Review Detail
9.8 6 10
(Updated: February 14, 2024)
Overall rating
9.4
Audio/Video Quality
10.0
Audio Editing
10.0
Visual Editing
10.0
Narrative
9.0
Enjoyment
8.0
*This review was edited to reflect corrections made by the editor after having exchanged a few words with them. DonkeyKonga you are passionate and dedicated.
This is my favorite of the original trilogy. I think DonkeyKonga’s edit brings something interesting and subtle with their reordering of the scenes with the Ents. I feel there is one shot missing though between the Ent meeting and the war beginning at Orthanc, They arrive there kind of too quickly in my opinion. Faramir is the character who sees his story modified the most, although still very subtle.
Otherwise, the stuff that was cut was not shocking to me, even if I would have left some of it and cut elsewhere. But I think I understand that the editor wants to keep it as close to the original, so everything works well in that regard.
-AV quality is good. The color re-grading for the Ent scene was decent but I would have preferred it to be as it originally was. I’m not sure it is necessary narratively speaking, and I don’t see what other reasons there are to do it. That being said, I don’t believe changing night into day is easy and it was not shocking, maybe only ever so slightly off. Honestly I don’t think I would have been so sure of it all if it was not mentioned in the change list, but it was so I paid attention to it.
-Audio cuts are good.
-Video cuts are seamless
-Narrative: no changes are too big here to mess up anything. And again, I would say the Ent scene is even better with the new order.
-Enjoyment: I have to say I like the LOTR trilogy but I prefer the theatrical cuts. The extended cuts bring some good stuff and some useless stuff and this edit uses both of them. It doesn’t bring me more satisfaction than watching the theatrical cut. I would say overall this edit is on par with the original extended cut, which I grade lower than the theatrical one. The changes made here, even the good ones, were not the changes I wished for. I am being very critical about this because LOTR is already a very good trilogy. 8 is as high as I would like to rate it.
-Recommendation: I will recommend this edit mostly if you prefer the extended cut and if you wished that the Faramir plot line was more tender to him.
This is my favorite of the original trilogy. I think DonkeyKonga’s edit brings something interesting and subtle with their reordering of the scenes with the Ents. I feel there is one shot missing though between the Ent meeting and the war beginning at Orthanc, They arrive there kind of too quickly in my opinion. Faramir is the character who sees his story modified the most, although still very subtle.
Otherwise, the stuff that was cut was not shocking to me, even if I would have left some of it and cut elsewhere. But I think I understand that the editor wants to keep it as close to the original, so everything works well in that regard.
-AV quality is good. The color re-grading for the Ent scene was decent but I would have preferred it to be as it originally was. I’m not sure it is necessary narratively speaking, and I don’t see what other reasons there are to do it. That being said, I don’t believe changing night into day is easy and it was not shocking, maybe only ever so slightly off. Honestly I don’t think I would have been so sure of it all if it was not mentioned in the change list, but it was so I paid attention to it.
-Audio cuts are good.
-Video cuts are seamless
-Narrative: no changes are too big here to mess up anything. And again, I would say the Ent scene is even better with the new order.
-Enjoyment: I have to say I like the LOTR trilogy but I prefer the theatrical cuts. The extended cuts bring some good stuff and some useless stuff and this edit uses both of them. It doesn’t bring me more satisfaction than watching the theatrical cut. I would say overall this edit is on par with the original extended cut, which I grade lower than the theatrical one. The changes made here, even the good ones, were not the changes I wished for. I am being very critical about this because LOTR is already a very good trilogy. 8 is as high as I would like to rate it.
-Recommendation: I will recommend this edit mostly if you prefer the extended cut and if you wished that the Faramir plot line was more tender to him.
User Review
Do you recommend this edit?
Yes
Format Watched?
Digital
D