Current Events > The theatrical cut of LotR is better than the extended edition.

(+) Yeah! (+)

Theatrical version for first watch, extended for rewatches.

This gets me thrown out of nerd circles but I will die on this hill.

Those extra scenes are corny, lame and greatly overextend an already gargantuan runtime beyond the lines of reason, all for some fluffy background exposition that doesn't help along the core plot.

I dunno losing the Saruman Death scene was wierd.

I dunno losing the Saruman Death scene was wierd.

Problem is that the scene that is in the EE is really fucking bad.

Problem is that the scene that is in the EE is really fucking bad.

Return of the King is definitely the most problematic of the movies (still a great movie though) but the Saruman scene aint one of them.

Problem is that the scene that is in the EE is really fucking bad.

I dunno losing the Saruman Death scene was wierd.

Ah,
twice the towers, double the fall

Disagree. Saruman mumbles nonsense book references of no relation to the movie, the scene is incredibly comedic in its tone and it's just off-putting and no editing was done to make the footage they had from the theatrical version match the extra footage so Treebeard basically doesn't notice that Saruman just died in front of him.

It's so bad that despite its excluding being really bad for the overall feel of the film, it's actually better without it.

Genuinely, the final product is embarrasing.

And also, Saruman holding the palantir in his robe is just kind of silly.

Even sillier than Wormtongue chucking it at Gandalf's head from on top of the tower because he didn't stop to actually look at what he was throwing?

Yes.

It's okay if we disagree, but we certainly do.

But you know what really bothers me? I went ahead and bought the super giant bluray boxset of the trilogy with the ad on the product description promising tons of never before seen footage, but there's still a ton of scenes and even outright characters that they filmed that they never included in the movie. Hell, I remember once seeing a still image of humanoid form Sauron in all his long haired bishie glory, and thought they were gonna include a flashback scene with him like with gollum-smeagol, but nope, no such thing.

The extended version of Fellowship is better than the theatrical version, but it's really a toss up. It adds in Frodo knowing that Gollum's name used to be Smeagol. Him just knowing that in Two Towers, no matter which version of the film you're watching, is just a crazy oversight and it's very nice to have it corrected.

There's also some really nice extra Shire scenes. You could say it's bloat but I feel that's the part of the films that it is okay to bloat because it's really about creating that world that the Hobbit characters are familiar with to contrast with the world they're thrown out into.

Overall Fellowship EE is the extra + in an SS+++ movie.

There's almost nothing in the Towers and Return of the King extended versions that isn't trash or at best unnecessary.

First off, I'm glad you mentioned Eowyn and Faramir's relationship in the EC. It always bugged me that their plots were left hanging in the Theatrical.

As for the quoted post, Aragorn was originally supposed to fight Sauron's physical manifestation at the Black Gate. Can't remember the reason this was altered (either budget, or it took too much focus away from Frodo and Sam), but he was replaced by the more generic troll soldier.

Most theatrical cuts are better than the extended versions

Can't remember the reason this was altered (either budget, or it took too much focus away from Frodo and Sam), but he was replaced by the more generic troll soldier.