The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (Extended Edition)

Great movie and really good value. I would definitely recommend you watch it if you liked the books.

Great film

Great film.

Peter Jackson's adaption of The Fellowship of the Ring was a towering success, cramming in the depth and breadth of JRR Tolkien's vision and making it into an enjoyable, well-acted three-hour movie. He nearly blew it with The Two Towers, which was overlong, badly paced and padded with unnecessary tripe. The Return of the King falls between these two extremes. Like The Two Towers it has a clever opening, taking advantage of the lull before the action to show us something not related to the action of the moment, in this case showcasing Smeagol's transformation into Gollum. From there almost immediately some dubious writing and editing choices are made. Gandalf and co. ride to Isengard to confront Saruman, but then decide they can't be bothered and ride off home (the confrontation, including Saruman's death, will be in the extended DVD version) with Merry and Pippin. Great. There's nothing like having a villain menacing your heroes for six hours and then refusing to give him a death scene. Things rapidly get better, with Aragorn and Pippin's arrival at Minas Tirith and the subsequent awesome lighting of the beacons being stand-out moments. Full marks to the cinematographer and miniatures team (although Minas Tirith in the film isn't quite as described in the books,lacking the 'curling wave' effect on the rock pinnacle) in this section. Then we very rapidly machine gun our way through scenes as we head for the epic confrontation. No padding here...until suddenly we go back to Rivendell. Things get overly confusing and apparently Arwen starts dying. Excuse me? Elrond apparently teleports to impart this information to Aragorn and hand him his cool sword (which doesn't do much his old sword didn't) and then buggers off. As with The Two Towers, these feeble attempts to integrate Arwen into the plot (in the entire book she only has three lines!) grate and slow down the pace of the film. When we get to the Battle of the Pelennor Fields things seem to be set for an epic confrontation. If you haven't read the book you'll probably love this part, but those who have will largely be stunned. Where the hell is Gondor's army? Eleven thousand Gondorian troops are defending the city in the book, but in the film it seems to be held by a single regiment of scared reservists. The Ride of the Rohirrim is awesome, one of the most emotionally-effecting moments of the trilogy, although Jackson nearly ruins it by drowning the imagines in CGI during the battle with the Mumakil. Then it all goes pear-shaped when the Army of the Dead turn up and win the battle for the humans. In the book the Army of the Dead only helps Aragorn capture the corsair fleet at Pelargir, which Aragorn uses to transport Gondor's southern army to the capital in time to the save the day. Just having the undead turn up and win the battle for the humans seems to wreck the whole theme of bravery and sacrifice which lies at the heart of the Lord of the Rings. This decision very nearly killed all my enjoyment of the film, but things get much better. Shelob was a stunning piece of CGI, almost as convincing as Gollum, and the scenes on Mount Doom are emotionally powerful. The Battle at the Black Gate has been hacked apart by the editors, but you get the gist of the tremendous gamble and sacrifice Aragorn is making here. The finale of the film is less impressive, hacked into about four false endings. The Scouring of the Shire, a brilliant section in the book, has been removed for time reasons but lessens the power of the story in the film version. Overall, this is a good, enjoyable movie which overcomes its numerous problems to deliver a satisfying conclusion to the trilogy. But it could have been so much better...

In trying to write a concise review of this extended edition, one is faced with three different topics each worthy of consideration. The first is this cut of The Return of the King as a movie; the second is the package with its appendices; the third is the total achievement of the whole project, which this set completes. It's going to be very hard to do justice to all three in just a thousand words. So firstly: The Return of the King, or more precisely this cut, as a movie. Consistently Peter Jackson's extended cuts have been, in my opinion, better movies as movies than the 'theatrical' cuts. There's a lot of new material here - not just extending scenes, but many scenes which were left out of the theatrical cut altogether, which add to characterisation, pacing and story telling. So: the movie. It does not, of course, religiously follow Tolkien's text - nor could it. On the whole, however, it is reasonably true to the overall themes of Tolkien's text. The story-telling here is fine, and is worked on with great care. The acting, too, is fine. Among so many very fine performances, in this movie I particularly admired Billy Boyd's Pippin, Miranda Otto's Eowyn, Bernard Hill's Theoden. This is, however, very much an ensemble production. The general level of acting is high. People put their all into making this. And not just into the acting. The costumes are spectacularly gorgeous, the sets spectacular and very largely believable, the scenery very much in keeping. In particular the presentation of the city of Minas Tirith is a tour de force, achieved by actually building quite a substantial part of the city at full scale. But not all of that you see is real. What is particularly impressive in the CGI in this film (and there's a great deal of it) is the extent to which one simply does not notice it. Gollum, for example, is just there. The fell beasts which the Nazgul ride, and the 'great beasts' which draw Grond, are similarly so seamlessly in the piece that it is hard to believe they weren't there on the set when the camera rolled. With a critical eye you can see the CGI work in the great horse charge, and when the Rohirrim fight the Haradrim on their mumakil - but it isn't sufficiently obvious to be distracting. Indeed the one location in this book which seemed to me 'obviously' CGI - the Hall of Denethor, which seemd to me to have that hyper-reality that comes of ray-tracing - turned out to be a real (but beautifully constructed) set. Finally, the score and sound design are again excellent. In summary, this is a beautiful looking movie, telling a classic story and telling it well. Then the package. The Extended Edition pack comes with two disks of 'appendices', just as the extended editions of The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers did; and they follow very much in the format already established in the earlier appendices, a series of documentary pieces about the background to the story and the making of the film. They don't strike me with the force that the earlier appendices did, but that is not, I think, because these are less good, simply because the format has been established and has lost its freshness. The fact remains that this is not space-filler material; for me, the 'appendices' disks of the Lord of the Rings extended editions set the standards by which all other DVD extra content is judged. And in this case, you don't just get four disks, you get five. The fifth is about turning the film score into a symphony. Frankly, for me, that was less value for money; it didn't really work either as documentary (too much of it was simply the music) or as music (too often interrupted with commentary). But seeing it's a thrown in extra I wasn't disappointed. So, finally, the whole achievement. The scale and ambition of this project are staggering. Tolkien justifiably thought the Lord of the Rings unfilmable; Jackson has filmed the unfilmable and done it well. I don't quite think it's a masterpiece, but it is a very fine work of craftsmanship, with a coherent vision which produces a believable world. Why not a masterpiece? Well, some aspects of the plot were clumsily handled. Jackson never really knew what to do with the character of Arwen, for example; and a number of the plot decisions in The Two Towers particularly just don't seem to make any sense (why drop the Grey Company and then import a whole bunch of Lothlorien elves? Why?). Part of this, of course, is a consequence of the need to cut the story into three chunks in order to be manageably marketable. I suspect that one of these days someone - perhaps even Jackson - will reshape this material into a single twelve hour of more movie which will correct some of the plot difficulties. But even so it will be flawed, because the plot really wallows around the problem of Arwen. Finally, there are too many ham bits of movie cliche. I'd be the first to admit that Tolkien himself it rather given to having things that had lasted millenia destroyed as the fellowship passes through. You can forgive Jackson the collapse of the bridge of Khazad Dum, with Gandalf literally doing a cliff-hanger off the end. It's in the book. But to then repeat the same hammy cliche with Frodo dangling over the abyss in Sammath Naur is unforgivable. And why - why? - does the floor of the causeway in Sammath Naur collapse just behind the running feet of our heroes? Because that's the way it's been done in every hammy adventure film you've ever seen, and Jackson is too in much love with the B movie genre to rise above it. And yet... what one remembers above all is spectacle and courage. The halls of Khazad Dum; the Argonath; Boromir's last fight on the slopes of Amon Hen; Edoras with its Golden Hall; the thunderous might of the Uruk Hai before Helm's Deep; the charge of the Mumakil; Eowyn standing alone against the Witch King of Angmar. What one remembers, despite the minor flaws, is a great piece of story-telling, telling a great story about friendship and courage.

No worries

I bought this as new and it was as good as I expected. My trilogy is now complete.

This was brand new. I had misplaced one disc so bought this thinking it was used. However, it cost less than the original set, had all six discs and was in original state. WOW!

• Bought this at ₹779. • This was a very cheap purchase considering the iconic movie franchise. • This is the last entry in the “The Lord of the Rings Trilogy” which finally ends the reign of terror of the Dark Lord “Sauron”. • PLOT: The final battle for Middle-earth begins. Frodo and Sam, led by Gollum, continue their dangerous mission toward the fires of Mount Doom in order to destroy the One Ring. Aragorn struggles to fulfill his legacy as he leads his outnumbered followers against the growing power of the Dark Lord Sauron, so that the Ring-bearer may complete his quest. DISC/Movie Specs: • Video Codec: MPEG-4 AVC (30.47 Mbps) Resolution: 1080p Aspect ratio: 2.41:1 Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1 Audio • English: DTS-HD Master Audio 6.1 (48kHz, 24-bit) Portuguese: Dolby Digital 5.1 Subtitles • English SDH, Portuguese, Spanish Discs Blu-ray Disc Two-disc set (2 BD-50) Packaging: Slipcover with pressing. Playback Region free • Runtime: 251 minutes • I sincerely urge fellow fans to buy this bluray because its worth it.

The three *The Lord of the Rings* films [all directed by Peter Jackson] have clearly made film history, chiefly due to their marked overall excellence. This film trilogy, shot entirely in New Zealand, is breathtaking at a minimum. Here, I'm reviewing the *Special Extended Edition* [as opposed to the much shorter Theatrical Version] of the third of these films on DVD, *The Return of the King*. It concludes the larger story on all fronts. I'm sure that the tale is familiar to most who would show an interest in this film but, for the uninitiated, the overall adult fantasy trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien chronicles a group of Middle Earth travelers which include a wizard, two men, a dwarf, an elf, and four hobbits, ergo: "The Fellowship". They are set upon this quest because two evil wizards have joined forces in an effort to eventually conquer and enslave all otherwise peaceful cultures of Middle Earth which includes Hobbits, Men, and Elves. At the behest of the pair of dark and nefarious sorcerers are the most dreadful orcs, trolls, wargs, and other heinous minions. At the outset [in previous films], one of the Hobbits [Frodo Baggins] has inherited a magic ring from an aged relative [Bilbo Baggins, of The Hobbit: 70th Anniversary Edition: or There and Back Again fame, a fantasy written by Tolkien for young people] and it eventually becomes clear that this is *The One Ring* which exerts full power over all remaining magic rings of power which still exist within Middle Earth. The One Ring was originally crafted by The Dark Lord [Sauron, the more powerful of the two evil wizards] but it was inadvertently lost for many years. As The One Ring [which can render one invisible, with certain negative caveats] ultimately ends up in the hands of Frodo, it becomes his crusade and his burden (along with the rest of The Fellowship) to destroy this ring at Mount Doom, a huge volcano which lies within Sauron's sinister and well-patrolled realm of Mordor. *The Return of the King* picks up the story after The Fellowship has endured numerous battles and other notable impediments to their objective. At this point, The Fellowship has broken up into multiple segments and all but the Hobbit Frodo and his devoted companion, Sam, band together again in a final effort to divert Sauron's attention from The One Ring so that the two Hobbits can surreptiously enter Mordor and destroy it. Two spectacular battles ensue and the action is non-stop. The advantage to viewing this edition of the film [as opposed to the theatrical version] is that the story makes a lot more sense, especially to those folks who have not read the books, (now available in a single edition: The Lord of the Rings: 50th Anniversary, One Vol. Edition .) This DVD is significantly longer than the theatrical version. The trio of films broke tons of of new ground which was particularly in evidence as the cast and crew made a clean sweep at the Academy Awards for this final entry in the year of its release. The special effects were so sigificantly on the cutting edge of technology [chiefly enhanced by WETA Digital in New Zealand] that each film became superior to its prequel. *The Return of the Kings* stands today as the very hallmark of special effects technology -- it's so superb because all the characters and scenery look so realistic. No detail or necessary expense was spared in the making of this epic film. Howard Shore continued to write music for this movie which has helped to place it in such high esteem. His filmscore [available in its entirety here: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (The Complete Recordings) ], coupled with segments of the soundtracks of the two previous films, are now available as a *Lord of the Rings Concert* such as this one Music from The Lord of the Rings Trilogy , these being rendered by various renowned orchestras around the globe. Some arrangements of this music vary, depending upon the conductor and the orchestra. Shore used The London Philharmonic for the movie soundtrack. This film stands on its own. You could definitely watch and enjoy it without having seen the two previous films. But I would heartily recommend that you do view the other two in the order in which they were released: The Lord of the Rings - The Fellowship of the Ring (Platinum Series Special Extended Edition) and The Lord of the Rings - The Two Towers (Platinum Series Special Extended Edition) . While it was likely that Frodo [Elijah Wood] was the central character in the film, or perhaps even Gandalf the Wizard [Sir Ian McKellan], it is the stellar performance of Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn which eclipses them all. Still, this film is perfectly cast and that was clearly half the battle for Director Peter Jackson. As with the preceding two Special Extended Edition DVD sets, this boxed set includes two *Appendices* discs [four discs total, two for the film and the two "making of" discs] which cover every possible aspect of the making of the movie. They are infinitely well-done and are nearly as compelling as the movie itself. Do not miss this historic and magnificent film, even if fantasy is not precisely your favorite genre. Highly recommended above all others! p.s. -- If you as yet own none of the three films and you wish to purchase them as a single package, you can do so here: The Lord of the Rings - The Motion Picture Trilogy (Platinum Series Special Extended Edition) .

Gigantisch, atemberaubend, beispiellos, überwältigend - Dieser Film hat sämtliche Superlative wirklich verdient. Peter Jackson und seinem Team ist es gelungen, die ersten beiden Teile noch zu übertreffen und der Trilogie einen mehr als würdigen Abschluss zu geben. Meine Erwartungen an diesen dritten und letzten Teil waren enorm und ich kann nur sagen, sie wurden alle erfüllt und sogar noch übertroffen. Die Schauspieler sind genial (allen voran die 4 Hobbits, Aragorn, Gandalf und Eówyn), die Kulissen und Landschaften wieder einmal einfach ohnegleichen, die Musik ist grandios und die Effekte übertreffen alles bisher dagewesene. Die Entfesselung von Minas Morgul und die Schlacht bei Minas Tirith lassen einem das Blut in den Adern gefrieren und der Eingriff der Rohirrim in die Schlacht ist eine der bewegendsten Filmszenen, die ich je gesehen habe. Wenn Frodo von Kankra verfolgt wird oder Gollum sich mit Frodo und Sam ein nervenaufreibendes "Psychospiel" liefert, zweifelt man trotz der Gewissheit, dass sie computergeneriert wurden, kaum an der Echtheit dieser Bilder - die Effekte fügen sich perfekt in den Film ein und wirken keinesfalls aufgesetzt. Minas Tirith ist bei weitem die schönste Kulisse der gesamten Trilogie und der Showdown am Schwarzen Tor und im Schicksalsberg bringen das Zuschauerherz zum Rasen. Gollum wirkt noch echter als in Teil 2 und man nimmt ihn gar nicht mehr als CGI-Charakter wahr. Das Erzähltempo ist enorm und der Spannungsbogen wird perfekt über den gesamten Film gehalten und erlebt zahlreiche Höhepunkte. Keine einzige Szene wirkt fehlplatziert oder überflüssig. Alle Handlungsstränge, die in den Teilen 1 und 2 begonnen wurden, werden im dritten Teil zusammengeführt und es kommen sogar noch neue dazu, aber man verliert keineswegs den Überblick, denn alles wird sehr geschickt dargestellt und aufgelöst. Das Ende, welches von manchen als zu lang und kitschig empfunden wurde, ist meiner Meinung nach genau perfekt gelungen. Es ist sehr emotional und schließt die Trilogie mehr als würdig ab. Ein kürzeres Ende wäre diesen dei Meisterwerken nicht gerecht geworden. Das einzige Problem des Films ist: Er ist zu kurz. :) Man möchte den Film am liebsten gar nicht enden lassen, denn, wenn die Worte "The End" auf der Leinwand bzw. dem Fernsehschirm erscheinen, überkommt einen eine Melancholie und traurige Gewissheit, dass es nun für immer vorbei ist. Wir werden keine neuen Abenteuer mehr mit unseren Helden aus Mittelerde erleben und das muss einen Fan einfach traurig machen. Noch kein Film hat es geschafft, mir so viele Gänsehautmomente zu bescheren, geschweige denn mich so stark emotional zu berühren. (Teil 1 und 2 haben dies zwar auch teilweise geschafft, aber nicht so extrem wie dieser Teil.) Ich habe noch nie bei einem Film geweint, aber bei diesem Film hatte ich in der gesamten Schlusssequenz ab dem Moment bei der Krönung Aragorns, als sich das gesamte Volk Gondors vor den vier Hobbits verneigt, Tränen in den Augen. Ich habe noch nie einen so bewegenden, ergreifenden, emotionalen, überwältigenden und einfach nur grandiosen Film gesehen. Es ist einfach ein Meisterwerk und noch besser als die ohnehin schon grandiosen ersten beiden Teile. Ich kann nur "DANKE!" sagen an alle, die an dieser Trilogie mitgewirkt haben und richte dabei besonderen Dank an Peter Jackson, dafür, dass er Mittelerde auf einzigartige Weise zum Leben erweckt hat. Die gesamte Trilogie hat Filmgeschichte geschrieben und ich bedaure es sehr, dass es jetzt quasi für immer vorbei ist. Doch was uns von PJ's Team gegeben wurde, werden wir nie vergessen und immer zu würdigen wissen. DANKE! "Die Rückkehr des Königs" ist für mich der beste Film aller Zeiten dicht gefolgt von Teil 1 und 2 und ein würdiger Abschluss für die Trilogie. Besser hätte man es nicht machen können. Die SEE im Oktober kann den Film nur noch perfekter machen und uns mit einer halben Stunde mehr Mittelerde nur mehr als glücklich machen.

Good

Excellent customer service; DVD skipped repeatedly while being played on my VLC Media Player on my laptop (VERY annoying!). Hard to recommend this edition due to this horrible skipping problem during playback.