Lark of the Rings: Extended Edition

[Larkitect]

Probably not much interest to you guys but I was perusing the movies at the Best Buy and ran across the extended Lord of the Rings blu-ray set that I thought wasn’t out until this Tuesday. So the Lark is happy and is trying to free up 12 hours straight this weekend. 🙂

My essence still senses Bucho's women.

[ori-STUDFARM]

Only 12 hours? You just whizzing through to the good bits then?

BIG JOBBIES

[Larkitect]

@ori-STUDFARM 47136 wrote:

Only 12 hours? You just whizzing through to the good bits then?

boy it sure feels that way doesn’t it? 683 minutes running time! i think i’ve only done that once for the theatrical and once for the extended versions. and from what i remember it feels like you’ve spent a week watching them.

but i’ve been waiting patiently for years for these to come out on blu-ray so i’m going to suck it up and make the sacrifice. 🙂

i still think it’s amazing that not only were these actually filmed but were allowed a substantial budget.

My essence still senses Bucho's women.

[Bucho]

I’ve always thought I wanted to chain-watch the extended cuts one day, but the fact I never have pretty much tells me I never will. I might do a back to back to back three night thing before The Hobbit comes out though.

- Women sense my power and they seek the life essence.

[Larkitect]

well i’ve already fallen asleep during fellowship. nothing like a 2 hour nap at 11 o’clock at night to put you in that “limbo” of being too tired to do anything but sleep. 🙂

but i have realized that this will have to be a three night event.

@Bucho 47138 wrote:

I’ve always thought I wanted to chain-watch the extended cuts one day, but the fact I never have pretty much tells me I never will. I might do a back to back to back three night thing before The Hobbit comes out though.

i know you don’t like the books but does that mean you have watched the theatrical cuts?

My essence still senses Bucho's women.

[Larkitect]

finished fellowship and thought it looked noticeably better than the theatrical blu-ray release. naturally i thought it was just in my head. so i popped in the theatrical disc and there is definitely a change in color timing between the two releases. a slight shift toward green/blue but still keeping natural flesh tones. the best way to describe it would be to say it has a more fantasy look to it. when they’re walking in the snow/mountains it feels more like a fantasy world than just a fantastic scenic view of a gorgeous New Zealand.

i like the change but find it odd since i don’t remember this sort of difference in the DVD releases.

My essence still senses Bucho's women.

[rob]

I read a review of the Extended Blus, and they said the same thing. Guess when you spread each movie over two discs and maximize bitrate, it better look better.

[Larkitect]

@rob 47142 wrote:

I read a review of the Extended Blus, and they said the same thing. Guess when you spread each movie over two discs and maximize bitrate, it better look better.

yeah, that was another surprise to me but definitely a nice surprise when i saw that they were still on two discs.

what really blew me away on fellowship was how well the decade-old CGI from Weta Digital holds up in HD. i have so much respect for those guys and gals and what they accomplished with both their digital and practical FX.

well… off to start disc 2 of Two Towels.

My essence still senses Bucho's women.

[Larkitect]

@rob 47142 wrote:

I read a review of the Extended Blus, and they said the same thing.

this got me curious so i fired up The Digital Bits:

Quote:

I’ve confirmed with production-related sources that Jackson and cinematographer Andrew Lesnie were directly involved in all decisions related to this new transfer and approved it personally. So to the extent that there are changes to the color-timing, they were made at Jackson and Lesnie’s direction – the films look exactly as they want them to.

so the changes appear intentional which is what i would have expected.

but i found my way to a few forums and apparently there’s a HUGE controversy about the green tinting being a “mistake” and “overboard”.

most of the people that mention the color change are reviewers. however, most of the complainers are from people looking at youtube clips or screenshots and not from seeing the final product in motion on their own setups.

now, i have no right to bemoan geeks being geeks because i have my own “things” that i’m passionate about. but i just have to laugh. i mean these are newly remastered (even newer than the theatrical blu-ray release) versions from the 2K masters and personally managed by not only the director but the cinematographer! Fellowship looks fantastic and is no longer the soft-focus looking younger step-brother of the other two films. Fellowship has always been incongruent when compared to the look of the last two films. like there was some sudden camera or lens upgrade when the crew hit their stride during filming.

i want to be clear that i’m no über audio/video-phile (only as much as my wife and wallet will allow) and i’m not complaining about the people on these forums who are. i’m really not. it’s just that i’ve watched (and loved) the DVDs more times than any other blu-ray upgrade other than The Matrix and i cannot fathom how anyone could be disappointed with how Fellowship now looks.

sorry for the long boring rant. like i said, we all have our “things”. 🙂

My essence still senses Bucho's women.

[Larkitect]

sorry, but just as an example i have to post these quotes from two different people:

Quote:

A majority of the people that view FOTR EE Blu-ray will NOT be able to detect the color tint without holding a piece of white paper up to the screen for comparison. And that’s exactly what I suggest ya’ll do. Pause the disc at the title screen and then hold a WHITE sheet of paper (96 bright or higher) up to the title to compare.

Quote:

A white piece of paper is only as white as the light it’s reflecting. Perhaps it’s worth shining a flourescent lamp on it or something, to simulate the neutral white of an LCD.

My essence still senses Bucho's women.

[Bucho]

@Larkitect 47139 wrote:

i know you don’t like the books but does that mean you have watched the theatrical cuts?

Oh yeah, I saw them all in the cinema and I’ve seen the theatrical cuts all at least once on video. To be honest I don’t remember if I’ve seen any of the extended cuts yet. There are awesome scenes aplenty but I feel like a couple of the important emotional beats don’t hit quite right and that stops me from really loving them as classics.

I read the books twice, once in my mid teens and once in my early twenties, and I must have enjoyed them enough at the time to make it through them, but in the years since having become more well read I don’t look on JRR’s writing style as favourably anymore.

I’ve only read The Hobbit once, I think when I was 13 or 14, and I really liked it a lot, but I know that’s considered more of a tale for youngsters and it was so long ago I don’t trust my view of it anymore and I can’t bring myself to read it again because I have too much other stuff to read. I’ll just wait for PJ and co to do their thing and go for the ride with the films.

- Women sense my power and they seek the life essence.

[Larkitect]

if i had to guess, Bucho, i’d say you’re more a fan of hard sci-fi than fantasy?

My essence still senses Bucho's women.

[Larkitect]

biggest irritation of the whole thing? the digital copies aren’t on discs like 99% of them are. so yeah, that means downloading all three from iTunes. that sucks harder than a drunk teenage girl on prom night.

i think it irritates me more that i feel compelled to download them knowing i’ll never put them on my iPhone® or iPad® because i don’t want to lose ten gigs of storage for 3 movies that i hope i never have enough free time to want to watch on a portable device. you know?

My essence still senses Bucho's women.

[Bucho]

@Larkitect 47150 wrote:

if i had to guess, Bucho, i’d say you’re more a fan of hard sci-fi than fantasy?

Yep. Although I love Terry Pratchett. I think with fantasy I like it best when there’s a comedic element, but sci fi I can take any vibe as long as the world building is solid and there’s decent characters to follow.

- Women sense my power and they seek the life essence.

[Larkitect]

i’ve never read any of the Pratchett stories but i love those made-for-tv movies based on them.

My essence still senses Bucho's women.

[Author]

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