lord of the rings extended trilogy digital

In the case of Fellowship, you get an extra half-hour of deleted and extended scenes that add more color to the story and help set up plot points in the next two films.įlickering Myth Rating – Film: ★★★★★ / Movie: ★★★★★ While the Hobbit movies were a mixed bag for me (more on that later), the Lord of the Rings book has so much rich material to mine, especially when you consider the appendices, that more really is better here. The Star Wars prequels were in the process of leaving something to be desired back then, but this movie demonstrated how wonderful a franchise could be.Īny time I watch the Lord of the Rings films, I always go with the extended versions. I can still remember the feeling of pure joy that came over me when watching this film in the theater it was like Peter Jackson reached into the book and pulled out a movie that closely matched the one I had always seen in my head. This is the one that kick-started the Tolkien phenomenon in 2001. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring Now let’s move on to the individual films, in the order they were released, along with a rundown of the bonus features.

I recommend sitting back and letting all six films wash over you in 4K. Sure, you can probably freeze-frame moments from the first trilogy and find little things to nitpick, especially in the visual effects shots that were composited with older-generation digital technology, but when you’re watching in real time, you’ll simply breeze by much of that. The Hobbit films already take advantage of 4K, which isn’t a surprise since they were shot digitally, so the improvement is more pronounced with The Lord of the Rings: in those movies, it’s clear that they were remastered in 4K with painstaking attention to detail. You’ll also find art cards that treat various Middle-Earth locations, such as Rivendell and The Shire, as travel destinations. The physical collectibles include a 64-page booklet featuring costumes, photography, and production notes from the films. However, I don’t know if everything can be found there, and it’s important to note that things can disappear from streaming services due to rights issues or other legal matters. However, you do get codes for digital copies of all 12 versions of the films, and I noticed that a lot of bonus features were included when I checked the films in my Vudu account, including those aforementioned Appendices. Previous bonus features, such as the Appendices from the old Lord of the Rings DVD editions, aren’t found here.

Inside, you’ll find the theatrical and extended versions of all six films on 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray discs, along with some physical collectibles and a new bonus disc with the original Cannes Film Festival presentation reel and footage from the recent cast reunions moderated by Tolkien mega-fan Stephen Colbert.

Lord of the rings extended trilogy digital