Special Extended DVD Edition.

Rating: Null/10 (24 November 2002)

The majority of my previous review covers the goods about this movie. It wreaks of ALOT of money very well spent, but also tells of a genuine understanding of what draws an audience into a movie. It remains the quintessential Adventure tale. I recap often on the prologue battle, the party, the Weathertop Nazgul biffo, Balins Tomb, the Bridge of Khazad Dum, and The Departure of Boromir and Anything Isenguard or Mordor. Full length I have seen the theatrical version 5 times at cinema, and more than 3 on DVD.
Extended Edition.
Four Discs all up. 2 for the movie and two for the Extras. One does not need to think of this movie as an alternate version, I do not. It can be seen as an alternative to a 'Deleted Scenes' option. While some extensions seem indispensible, some are jarring and unnecessary. To point examples, the Marshes chapter on Disc 1 with Aragorn and Frodo's exchange is great. The Statue of Aragorns mother scene is also a nice little expansion. But I really do prefer the theatrical versions' Shire sequence. The cut straight out of battles and woeful tidings and the rings damnation of Smeagol to a shot of our good looking young Hobbit hero in brilliant green pastures meeting with Gandalf works far better than a lengthy voiceover with footage, some funny some not quite so, of Hobbits in daily life. Likewise the Extension of "The Council of Elrond" is a bit unsettling. It is something that features in the book but Gandalfs outburst is prompted better on page, it just seems un called-for in the movie. The extensions to all of the Moria territory (4 chapters) is interesting, though I did not appreciate the mention or pronunciation of "Smeagol" (Smee-Gol).
For people who have read the book, it is recomendable. For people who only enjoyed the initial version on a so-so level, it may test the faith somewhat. For people who found the initial cut interminable and uninteresting, this will prove torturous.
Also, the fact that there is no handicap options (subtitles, re-dubs etc.) for the theatrical cut means that this inferior version is the only way for disabled readers or watchers to appreciate the movie (I am not 100% sure that this package has them either, I have not checked conclusively).

The special features, well think of it like this. Thier intent was to convey as much behind the scenes info as possible to the public. And so, two discs (The Appendices) take you through it step by step. A Doco about the Author, followed by 4 more Doco's on Disc 1. Reasonably informative yes. Then try to envisage 25 Headings like, The Fellowship, Saruman, Bilbo, Sauron etc each with dozens of images, photo/sketch/painting on the singular topic. They include some Animatics(computer mockups of a scene), storyboards, the scenes and comparisons for the two. That is only a crude breakdown of Disc 1's contents, much more awaits a viewer.
Without trying to convey it all to you here, a wealth of knowledge, well presented, lies in the package. Alas we also have no commentary's for the shorter version meaning more than 2 hours of extra commentary time (over 4 commentary's) to labour through. But I have to admit, it feels like the commentary option was designed for this movie. This is definitely something even a Die Hard would have to OWN. It puts the Spider-man package to shame and indeed every other comparable package (Pearl Harbour) that has come before it. Here is definitely a great movie (reduced to good) with an excellent extras deal.
Movie A-
Extras A++