, but my first impression is not entirely favourable regarding that--but it could just be because I know the soundtrack by heart, and Howard Shore rearranged some of my favourite bits. So I can't render an opinion yet about whether the music is good or not. (I'm still waiting for a 2-disc Fellowship soundtrack!) An unexpected plus with my extended version DVD is movie cash good for one free admittance to The Two Towers, beginning on opening night! Can't wait - at least the first of my anticipated six or eight viewings of TTT will be free! A note on ordering my DVD set from Amazon.com--they shipped it Monday, and it arrived yesterday (and this was with their Super Saver Shipping)--on Release Day! Kudos to Amazon!
Rating:
Summary: LOTR FANS ONLY
Review: Ok, you've seen the movie, you loved it, you want more. Otherwise, you wouldn't be reading this. Anyway, this is a must for fans of LoTR. Basically, it's about a half-hour longer from deleted and extended scenes. If you're getting this for anything, get it for them. The extra footage really makes the film a lot cooler. Some extra scenes include a scene of Bilbo writing his book, the part where Galadriel gives everyone stuff, and a lot more exposition. Each new scene has new score written for it. You know the funniest thing though? It's the little diffrences. A lot of it is extra lines and surplus info, no longer than a minute. But be warned, it has two discs, so you have to switch discs in the middle of the movie. Movie itself gets a 5 out of 5. But then, there's the special features. These are all original documentaries, and a couple photo galleries. There's a lot of footage that had great special feature potential, but wasn't included. To tell the truth, the features on the un-platinum version were better. Features get a 3 out of 5. There was some good stuff in there.
Both platinum and un-platinum are worth owning. However, since this one is so expensive, if you had to pick one, pick the un-platinum. 'tis all. ( e [) /-\ z
Cedaz
Rating:
Summary: 4 stars for the dvd, 2 for the movie...
Review: My thoughts are that the movie was too long, and having scenes that just show you spectacular sets, but not telling you anything. It could be a 2 hours movie, or a 3 hours movie with more of the story itself.
Rating:
Summary: Sets New Standards for Platinum DVD's
Review: This package meets and exceeds all expectations for even the most hard-bitten Tolkien fans. This meets the "Delight" standard for customer satisfaction. The packaging is sumptuous, useful, and perfect for gift-giving. Everything is tied down and packed tight (no breaking and rattling). It is beautiful (you won't want to throw it out). The first question you might have is: Are the bookends and other stuff worth the price? The answer is a definite yes. The bookends are well-crafted and very detailed. I was expecting teen bedroom good, and received living room curio quality! My nephews and neices were delighted to get the game cards. The minature fan magazine is informative. The NATGEOSOC video is very nice. The only "padding" on this package is the stuff preventing breakage! The DVD itself is overwhelming in scale and detail. The new extended cut puts back most of the wonderful character development and background detail which made the book great. This is a greater movie for the extra time. It catches the book's vision with near perfect veracity. (Note to New Line Cinema: Remember those 1950's movie roadshows? Study them, learn. Put the intermission in!) The appendices are almost like the production team had read our minds. Everything you'd want to know and more is included. It is thoughtfully organized. The beautiful "decision trees" are, I imagine, an innovation. They should be imitated by Spielberg, Lucas, et al. I am very, very pleased I decided to go "first class." Save your pennies, nickels and dimes for the purchase price. It is worth the price.
Rating:
Summary: Incredible!
Review: The integration of previously deleted scenes is flawless. Furthermore, the added material brings the movie closer to a perfect recreation of Tolkien's vision.
Rating:
Summary: Finally Got It Right
Review: Miraculously, the 30 minutes of additional footage and editing in the extended edition elevates The Fellowship of the Ring from a flawed good movie to a nearly-perfect great movie. I really wasn't expecting much except a longer version of the theatrical release, but fortunately I got much more. This is like a brand-new film, fuller and far less disjointed than the original. It's not your typical director's cut where a few things are shuffled around randomly; every change is appropriate and unquestionably benefits the film. I hesitate to use the word "masterpiece" here (hey it is just a fantasy film after all), but this is about as close as the genre will ever get to it. It's so good that I don't believe anyone will feel the need to try to remake it ever again. What I like most about it is that it brings the hobbits back as the focal point, where I felt they got lost in the shuffle before. Here there is a much better sense of what hobbits are, a closer bond between Bilbo and Frodo, and we can finally tell that Merry and Pippen are actually along for the ride and even tell them apart if you pay attention. Nearly every other character also benefits from the changes, most notably Aragorn, Boromir, Gimli, Celeborn, Galadriel, and Saruman. To be fair, there are still a few awkward bits of dialogue and questionable editing choices, but that's nitpicking. The one thing that I really hoped would be fixed was the way-over-the-top "Dark Galadriel" scene (complete with demonic voice enhancement and an overapplied After Effects filter), which needed to be toned down but unfortunately was left as-is...oh well. Technically, it's also nearly-perfect. I'd rather it didn't require being split up onto two discs but it was unavoidable in order to maintain a high bit rate for the video, which again looks more than excellent. There is NO trace of any blemishes to distract, contrast and color are excellent in general, and grain is almost non-existent. My one complaint here is that the color (particularly fleshtones) did not match in some of the added scenes. Those scenes still look good, but they could have taken some more time to nail it. I'm happy to report that certain scenes where the dialogue went weak in 2-channel stereo mode in the theatrical release have been fixed and the film also sounds fantastic. The extras will simply boggle your mind. This is the most complete DVD I've ever seen and I suspect it still will be for a long time. New Line has to be praised for really going way above and beyond the call of duty. How Jackson and the rest of the crew found the time to do all this while working on the other two films all at the same time, I'll never know. Do they sleep? In short, this is the only version of the film that should ever be shown again. It completely obsoletes the one we saw in theaters, IMO. I think it would benefit people who have not read the books to see this version, as the it should make keeping the characters straight easier -- we finally get to see enough of them to know who they are. Those people should be aware, however, that the ending isn't meant to be final; there's no resolution here. It really only works in the context of the other two films yet to come. That shouldn't stop you from seeing it, just be aware of it. And what a great value this DVD is. I paid [price]for it, and it comes with a movie ticket coupon for The Two Towers, which is worth close to [price]in my neck of the woods. What more do you want? If you haven't bought this thing yet, do it now without hesitation. Lets hope the other two films and their DVDs live up to the bar they've set here.
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