My intitial reaction to seeing the extended version of "Fellowship of The Ring" (*spoilers*):
It made me very, very happy :). So many of the new scenes are haunting and lovely and add so much to the characters and the storyline, add extra texture and nuance to scenes not allowed time to breath in the original movie. And Peter Jackson has done glorious things to the Lothlorien scenes, which will make me grateful forever.
Let's look at some of my favorite new scenes.
John really loved the extra few scenes showing Isildur being betrayed by the Ring. He insisted on rewinding the DVD and watching it again. I scolded him that if he did that for every new scene we'd be watching the movie until midnight :). I was tempted to do that with a lot of the new scenes myself. I didn't.
The whole new hobbit opening by Bilbo is lovely, seeing Bilbo puttering around Bag End, assorted hobbits going about their lives. I especially loved seeing Sam in his garden. The scene with Frodo and Bilbo hiding out from the Sackville-Baggins was funny and moving, a nice establishing moment for the two hobbits. The Green Dragon scene was fun, but what especially gave me a pang was watching Frodo in this scene. He's care-free and charming and flippant and it yet again reminded me how he's gonna break my heart before the end of the third movie. Loved the glances between Sam and Rosie, too.
The scene showing Aragorn singing the ballad of Luthien and explaining the story to Frodo is very moving. Adds some nice depth to Strider's character and his own bittersweet romance. Loved that they put back Frodo's line about Strider "looking foul, but feeling fair".
Enjoyed the additions to the Council of Elrond, Boromir speaking of his dream, Gandalf speaking in the tongue of Mordor. Liked Aragorn's scene in front of his mother's grave- nice character development. Also liked the line when Frodo asks Gandalf if Mordor is left or right :).
Had to laugh when Pippin was goading Gandalf in front of the gates of Moria and Legolas' snide remarks about dwarves. There are so many little throw-away lines in this new movie that are so revealing and so delightful. Frodo and Gandalf's talk before they entered Moria was another nice character moment for the two of them, too.
Clearly, though, the part of the movie that made me most ecstatic was the total revision of Lothlorien. Thank you, Peter Jackson! (and why couldn't you have done this in the original movie??) I came away from the original movie terribly disappointed in the Lothlorien scenes, particularly the loss of the scenes between Galadriel and Gimli, which made me sad. Those scenes are back and more besides :). We get Haldir arguing with Legolas and Aragorn in Elvish. We get an extended greeting scene between The Fellowship and Galadriel and Celeborn, which plays so much better than the original scene. Sam's stumbling attempt to write a tribute to Gandalf is very poignant and the reaction of other members of the Fellowship is haunting. The Legolas/Pippin/Merry lembas scenes was fun, too :).
And the gift giving scene, oh, it's perfect and it made me cry, Gimli's shy adoration of Galadriel, Galadriel's gentle words to Pippin, her encouragement to Aragorn. Galadriel laughs during this scene and it's breathtaking. I like her character so much more in this new movie. So much of the empathy, gentleness and joy that I missed from her character last December is back in these scenes. I am really happy about that.
Three terrific river scenes stay in memory: Gimli's sadness and regret at leaving Lothlorien, Sam's attempt to support and help a brooding Frodo and a riveting confrontation between Aragorn and Boromir over taking the Ring to Minas Tirith. Again, such wonderful character moments. Longer fight scenes aren't much of a bonus for me, but it was cool to see Merry and Pippin defending themselves in the final Orc battle with Boromir. And Aragorn's final line after the death of Boromir is just perfect.
They pretty much left the ending alone, which I was glad about. I found myself watching the new movie as concerned about what they might change that I liked than adding in new stuff to like!
The new scenes seem to add depth to the movie, warmth, a sense of thoughtfulness. It's great that pretty much the entire extra thirty minutes added were moments of character development.
I'm going to save all the extra features on the last two discs until the weekend, but I think I need to go home tonight and watch that Lothlorien sequence again. I'm just so pleased with it!
It made me very, very happy :). So many of the new scenes are haunting and lovely and add so much to the characters and the storyline, add extra texture and nuance to scenes not allowed time to breath in the original movie. And Peter Jackson has done glorious things to the Lothlorien scenes, which will make me grateful forever.
Let's look at some of my favorite new scenes.
John really loved the extra few scenes showing Isildur being betrayed by the Ring. He insisted on rewinding the DVD and watching it again. I scolded him that if he did that for every new scene we'd be watching the movie until midnight :). I was tempted to do that with a lot of the new scenes myself. I didn't.
The whole new hobbit opening by Bilbo is lovely, seeing Bilbo puttering around Bag End, assorted hobbits going about their lives. I especially loved seeing Sam in his garden. The scene with Frodo and Bilbo hiding out from the Sackville-Baggins was funny and moving, a nice establishing moment for the two hobbits. The Green Dragon scene was fun, but what especially gave me a pang was watching Frodo in this scene. He's care-free and charming and flippant and it yet again reminded me how he's gonna break my heart before the end of the third movie. Loved the glances between Sam and Rosie, too.
The scene showing Aragorn singing the ballad of Luthien and explaining the story to Frodo is very moving. Adds some nice depth to Strider's character and his own bittersweet romance. Loved that they put back Frodo's line about Strider "looking foul, but feeling fair".
Enjoyed the additions to the Council of Elrond, Boromir speaking of his dream, Gandalf speaking in the tongue of Mordor. Liked Aragorn's scene in front of his mother's grave- nice character development. Also liked the line when Frodo asks Gandalf if Mordor is left or right :).
Had to laugh when Pippin was goading Gandalf in front of the gates of Moria and Legolas' snide remarks about dwarves. There are so many little throw-away lines in this new movie that are so revealing and so delightful. Frodo and Gandalf's talk before they entered Moria was another nice character moment for the two of them, too.
Clearly, though, the part of the movie that made me most ecstatic was the total revision of Lothlorien. Thank you, Peter Jackson! (and why couldn't you have done this in the original movie??) I came away from the original movie terribly disappointed in the Lothlorien scenes, particularly the loss of the scenes between Galadriel and Gimli, which made me sad. Those scenes are back and more besides :). We get Haldir arguing with Legolas and Aragorn in Elvish. We get an extended greeting scene between The Fellowship and Galadriel and Celeborn, which plays so much better than the original scene. Sam's stumbling attempt to write a tribute to Gandalf is very poignant and the reaction of other members of the Fellowship is haunting. The Legolas/Pippin/Merry lembas scenes was fun, too :).
And the gift giving scene, oh, it's perfect and it made me cry, Gimli's shy adoration of Galadriel, Galadriel's gentle words to Pippin, her encouragement to Aragorn. Galadriel laughs during this scene and it's breathtaking. I like her character so much more in this new movie. So much of the empathy, gentleness and joy that I missed from her character last December is back in these scenes. I am really happy about that.
Three terrific river scenes stay in memory: Gimli's sadness and regret at leaving Lothlorien, Sam's attempt to support and help a brooding Frodo and a riveting confrontation between Aragorn and Boromir over taking the Ring to Minas Tirith. Again, such wonderful character moments. Longer fight scenes aren't much of a bonus for me, but it was cool to see Merry and Pippin defending themselves in the final Orc battle with Boromir. And Aragorn's final line after the death of Boromir is just perfect.
They pretty much left the ending alone, which I was glad about. I found myself watching the new movie as concerned about what they might change that I liked than adding in new stuff to like!
The new scenes seem to add depth to the movie, warmth, a sense of thoughtfulness. It's great that pretty much the entire extra thirty minutes added were moments of character development.
I'm going to save all the extra features on the last two discs until the weekend, but I think I need to go home tonight and watch that Lothlorien sequence again. I'm just so pleased with it!