Blair Space: Lord of the Rings: Special extended edition

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Lord of the Rings: Special extended edition

What could be better than being able to watch nine hours of The Lord of the Rings back to back in the comfort of your own home? How about being able to watch eleven hours of Lord of the Rings back to back in the comfort of your own home? Yes, the special extended edition DVD turns a trilogy into a movie that seems like it will never end into a trilogy that actually never ends ;).

Luckily for myself I am a big fan of Lord of the Rings. Especially since they were broadcast on Channel 4. I mean, I really liked them at the cinema but I didn't appreciate them fully until I saw them on TV. Wierd huh? But let me say straight out - I don't think this is a boxset for non-fans, it's a serious time commitment just to watch one of them.

Then again, if you are a fan you may well want to watch them back to back. I'm considering doing that at Christmas. I managed to get through them in two days when I first got it, including a six hour straight marathon but eleven hours in one single day is something else. Something fun if you loved the movie enough to buy this boxset though.

So anyway, on with the review. The three movies can be bought individually in the special extended edition form and I think they are the same as they come individually wrapped but if you go for the full boxset you also get a little box for them to slide into. Each box contains four disks - two for the movie and two disks of extras.

They'll need them. With the movies pushing four hours each and each movie containing four audio commentaries (I think, I know the first one does) that means that you have 11 hours of movies and 44 hours of audio commentary - without the extras you already have over two days solid of footage to watch.

Plus the extras are endless too - there are a total of 44 original documentaries as well as tons of other stuff. Getting through it all is almost as big an epic as reading the books themselves ;).

The extra footage is good. You will start noticing things that weren't there before. And it's good stuff, stuff that would have been good in the movie but obviously they needed to cut to save the sanity of the relatives us fans dragged to see it at the cinema. For instance there is a flashback in Gondor that gives an explanation to Faramir's actions and a quote which didn't make too much sense when you say the movie but clicks with the extra footage.

So is this a good buy? Depends on your perspective. If you're not a Lord of the Rings fan then, no, stay away. Because to be honest, are you ever really going to watch it? You have to section off four hours of your life including snack breaks to watch even one of the movies. But if you are thinking of getting LoTR on DVD then this is the boxset to go for. It looks all oldy style and cool and the content inside is pretty cool too.

QUICK OVERVIEW: The Lord of the Rings: Special Extended Edition DVD comes with Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King in their special extended edition DVD formats.