The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (Extended Cut)
November 13, 2002

     Peter Jackson has added an extra 30 minutes to the already-perfect The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring movie.  These 30 minutes include an array of new never-before seen footage mixed in the original theatrical cut.  Well is this a good or bad thing?  Read on to find out.

     I already have very much enjoyed the theatrical version that we have all (or most) have seen on the big screen, but then along comes this whopping 3 ½ hour extended version, my immediate reaction: ‘YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!’.  Now that I have seen the extended cut, I have a few good and bad opinions of it, mostly good mind-you. 

     First off, since I’m a pessimist, or closely related to one, I will start off with the bad.  Apparently these new scenes are new, meaning, they have just been put into the original version right after; so I found the transitions of these scenes quite choppy.  The voices didn’t quite seem to go well with the original, and also the music seemed a bit out of it.  I won’t deny the facts of these statements are definitely not minor; they are simply, for lack of a better word, different.

     On to the good stuff now, eh?  I’m quite pleased to see an extra 30 minutes of my all-time favourite movie, I mean, who wouldn’t be?  The new scenes bring out a better character development and basically all the important ones and a few characters that weren’t too well-developed in the theatrical cut.  Also, there are some scenes that will rid of a lot the confusion circulating.  What I’m really glad to see was the animosity shown between the dwarves and the elves, and the more expressed friendship between Legolas and Gimli; this was quite an important aspect in the books.  Speaking of the books, a lot of viewers who have not yet read the novels will not quite understand some scenes where unexplained things are spoken of; such as the Sackville-Bagginses, exiled elves, the Valinor and a few others I can’t put a finger to at this moment.  A lot more humour was added into this film, it’s quite effective for lifting up the tense moments, but I think there are a few humorous moments at the wrong time.  There is also the extended battle scenes in Moria and at Amon Hen, which I cannot say a bad thing about them, they were absolutely great.  Dotting here and there are new dialogue, you can find them if you’ve seen the movie a couple of times (for example 18 for me), you’ll notice them right off the bat, but those who have not seen it as much are able to overlook them.  Well that’s pretty much it I can say for the new scenes, they’re just simply: great.

Is it possible to become punctuation-happy?  ‘Cause look, I’m using semi-colons, colons, brackets… ah well, maybe it’s because it’s almost one in the morning and I’m going crazy.  Anyways, back to the matter being discussed: the music.  Hey, Howard Shore’s score is simply magnificent, the best-ever, I love it; he created an extra 30 minutes of the score just for the extended version.  I could see a lot of changes made in the score from the original.  There were obviously added music for the extended and new scenes, and also a change in organization between the original and the new, but there was also something else.  I noticed the score was changed in a few different areas that were not exactly from the new scenes; some were more accented, or totally different, like there seemed to be more drums in one scene, anyways the score is definitely changed.

The extended cut of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring is a definite must-see.  If you’ve already seen the theatrical version a couple times, you should go see this one for a different kind of experience.  It’s like a whole new version, because it’s absolutely is totally unlike its predecessor, you’ll see what I mean when you watch it.  Although you may be saying, ‘Oh wow!  Thirty extra minutes!  This one is definitely better than the theatrical version; I’ll never watch that one again!’, it’s not at all like it, think of it as a different way of telling the same story; it’s the same story, but being told in a different way, but the extended version is the more dense version, but still is different.  So what I’m trying to say is, see both; not just one, both.  Anyways, my work here is done, go out and buy/rent the DVD; it comes with over 6 hours of supplementary material and 4 different commentaries!  Oh, and also the menus are simply stunning!  The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring Extended Cut is definitely worth the buy.  Now if you will excuse me, I while I stare at my beautiful polystone, sculpted by visual effects artists and produced by Sideshow WETA, Argonath statue book-ends.  Namarië!

 - Bilbo

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