The Lord of the Rings: The Motion Picture Trilogy (Extended Edition) [Blu-ray] [2001]

Product Information

With the help of a courageous Fellowship of friends and allies, Frodo embarks on a perilous mission to destroy the legendary One Ring. Tolkien thought that his trilogy could never be filmed, partly because timelines overlap in different books; stories in Two Towers have parallel action in King. It features not only all of the extras from the previous SD-DVD Extended Edition release, but it also features those mammoth Costa Botes documentaries which were previously exclusive to the limited edition Theatrical SD-DVD release. The new and extended scenes were carefully selected under the supervision of Academy Award-winning director Peter Jackson. Documentaries Covering the Cast, Principal Photography, a Day in the Life of a Hobbit, Visual Effects, Post-production, Editing, Music and Sound, and the Release of the Film.

The score is soaring and spacious, while dialogue is crisp and never lost, even in the midst of the chaos. Each of the 3 boxes has an inner sleeve that contains a nice booklet, that gives all the details you need about the special extended edition and the appendices, followed by two detailed stylish foldout diagrams that map the entire extras' menus.Themes of industrialization versus the beauty and serenity of nature, the lust for power and the corruption it causes (over and over again, a vicious circle of sorts), on both the body and soul, and the blind, selfless heroism of those from whom it is least expected are pounded away early and often, but in a manner that isn't slap-you-in-the-face blatant or obvious. That said, this is still a better rendition than that which was encountered for the Theatrical Blu-ray release.

Blacks are strong, deeper than ever before, and yet crush seems thankfully less apparent, even if it is difficult to ignore the fact that some depth in some scenes has been reduced.

The set contains 12 DVD's divided to three high quality boxes, designed to give it a look of a leather bound cover, all protected by an outer firm cardboard cover. A journey that will take nearly ten hours time in human years, unless one pauses to take a burrito break. Now back when the theatrical edition Blu-ray was being promoted – just prior to release – there was a big ‘net hubbub about how these were going to be remastered transfers. If you’ve never encountered any of these before then, suffice to say, it’s one of the most comprehensive extras packages that I have ever encountered in a decade of reviewing.