Lord of the Rings, The: Book II - The Ring Goes South

Review by TelboyD — September 2, 2010 @ 9:19 pm

*This rating was given before reviews were required*

--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.

Review by TMBTM — February 19, 2009 @ 3:54 pm

Okay, I’ve just finished watching book2.
Very good!
I really think you did your best with the footage you have to fit the book, for it is the purpose of this edit. Of course sometimes the pacing can seams a bit bizarre, but Tolkien did not wrote a movie script, he wrote a book! I understand why Peter Jackson made some changes in his movies, but this Book Edit is very pleasant to watch so far, and is a very good compagnon the originals!

All in all, great job!

Review by el_silloneb — April 1, 2009 @ 2:14 am

*This rating was given before reviews were required*

Review by Ripplin — April 17, 2010 @ 8:29 pm

Continuing from the first one, this was flawless editing and the sound and video quality are excellent. The more compact story is nice and I’m looking forward to watching the rest. I’ll give this 8/10.