Merged Thread: LOTR: ROTK - Theatrical & EE Release Dates? & DVD Features (1 Viewer)

[Cory S.]

I've read the books mainly just trying to figure out what all the hoopla was about before the first film came out. I honestly had never heard of Lord of the Rings. I wasn't much of a reader growing up but I do remember reading the Hobbit and never made the connection.

Everyone was comparing it to Star Wars and some say it was way better so immediately my alarm went off and said I better read these books and see what's the deal.

I've since read the books twice since the films have been released.

If I had to rate the books:

Fellowship-5 stars
Towers-4 stars
King-4.5 stars

The Fellowship EE...you could go page by page if you wanted to. It's amazing how much of that novel they got the spirit and feeling of Tolkien right.

Still The Fellowhip EE- 4 star masterpiece in editing, visual effects, acting, story, pacing. You name it. I'm still trying to figure out what went wrong with the last two because they started out so, so strong. But I'm a huge admirer of the work they accomplished with this trilogy. It was a helluva project to take on first and foremost and for the most part, they did it justice.

 

[Lou Sytsma]

For myself my ratings for the books and movies are a wash. Both have their strengths and weaknesses. I cannot give the books full marks because each has its own set of deficiencies.

Full marks are reached for me when the experiences provided by the books and the movies are combined. The two media have synergistically increased my enjoyment of the story.

 

[Lars_J]

It should be no surprise that many feel that FOTR (and FOTR:EE) were more "faithful" adaptations of the novels. After all, FOTR was structurally the simplest novel, and easiest to adapt. It is a simple linear road-adventure, with only one group to follow. TTT, on the other hand splits the fellowship into 3 groups, and in ROTK it becomes 4 groups.

My ratings for the films:
FOTR - :star: :star: :star: :star:
FOTR:EE - :star: :star: :star: :star:
(I prefer the first half of the TE, but I like the latter half of the EE better - So I cannot give them different marks)

TTT - :star: :star: :star: 1/2
TTT:EE - :star: :star: :star: :star:

ROTK - :star: :star: :star: 1/2

The Books:
FOTR - :star: :star: :star:
TTT - :star: :star: :star: :star:
ROTK - :star: :star: :star: :star:

 

[Cory S.]

The Fellowship is the easiest to adapt, you're right about that.

But ultimately where PJ and company fail with the last two films is when they decide to invent things and when they focus on things that don't neccessarily need that much focus. Some of their ideas works, others don't. Most of them unfornately are in the Two Towers.

 

[Scott Weinberg]

Here's a brief review of the EE from DVD Exclusive magazine. Free registration required. (The roughest thing the reviewer has to say about the set is that 'the discs are hard to remove from the package.')

 

[Nick Sievers]

I rented the R4 version because i'm still waiting for my Gift Set to arrive from Amazon. Here is a cap I made of the watermark, you can expect this to be in the same place on the R1 version but with possibly another number.

 

[Gregory E]

Oh that's horrible!

The R1 better not have that crap on there.....

 

[Nick Sievers]

It was on both regions for the Prisoner of Azkaban disc as well. Seems like a new thing WB have cooked up just to annoy annoy the videophiles.

 

[Simon Brown]

After reading about the watermark on this thread I too can now say that it's on my copy Region 4 giftset. What a disgrace for a new dvd to have this. What is it with big releases having issues and not being picked up by quality control bloody hopeless. Doesn't give you much confidance with HD DVD around the corner and they can't even get this right.

WB needs to answer for this as we all have paid good money for their releases and I for one am extremely angry.

 

[Joe Fisher]

Gregory,

I have the R1 version & did not see a watermark.

 

[Mark Maltais]

THIS IS HORRIBLE!!!!

I'd prefer a non skip full screen 5 second frame with the number at the beginning of the movie...anybody know who's fuckin retarded idea this numbering thing is???:frowning:

 

[TheBat]

its to fight the pirates copies of the movie.

JACOB

 

[MarkHastings]

It sucks that studios have to ruin their products in order to prevent piracy.

...of course, I use "ruin" loosely, but it still sucks that they have to alter their products at the expense of enraging those who acquired their products "LEGALLY"!

Once again, the honest man gets the screw due to the dishonest mans tactics.

Instead of putting all their efforts into discouraging theft, why don't the studios put some of that effort into where the REAL money loss is? by what I mean is the dissatisfied customers.

 

[Matt Czyz]

I'm still completely baffled how this helps fight piracy in any useful form. Like with the 3rd Harry Potter movie, people from completely different parts of the US had the same number pop up. So say someone in New York buys a copy, and then makes a bunch of illegal copies. How does the number in any way identify where this movie is being duplicated?

 

[Ric Easton]

How long does the number appear on the screen? This is a disgrace!

Ric

 

[Peter Hollandare]

Ric,

1 frame.

Still this is ridicilous if they start to add "hidden" id-codes in a movie that is complete pointless. Heard that ~10million copies of this movies was sold ONLY in Europe. Are they going to bust in 10 million doors now?

I bought both R1 and R2. For the R2, i'm going to demand my money back.

 

[Sam Davatchi]

 

[TedT]

If it's only on one frame, how can you see it?

 

[Albert Hernan]

Yeah man, trust me, you can see the number, Im from spain and when I saw the movie I noticed the 821.

Very annoying

 

[Ernest Rister]

"Are they going to bust in 10 million doors now?"

I wish they would.

For years, people on the internet have behaved like the wild boys on Pleasure Island, looting and pillaging at will and feeling mighty good about themselves. Well, time to pay the coachman.

Maybe the tactic here is like the drill Sgt. in Full Metal Jacket. Since the Sgt. can police Private Pyle and get him to obey, maybe by hurting all of you, you will so get pissed off by having your films polluted, that you will bring peer pressure to bear on your friends, family, co-workers...anyone you know whi is bootlegging films.

Just a thought.