Lord of the Rings, The: Book III - The Treason of Isengard

I've watched and deeply enjoyed all of Kerr's Red Book edits, but this one was, I felt, the most improved. Rather than splitting the audience's attention between the two halves of the divided Fellowship, sticking with one plot at a time worked wonders for the film, and I didn't find it dragged at all, which I absolutely cannot say for the original theatrical cuts.

I absolutely loved these edits, and it felt like watching a riveting miniseries rather than a poorly paced film trilogy. Very highly recommended to fans who want to see a fresh, more Tolkien-accurate take on the Peter Jackson films.

This one is more heavily edited than the two Fellowship of the Ring edits, but then I think there's a lot more material added here that needed to be trimmed for a book cut. On the whole I quite enjoyed it and was surprised that it's still 1hr 45min.

The changes to scene sequences works, especially for the chase of the Isengard orcs. Focusing first on the hunters and tracking the hobbits, then switching to what Merry and Pippin's experiences were--as deduced by Aragon was great. Lots of silly stuff is gone and I didn't miss anything here.

The sequence with the Ents felt a bit disjointed and abrupt. While there was extra stuff gone that helped, Treebeard's walk with the hobbits felt a bit shortchanged. The battle of Isengard worked, feeling about right.

Losing the extra stuff in Rohan worked. We focus on the main plot, and no extra superfluous side-plots are introduced, much as I enoyed the life of a Rohirrim bits. I did notice the small continuity issue with Gandalf's cloak--but that may be as much my awareness of what was cut as anything else. The story gets to the point and gets us to Helm's Deep. Which...

Overall the cuts were good. Again, being familiar with the source movie the cut felt almost like it shortchanged the battle. But, it reverted to the significance as in the original book, and wasn't forced as the climax to the second blockbuster movie.