The Lord of the Rings - The Return of the King (Platinum Series Special Extended Edition Collector's Gift Set)

It feels almost redundant to review "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King." How much promotion does this DVD need? The movie earned $1.1 billion worldwide in its initial release, the second highest-grossing film in history. It nabbed eleven Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Critics raved about it. Audiences staggered out of the film in stunned amazement. Certainly, there are people didn't like it. Some viewers simply aren't interested in fantasy, and a small minority of J.R.R. Tolkien fans objected to the changes made to the original novel (I belong to the majority that believes the movies, despite alterations, remain extremely faithful to the source book). However, no film in my recent memory has garnered such strong love and adulation as "The Return of the King." It has become the great epic film event of its time, the same way that "Star Wars" was over thirty years ago. All effects films will now be measured against it. If you've seen it, chances are you loved or at least liked it and will want this DVD. If you haven't seen it, no time like the present...you'll have to see it eventually! For the buyer, however, a note of caution: an expanded special edition DVD set will hit shelves later this year. As with the releases of the previous installments in the trilogy, this second set will contain a longer version of the film (four hours in length) with two discs loaded with extras that total in excess of seven hours, plus four feature-length commentaries! By comparison, the DVD offered here is far slimmer: only two discs long, with `basic' extras and the theatrical version of the film (a bit over three hours). The documentaries are promotional pieces from TV, and don't have a lot of info in them because they were released before the film and kept many parts of it secret. (The National Geographic Special has already been available separately on DVD). The short featurettes are adequate and only whet your appetite for the expanded DVD release; there's not much hard data here. The inevitable ad for the videogame hardly counts as an `extra'. The six-minute "Super Trailer" for all three films is a pretty nice feature, however. For a casual viewer, this DVD should satisfy them. People who really loved the film might want to wait a few months and get the expanded edition instead. Tolkien lunatics like myself should get both. (I want to be able to watch the two different cuts separately, and if I don't have time to sit with friends and watch the four-hour version, we can watch the slimmer theatrical cut.) Whether you buy this DVD or the later one depends on how important "The Return of the King" is to you personally. The final third of the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy of movies exceeded all expectations. Jackson took the most epic portion of the novel, with the final showdown between Sauron's forces of Mordor and the Men of Gondor, and Frodo and Sam closing in on the completion of their quest, and fashioned a film both magnificent in scope -- surpassing not only the previous two films but every film ever made -- and with deep emotions and wonderful characters. It's an astonishing feat that the biggest of the three films is the most touching and "human." Frodo's struggle against the Ring as he closes in on Mt. Doom unbearable torment, and his companion Sam (Sean Astin, in a role that should have received a Supporting Actor nomination) shows the greatest bravery and dedication of any character in the story. Every character gets his or her chance to shine, whether in a dramatic scene or a battle sequence. And the battles...nothing like them has ever been shown before. The initial strike on Minas Tirith, with catapult rocks decimating entire columns of orcs and flying Nazgul making vertigo-inducing dives onto the city, steals away one's breath. The climatic clash before Minas Tirith, with the Rohirrim battling a brigade of mumakil (titanic elephants), is the most sweeping battle scene ever put on screen. The technical effects are the best in cinema history, and they are all put in service of the story instead of existing to wow audiences, as happens in most popcorn summer flicks. The meld of drama, character, and technical achievement in "The Return of the King" is seamless; I doubt we will see the like of it again -- at least during the next decade. The most common complaint about the film is that it has "too many endings." I don't understand this criticism at all. After three full movies with these characters, it would be a cheat to abandon them without giving each one a special farewell. It would also let down the epic story, for this is a great tale that requires a large deal of wrapping up for it to work. For Tolkien fans, indeed, the ending feels too quick! (A major portion of the end of the novel, "The Scouring of the Shire" was not filmed because it would have dragged the ending on too long.) It's rare for a film today to let its characters stretch and resolve their stories correctly, and I commend Jackson for not cutting "The Lord of the Rings" short at the end in a hurry to `get it over with.' Savor this film to the end...it's a remarkable achievement. It's with some sadness that I face this DVD release, for it means that "The Lord of the Rings" movie trilogy is over, and there will be no highly anticipated, thrilling release coming this December. But I have the movie in my hands now, mine forever to cherish and re-watch whenever I want to relive the stunning experience. No DVD owner should be without this cornerstone of epic cinema -- in one edition or another.

outstanding movie.... never tire of watching. great movie.... enjoy

Simply put the greatest movie ever made, for the greatest story every told - and that means better than the usual classics such as the Homer (not Homer Simpson for the illiterate), Tolstoy, Shakespeare, Dickens, Goethe and other long dead authors. Better than the Matrix, better than Star Wars, better than Titanic or Spiderman, The Godfather, Citizen Kane, Metropolis or Finding Nemo or Gone with the Wind or any other movie I have ever seen, which includes virtually all of the AFI top 100 films list. Movie making history has been made with this epic production. Yes there will be those who did not like this movie, usually those who have not bothered to use their brains and actually read it and are to quote "regular cinemophiles". Tolkien himself accepted that many would find his novel boorish and to all those who quible and complain or did not like, you are entitled to your opinion and as the professor said, I (and he) will probably detest the things you find enjoyable. Each to his own! For those who have read the novels, and the true Tolkien afficionados, the changes may be irritating but certainly reasonable bearing in mind this is a completely different medium to a novel. I believe most fans (which spans the gamut from teenagers, to doctors and scientists, churchmen and regular people, educated people, stupid and smart in varying degrees, religious or agnostic), will agree that the spirit of Tolkien lives on. Special effects are part of the story, not the story, the battles do not detract from the individual storyline. Courage and fortitude shine through, characaters show their frailty, they are scared, and desperate but they find it within themselves to go on. Despite knowing the novel intimately, I was captivated and felt every moment as if it was the first time. The themes are all there, beautifully portrayed by a cast that cared about their work as art and not just a quick job to the pay the bill. If you don't find yourself moved, it shows you are one of those that Tolkien referred to above. Those who criticise the endings, show the lack of appreciation of Tolkien's depth. To gain a victory some people pay a price and can never regain their former lives. Simple victories are what the massess want, more poignant moments are far from the usual Hollywood fare or mass market paperback. Frodo paid for the victory, he can never be wholly healed of the scars. Sam's family is what they all fought for, the little people who as Frodo said "all the stupid little hobbits.. but I love the Shire.. " (a quote from the novel). They did not embark on this quest for personal power or fame, but for a higher ideal. The endings are perfect, as moving and bitter sweet as the novel. Soundtrack is stirring, complementing the movie superbly. Many spine tingling scenes abound: the last ride of Rohirrim, the pass of Cirith Ungol, Shelob's lair, Farimirs pain and courage, Frodo and Sam's struggles, the ring that eventually overcomes Frodo, Gollum's glee at getting his precious, sweeping shots of Minas Tirith and the battle of the Pelennor fields. Peter Jakson, the whole NZ crew and New Line cinema deserve a standing ovation for their vision in bringing the most popular story of at least the 20th Century if not all time, to the screen and in going the extra distance to make it nearly perfect. The othe Oscar Nominations for best movie are no where near as good, a well deserved victory for deep and moving stories. Hints of the special edition abound, scenes to come probably include Merry's pledge to King Theoden, Eomers anguish at his sister's apparent demise, the Mouth of Sauron and probably a lot more. Favorite scene; the spine tingling prelude to King Theoden's last ride. " Death!" they scream and then they thundered forward to "meet the doom of our time"

Listen, if you need to read a review, just watch the movie already. Words are inadequate to describe it to you. [start with the Fellowship of the Ring 1st, obviously!] *EXTENDED EDITION ONLY CLUB* Best movie of all time or like, you're not cool okay

This is for all three. It's called a trilogy but to me it's just one long majestic movie. It can get monotonous but for me that's kind of important because something this big has to build slowly. But then when it takes off it soars. And the most soaring moment for me is when the alarm fires from Gondor reach Rohan and Théoden's says, "And Rohan will answer." That's how movie making is done. Not in general but n that moment the movie is better and more important than the book.

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.

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.

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.

良かったです

The Movie: The movie itself is arguably the best in the trilogy, though it shouldn't necessarily be taken as its own movie. The extended cut of this movie is as great as the one for the first two - it not only expands the running time - it also expands on the story and gives fans a chance to see things that didn't make it from book to cinema screen. The movie is split on two discs; this gives the viewer a logical break in the The Video: For a DVD, the picture is adequate. That said, as a cinephile, it does always bother me, when a DVD transfer has black bars all the way around the movie - I mean, of course there should be black bars top and bottom to preserve the original theatrical aspect ratio. But those 6-10 on either side of the image are so ugly, when your monitor doesn't apply overscan. This arguably won't bother most casual viewers anyway, and the rest of the 2.39:1 picture looks excellent for a DVD, with the slightly desaturated colours of the original theatrical presentation nicely presented. Like previous releases, the integration of the new scenes is seemless. The Audio: The DTS 6.1 ES Surround track is excellent - simply the best DVD has to offer. It is sad, that the push towards Blu-Ray keeps these tracks from being added to DVD - of course Blu-Ray will always sound better, but especially so, if only compared to a Dolby Digital 5.1 track. 5.1 surround and 2.0 stereo tracks are also provided. The Extras: The last two parts of the "Appendices" are here. Once again an excellent, attractive package is rounded out by a huge amount of exclusive extras. Overall this set is definitely worth the upgrade.