World Famous Comics: The Lord of the Rings - The Two Towers (Theatrical and Extended Limited Edition)
The Lord of the Rings - The Two Towers (Theatrical and Extended Limited Edition)
Starring: Sean Astin, John Rhys-Davies, Brad Dourif, Bernard Hill, Christopher Lee Average Rating: Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested) Binding: DVD Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Limited Edition, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC Label: New Line Home Video Number of Items: 2 Region Code: 1 Release Date: August 29, 2006 Running Time: 179 minutes Theatrical Release Date: December 18, 2002
Amazon.com: Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings films gave "double-dipping"--releasing a DVD then releasing an improved version shortly afterward--a good name by offering both a better film and stupendous extras in the Extended Editions. This "triple-dip" 2006 Limited Edition falls far short of that standard but is still of interest to devoted and casual fans.
What do you get? Both the theatrical and extended versions of The Two Towers are on one double-sided disc. The versions use seamless branching, meaning that the scenes that are common to both versions are stored on the disc only once. If you choose to watch the extended version, the disc "branches" out to the added or extended scenes. What does this mean to the viewer? Not much. The viewing experience is the same because the branching is imperceptible. But because both versions of the film don't have to be stored on the disc in their entirety (which would be almost seven hours total), both versions together fit on two sides of one disc. The downside is that whichever version you watch, you have to flip over the disc halfway through; the film breaks at the same spot it did on the Extended Edition, right after Faramir finds Frodo and Sam. Also lost are the meager features included on the theatrical edition, plus the four commentary tracks, two discs of bonus features, and DTS 6.1 ES sound from the four-disc Extended Edition.
What's new? Costa Botes' 105-minute documentary reminds us just how rich The Two Towers is. It covers the mechanics of Treebeard, Gollum, Rohan, and other elements, and all that is before we get to the half-hour segment on Helm's Deep. What's interesting is how Peter Jackson and others appear in the documentary, but even more time is spent interviewing the extra actors and the lesser-known technicians who get into the nuts and bolts of how the film was made. Most of the cast members aren't interviewed at all, though Dominic Monaghan and Billy Boyd's clowning serves as a framing device. Some of the shots are quite funny, including the anachronistic glimpse of someone vacuuming the Great Hall of Rohan. It's entertaining, but because there's no structure (there are chapters, but no menu or chapter listing), it's not as convenient to watch, and go back to, as a documentary broken up into bite-size pieces. Oddly, the documentary is in widescreen, but not anamorphically enhanced for widescreen TVs. Note: New Line Home Entertainment couldn't release this material on its own a la the King Kong Production Diaries due to contractual restrictions.
Bottom line: Do I need this edition? This Limited Edition combination of theatrical and extended versions plus new documentary seems likely to appeal to two camps. One is the devoted fan, who already owns both editions but has to have everything LOTR. The other is the casual fan who liked the movie in theaters, heard good things about the Extended Edition, and doesn't need a ton of bonus material. This edition is attractively priced for that buyer, and the packaging is quite handsome. In between is the devoted fan who already owns both editions but doesn't feel the need to watch more bonus material. When watching the whole movie, that fan will always choose the Extended Edition, but keeps the theatrical edition for (1) watching with guests, (2) Sean Astin's short film, or (3) the convenience of skimming through favorite scenes without having to change discs. That fan can safely skip this edition, as can home-theater fans who love DTS. --David Horiuchi
Description: The Award-winning $1 billion dollar franchise is revisited with three new 2-disc limited editions. Each DVD features the theatrical and extended versions of the film and a new documentary. Filmmaker Costa Botes, who was personally selected by Peter Jackson, created three ground-breaking documentaries using rare behind-the-scenes footage.
DVD Features: Documentaries:Never-before-seen behind-the-scenes documentary by Costa Botes, the filmmaker director Peter Jackson personally hired (106 minutes) Other:Part I - 107 minutes (Extended); 80 minutes (Theatrical) Part II - 129 minutes (Extended); 99 minutes (Theatrical)
Seems like Lucas might have something to do with this franchise No new material? Just release a new box every now and then. That's basically what this "new" set seems like to me. I can't picture any serious collector not having the extended editions already on DVD, and/or waiting for the HD version.
Excellent movie!! Great movie. The DVD video quality is great, the menus are nice, and is nicely compacted in 2 DVD's. You should have it!
The Two Towers The film shows more detail about what was not shown in the theatrical version.
Going Down Down Down in a Ring of Fire I spent the equivalent of a full day's waking-hours in front of my big screen TV this past winter break with just the 2 sets of the four Harry Potter movies and the three Lord of the Rings movies.
I am NOT a couch potato.
Well, at least it was time well spent. Finally...some movies that really make the grade. I've been hard-pressed to find a good 5-star movie that I haven't seen. And here I've had these two sets of films that have been out there all this time that that for whatever reason I've had an aversion to. Silly me.
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy was movie making at its best. Especially considering that the movie had very high standards to live up to after more than 50 years of building such a loyal, cult following of the classic J.R.R. Tolkien book.
Hobbits, Elves, Men, Dwarves, Wizards, Orcs all co-surviving, albeit without much harmony, in Middle Earth. And all lust for the great Ring of Power made by the Dark Lord Sauron. But only little Frodo Baggins controls its Destiny. Thus is the 9-hour epic saga of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), The Two Towers (2002) and The Return of the King (2003).
There is a terrific list of A-list actors giving A-list performances. It's a long one: Therefore, most notably you have Elijah Wood as Frodo, Sean Astin as Sam, Ian McKellen as Gandalf, Andy Serkis as Gollum (what a performance!), Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn, Orlando Bloom as Legolas Greenleaf and John Rhys-Davies as Gimli. I know. I know....How could I not mention Christopher Lee, Liv Tyler and all the others??? Well, that's the point. The whole cast was awesome. Even the no-names that played Orcs.
Kudos to Director Peter Jackson for going beyond the Hollywood standard of 120 minutes to tell each chapter of the story. Jackson kept a lot of the character development that usually isn't transferred from novel to movie adaptation. And Jackson was a master not just at directing his cast, but at getting the special effects perfect. The Lord of the Rings movie adaptation will be as classic as the novel because of Jackson.
If you somehow missed these movies as I did until recently for whatever crazy reason, I hope that my little review has encouraged you to add them to your cart. As for Harry Potter...well that's another review entirely, of course.
Frodo Lives!
Only if you absolutely must have both versions in one set My chief complaint stems from the "seamless branching" technique used on this DVD set. Instead of providing discreetly separate copies of theatrical and extended versions as with the 4-disker, apparently only the theatrical version is wholly present on this set and in the case of the extended edition, seamless branching accesses different areas of the disc, inserting extended footage into the theatrical version on the fly (back and forth, back and forth...). In theory this shuttling from one area to another is imperceptible to the viewer, although one does wonder about player wear and tear that this playback method must introduce.
Perhaps hi-end DVD players genuinely do provide a seamless experience, unfortunately this is not true of my players (one computer DVD drive, one stand-alone). There are significant freeze-frame pauses every time the player jumps to access a remote section of film. No, this is far from "seamless," rather, it is very distracting.
A much lesser complaint, although one still worth mentioning, is the physical condition of the two disks in the set that I bought: Side A of disk 1 was marred to a surprising degree with scuffs and scratches, looking much more like a used video rental than a new disk. Disk 2 was also marred but with an odd pitted mottling in one area. Even more surprising is how these defects don't appear to impact playback-- for example, the theatrical version plays without incident. I should also note that I did not purchase this set from Amazon, however I certainly wish I had purchased the 4-disker through Amazon as originally planned.
Odds are I'll either buy the 4-disker for its superior features, or compile my own extended version on the computer to eliminate seamless-branching lag. Well, at least the theatrical and extended versions of this film are in the same set, and the new-but-too-short documentary is good.
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