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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mark Oliva" data-source="post: 1904902" data-attributes="member: 8925">Return of the King Extended - ReviewTuesday is the official day for the release of the Platinum Extended Editionof Part 3 of Peter Jackson's LotR, "The Return of the King," in NorthAmerica.  However, it already was released on Friday here in continentalEurope and in Great Britain.  For those who'd like some advanced details,read on.First of all, Amazon US (<a href="http://www.amazon.com" target="_blank">www.amazon.com</a>) and Amazon Canada (<a href="http://www.amazon.ca" target="_blank">www.amazon.ca</a>)are offering the extended edition at very reduced prices for Christmas.Amazon US is selling it for US$23.99, compared to a list price of $39.99.Amazon Canada is selling it for CDN$34.99, which Amazon says is 40% off listprice.The cover ad says that the extended version has 48 minutes more film thanthe cinema version.  That checks out.  The seconds are rounded in the timesbelow.Cinema Version DVD------------------Total running time:      3:13Film running time:       3:04Title music at end:      0:09Platinum Extended Version DVD-----------------------------Total running time:      4:12Film running time:       3:51Title music at end:      0:21So, the advertised 48 extra minutes do not include the extra 12 minutes oftitles and title music at the end.  You really get another 48 minutes ofmovie.  You also get four CDs instead of two, but I have no comments on theextras.  I never look at them (One exception: the "Bowling for Columbine"DVD), and therefore, there's nothing I can say about them.So, what's in those 48 minutes?The following scenes were extended:Finding of the Ring with Smeagol & Deagol, the way to Isengard, the return to Edoras, the palantir, Minas Tirith, Gandalf and Pippin in Minas Tirith, Théoden's decision on going to Minas Tirith, the fall of Osgiliath, Rohan's war camp, Aragorn chooses the Paths of the Dead, the besieging of Gondor, the crypt of the stewards, Denethor's immolation, battle on the Fields of Pelennor, victory at Minas Tirith, Pippin finds Merry (new version), the tower of Cirith Ungol, the last war council, the Land of Shadow, Mount Doom.The following scenes are new:The voice of Saruman (see below), Éowyn's dream, the fall of Gondor, thetrail past the fallen king, Sam's warning of Gollum, Denethor's rage atFaramir over letting the Ring go, Pippin's joining the guard, the Corsarsfrom Umbar, Merry encourages Éowyn, Gandalf and the Witch King of Angmar(see below), Aragorn and the palantir (see below), the Houses of Healing,Faramir and Éowyn, Frodo and Sam forced to march with the orcs, Mouth ofSauron (see below).The main additions are the Voice of Saruman, the new material on the Pathsof the Dead, Aragorn and the palantir and the Mouth of Sauron.  Gandalf andthe Witch King of Angmar should be a main addition too, but it is another ofmany things with which Peter Jackson had no idea what to do, so instead ofbeing a strong scene, it fizzles out and creates a glaring inconsistency inthe process.If Jackson had understood Prof. Tolkien's books and had been true to hisprofessed commitment to remain faithful to them, the Scouring of the Shirecould and would not have been eliminated.  This ending after the ending haseverything to do with what Prof. Tolkien's tale really is all about.Without endorsing its omission, one must say that Jackson's method ofdispatching Saruman without the Scourging of the Shire is well executed.The scene atop Isengard's tower is at the root faithful to the book, untilthe end, when Tolkien's death scene from the Shire is shifted to Isengard.King Théoden's attempts to talk Wormtongue into descending the tower andreturning to the ranks of Rohan is not from the books, but it lends aTolkienesque quality to the altered series of events at Orthanc.  Sarumanhumiliates Wormtongue atop the tower, and Wormtongue stabs Saruman in theback with a dagger, slaying him.  An arrow from Legolas ends Wormtongue'slife, as Saruman's corpse falls from the tower onto a waterwheel.The scene is well run.  When the body hits the waterwheel, it sets it slowlyinto motion, like a wheel of fate slowly sinking the fallen wizard's bodyinto the waters of oblivion, as the palantir Pippin finds falls out ofSaruman's sleeve and into the water.  None of this happened in the book, ofcourse, but if one is going to deviate from the book, this is a credible andconvincing alternative.  Much better than the cinematic alternative, whichwas simply to ignore the fact that there was a Saruman.Best done is the Mouth of Sauron.  Excellent.  Excellent.  Excellent!  I'lladd no more.  This has to be seen to be appreciated.  For those who saw thecinema version of RotK, this well may be the highest point of all in theextended version.Also superlative is the greatly extended journey down the Paths of the Dead,suspenseful, scary and exciting, with a great climax as Aragorn, Legolas andGimle flee from the tunnel, Aragorn despairing, thinking he has failed, asvillages burn below him.  Only then does the King of the Dead emerge toswear to serve Aragorn.  Not from Tolkien, but well done.Less satisfying and more puzzling is Aragorn's encounter with the palantir.In the book, Aragorn used the palantir atop the High Seat and held his ownagainst the Dark Lord.  In the extended version, Aragorn is just somewhereor the other using the palantir.  It ends with him looking like he was anabject failure about to suffer a nervous breakdown, while Arwen's jewelfalls to the floor and shatters.  Say what?Strange indeed, because in RotK, one sees clearly that Jackson wants topicture Aragorn as the dominant figure of stength, confidence andleadership, while Gandalf becomes ever more uncertain and somewhatdesperate.  At several points, Jackson's Gandalf wants to believe that Frodois dead, and it takes the stronger Aragorn to elevate his spirits again.The abjectly weak Aragorn we see with the palantir simply doesn't fit intothat concept or into any other concept that one finds in the film.But the weakening Gandalf we see in Jackson's RotK is also the reason thatMithrandir's encounter with the Witch King of Angmar fizzles intonothingness.  The Witch King destroys Gandalf's staff and appears to beabout to destroy a desperate and hopeless Gandalf when, instead, the Nazgullord flies off to attend to the horns of Rohan.  This important scene, whichwas missing in the cinematic version, adds nothing in the extended version,simply because it fizzles.  Never mind that the staff of Gandalf, which theWitch King conclusively destroyed in this scene, is back in Gandalf's handsnot too many frames later, and it remains there until the end of the film.Overall, the extended version is much like its two predecessors.  It rescuesthe viewer from the constant chop-chop-chop-but-let-nothing-develop pace ofthe cinema versions.  The extended edition still ignores large and importantparts of Tolkien's tale to spend incredible amounts of time running loud,loud, loud battle scenes, many of which run so long that despite theirattempts to sustain with spectacle, they end up being boring.  And in theextended versions, the battle scenes, which already were too long in thecinema version, were extended too.Technically, Jackson's resources apparently were running out.  For all histechnical marvels, Jackson could do nothing more in the long Mordor scenethan to show us still pictures in the background of Mt. Doom.  The flamesnever move.  The smoke never moves.  Ho-hum.  That kind of technical marvelyou already can find in black-and-white in the Marx Brothers films from the1930s.  One saw this already in the cinema version, but the extendedmaterial makes it come out even more.All in all, if you want Prof. Tolkien's story, you'll still have to settlefor reading the books.  Jackson didn't understand it and therefore couldn'trecreate it.  Instead, he gives one an exciting action movie that, with theextended versions, runs for just under 10 hours.  In the extended versions -if you can put Tolkien's tale aside and take the film on its own qualities,which I've had considerable difficulty doing - you get one helluva actionfilm that runs a surface story based on the surface of Tolkien's tale.The cinema versions are too choppy and too dedicated to not letting anything develop for me to have been able to watch more than once, but the extended editions I can digest, although I still regret at points that Jackson chose to tell his own story rather than Tolkien's better tale.  The extended versions let Jackson's tale breathe and develop.  Despite its remoteness from Tolkien, Jackson's Ring is the best fantasy film you're likely to see for some time.  For those who can take it in that spirit, the extended editions are a good investment.  I intend to keep mine, although I gave away the cinema versions of all three films.The acting quality in RotK is about the same as in the two previous films.Sir Ian McKellen's Gandalf and Christopher Lee's Saruman are superlative.That there were no best actor and best supporting actor Oscars for theirportrayals is a crime.  Computerized Gollum also is on that level.Strong are Miranda Otto's Éowyn, Bernard Hill's Théoden, Andy Serkis asSmeagol (also the voice of the computerized Gollum) and - surprisingly -David Wenham as Faramir.  It's hard to do much with the Faramir that cameout of the cinematic versions, but Wenham is given space and time to developa three-dimensional, sympathetic charcter in the extended editions.  OrlandoBloom's Legolas and Sean Astin's Sam belong in this category too, with anasterik to remind the viewer that the characters Jackson gave them todevelop bear no relationship whatsoever to Tolkien's characters of the samename. John Noble's portrayal of the absolutely non-Tolkienesque, ravinglyinsane Denethor is on this level too.  Somewhere on the borderline between strong and mediocre is Viggo Mortensenas Aragorn.  Mediocre, as in the past, are Billy Boyd as Pippin, DominicMonaghan as Merry, Hugo Weaving as Elrond, John Rhys-Davies as Gimle andKarl Urban as Eomer.For the 3rd film in a row, Elijah Wood as Frodo and Liv Tyler as Arwen winour where-are-the-afternoon-soap-operas-when-we-really-need-them Oscar forgodawful, lousy acting.  Groucho Marx would have been as credible a Frodo,and one can easily picture Margaret Dumont as having been able to create abetter Arwen.</blockquote>

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