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.

--This review is about all six books, not only about this one--
So, I finally got to see Kerr's vision here. In total, it's about 7 1/2 hours long and therefore around 1/3 shorter than the extended editions.
That said, I don't think the pacing of this "Red Book" series is too fast, but the events told sometimes (really only sometimes, like the fellowship's voyage from Rivendell to Moriah, Frodo's encounter with Faramir or Aragorn's meeting in the path of the dead) feel a bit rushed - but that might also be just because I knew what's been cut out...
What I like about Kerr's approach is that his Middle-Earth landscapes feel bigger, more epic and more fitting to the story - yes, even though Jackson always gos for bigger, I really always thought the movies felt small regarding the landscapes! So wonderfully, Kerr achieves to let LOTR happen in more adequate geographic surroundings. This and his use of alternative music (besides of course the well-known various themes of LOTR) give his edit a more mythical and awestruck quality.
What I do not like is (and yes, I know it's this edit's trademark) - or put better, what didn't work too well for me was Kerr's approach to tell the several story lines each by itself and without switching from one to the other.
I mean, it's okay and one might like it, but imo it's one of the original book's strenghts and tricks to achieve a certain grandeur that gets lost when ignored.
Now for the cutting itself, I think it's rather flawless - Kerr is successfull in keeping in all significant highlights in all their glory and removing much of what could be considered lenghty, inadequately blown-up or simply unnecessary. He also changes the placement of backstories (or puts them back in the original book's order) in convincing style, meaning Peter's changes for the better of the movies themselves are all "corrected", and still Kerr's cut is not suffering from that, which is quite an achievement!
All in all, his LOTR feels more serious, more mature - but then again, I must admit I haven't seen the original Extended Editions for years, maybe these are not as overloaded as I remember them?
I also want to add that I saw Kerr's edit in compressed DVD resolution which just looks not too good on today's HD TVs.
I definitely can recommend this edit, and it was a joy to watch, but it won't be my go-to-version.

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.