Lord of the Rings, The: Book I - The Return of the Shadow

Finally something closer to Tolkien's epic. Kerr finally found a way for die hard Tolkien fans to tolerate Jackson's take on LotR. Finally a leaner version of Jackson's epic, which sometimes proves to be dull or slow (or both), and doesn't need 11h plus to tell (the fragments it takes from) the tale. Finally Pippin and Merry and Gimli aren't that stupid, and other characters such as Frodo, Aragorn and Frodo really know what they're doing, instead of going on just because the script says so.
Strong storytelling, especially because of the right lines from the novel (which Jackson randomly quotes throughout the movies) and of the suspense Jackson tried to create with his poor tricks.

Kerr, we want you for the Hobbit too: there's even more need of you, if it's going to be what it seemed in part 1. Please, save us!!!
PS. This is about the whole series, not just part 1 - the Retun of the Shadow.
PPS. Nice touch, to use Tolkien's suggested book-titles (i.e.: the six book of which LotR is made up) for the movie parts (excepted part 4, which Tolkien named "the Ring goes East").

March 25, 2012

I loved these. Not to much to say about it that hasn't been said by other reviewers, but if you're a Lord of the Rings fan, check these edits out.

Not much more to add to the previous reviews. The editing is superbly done, and apart from what might be a half-a-second too quick audio cross-fade, I didn't notice any cuts. Thanks for doing these book edits; reading the books along with watching these made me realize what Jackson has done well and not so well.

It takes a minute for the eyes to adjust to the SD quality, but after that it's unnoticeable. If nothing else, it helps focusing on the story and not to be blindsided by the stupendously beautiful CG-trickery.

I've always enjoyed the Lord of the Rings films. The first time I noticed something was wrong with them was when I watched the first Hobbit movie. Even though I read the books, I admired the "old" movies Peter Jackson gave us. Now that my disappointment in this moviefranchise has grown, I'm really thankful there are people like kerr that take something they love and transform it into something even better.

This edit is not perfect but it's as true to Tolkien's vision as it gets. The pacing is much better than in the original trilogy, conversations aren't as redundant as they used to be and one can feel the love that was put in this project every minute. Especially movies 2 and 3 are a large improvement over PJ's version - there's less goofyness, more focus and stronger characters overall (especially gimli and theoden).

Since I'm used to blurays I have to say that the imagequality isn't that great, but overall I highly recommend this edit to every Tolkienfan and will watch it from now on, everytime I'm in the mood for Lord of the Rings. This is easily the best fanedit I've seen so far.

Review by spelledaren — February 6, 2009 @ 2:16 pm

Nice, but not perfect. The new intro works, but later references to Gollum for example become weird, because we know nothing about him. I wasn’t too fond of Gandalf’s ride through the Shire. I was going to buy it, but then there came another scene with focus on him speaking, and still with no words. I prefer Bilbo’s sillyness.

About removing the black rider you say that “Frodo and Sam don’t know as of yet that they are being hunted. In order to follow the book, neither should the audience.” But isn’t this just a smokescreen for the fact that it gets hard to cut from the hilltop to the field, because of the sudden shifts in music it would require? I mean, it’s obvious that they are hunted, you have already shown us all the other Nazgul scenes.

I think I noticed two sound cuts (apart from knowing that they are there), one was in Bree when they are nearing the inn, and the other was when the Nazgul enters the inn. Just some unevenness.

Now that I’ve gotten through that: excellent editing choices! This edit does most, but not everything, that I would want to do myself. The edited scene at the Ford is especially good, a great improvment over the original.

A minor point: if you are trying to follow the books as closely as possible, why does Gandalf show off fireworks to the children? I mean, it’s a good scene, but it wouldn’t be too hard to remove.

I’m giving this 4 out of 5. I will try to watch the rest, but from TTT it gets increasingly difficult to keep the movie true to the books…we will see how it goes! Good work, keep it up!

Update Sep 29, 2012.

Added ratings for the categories.