Lord Of The Rings, The: The Fellowship Of The Ring (Limited Edition 4 Disc Collector`s Box Set) (UK)

When New Line announced they were to release two versions of The Fellowship Of The Ring on DVD within three months of each other I was surprised. Not that there was to be an extended version of the film, but that it was due quite so soon. I thought such a release was inevitable and expected it in a box set accompanied by similarly treated versions of both The Two Towers and The Return Of The King, following the latter’s release on DVD.

In fairness to New Line and Peter Jackson this was not a sly move following the successful DVD release of Fellowship in August, as many have accused them of. Both releases were advertised well in advance so we, as consumers, knew what the deal was.

Personally I couldn’t see room for improvement of the film in its original form. Unlike so many films of late the effects do not outshine the human element nor overshadow the narrative. I’ve read the book many times since the age of twelve and am well aware of the differences between the source material and Jackson’s interpretation.

This new, extended version reinstates more material from the book. I won’t spoil it by saying exactly what is included in this version but if you have read the book then you’ll have a good idea of what it will be.

So what of the much touted extended version of the film? It reminds me a little of Aliens and its special edition. To me the theatrical cut was fantastic and yet the special edition somehow improved upon it, adding to an already great movie experience and it’s in that aspect that I can draw similarities to this version of Fellowship. Extended and additional scenes enrich characters that already had dimension and further texture the world and races of Middle Earth.

Of the four discs in the package the film is split over the first two with the break appropriately placed. The image transfer is marginally better than the previous release and the sound now boasts both DDEX and DTSES that will give your system a thorough workout.

I remember when I got the special edition of T2 I wondered when I’d get enough time to wade through the wealth of extras. Well in retrospect that was nothing compared to this. The two remaining discs house what is a mind-blowing amount of extras from documentaries to video clips to stills galleries - there’s a booklet included to help navigate them. What’s more it’s highly addictive viewing that is revealing and fascinating to watch. If all that isn’t enough the feature contains four informative commentary tracks. In a world where filmmakers resort to CGI far too much, it’s nice to see that Jackson and his team employ practical solutions as well as state of the art technology. It’s clear from all the members of cast and crew that they had a real passion for the project and it shows.

The Argonath bookends are smaller than they appeared in photographs but are of good quality being made from polystone and not cheap plastic as could have been. The discs, on the other hand, come in a fold out cardboard case and this is my only gripe – theses cases may look nice but they don’t last.

For fans of the book and anyone bowled over by the film this is an essential purchase.

Well, the outer box looks good. The Argonath bookends are so so.
But I feel that those two things are not worth the extra GBP10.00 that I had to fork out for this collector`s gift set. If you`ve ever been to China, you`ll see souvenir statues of the terracotta warriors around and the Argonaths are about the same sort of quality.
They could have packed in quite a bit more goodies in that big box for the extra GBP10.00 but they didn`t.
Just get the extended director`s version instead and save yourself a tenner.

What I`ve not seen so far about this film, is any mention of what, for me, was the most unbelievable feature. I mean of course the 25 minutes of credits at the end of the second disk. Most of this seems to be a list of the members of some Lord of the Rings fan club, of no possible interest to anyone who isn`t a member. When I started playing the second part of the film, I thought, great, another 2 hours of movie. Not so. I don`t remember this from seeing the film at the cinema so I don`t know if this true of the other versions on DVD. I was left feeling a bit cheated by this obvious padding.

The bookends seem hardly heavy enough to perform their stated purpose. Save your money and have less to dust around.

The scene at Galadriel`s mirror is still missing the essential bit of dialogue before she asks Frodo if he wants to look into the mirror. At this point, for all he knows, it might be a bird bath.

Complaints aside, I did enjoy the movie but the extra/extended scenes didn`t add much. Presumably the original theatrical cut is on one disk, perhaps I should have bought that instead. If it weren`t for the padding in the credits, the extended version would have fit on one disk, Apocalypse Now Redux managed it. Before you know it, flipper disks will make a comeback.