Grand Bob

Seeing the Hobbit's color timing does lead credence to the notion that he did it to make that film look closer to the Hobbit films,even if he didn't do the same to Towers and King.

Honestly, because the theatrical BD and the EE BD are so vastly different in color timing, I think I'm going to stick with the Limited Edition of Fellowship. Because I'm not going EE with the Hobbit trilogy, the only way the opening of the Hobbit works in conjunction with the Rings trilogy/opening of Fellowship is if you use the opening of the theatrical cut of Fellowship. It's the only one that makes logic sense for having Old Bilbo opening the Hobbit film.

I think I can live with SD for Fellowship. At least the color will be consistent and the damn subtitles won't be tinted green. They'll actually be white, as they were suppose to be.

Well, got my Limited Edition of Fellowship today. Now comes the hard part...whether I can live with my favorite film of the series being in SD, while the rest of the films will be in HD.

I just love the fact that I can have a choice with watching part one of Fellowship in it's theatrical form but then switch to the extended cut for part two.

I did rewatch parts of the EE of Fellowship last night and man, they really darken the crap out of it. It does resemble the Hobbit's color timing but the Hobbit isn't nearly as dark.

What to do?

I will say this about this Lord of the Rings experience; you start to appreciate the art of editing when examining the differences between the theatrical cuts and the extended cuts.

Yeah, the EE individual BD's have the same artwork. It is stunning.

Yeah, I found a copy of the Limited Edition of Fellowship for 13 dollars on amazon. That'll fit nicely inside my Fellowship theatrical BD set. Again, I just have to have the extended Lothlorien sequence and if it's in standard definition, so be it. It's worth it to have the original color timing on Fellowship.

Bob,

Figured out a way to have my cake and eat it too. Going to get the Limited Edition DVD of The Fellowship of the Ring. The one that's a flipper disc. Long story short, I can watch the theatrical cut of Part 1 on Side A and then watched the extended cut of Part 2 on Side B. Best of both worlds, even if it's standard definition. At least, I'll get the original color timing for Fellowship with this edition.

Bob,

Well, I'm taking the plunge tomorrow. Along with the Best Buy exclusive release of the Hobbit, I'm going to finally break down and buy the theatrical cuts of the Rings trilogy. I can deal with the theatrical cuts of the last two pictures. Yeah, there are a few pieces from those EE's that'll miss but nothing too earth shattering. But the EE for Fellowship is going to be a must eventually. I just can't not have the full Lothlorien sequence. For me, it's the most perfect part of Jackson's trilogy. Beautifully realized, in my opinion. I'll have to get the EE of Fellowship later...even with the darken picture and slightly green subtitles (what the hell is that about?) Hopefully the transfer on the theatrical cut of Fellowship won't bother as much as it has other people on this forum.

Completely agree with everything you said. I may have to give the TE's one more shot but because I know the EE's so well, I feel the cuts in the TE (How did they get the elvin bread? Why does Gandalf not have his staff anymore?) and then I just basically go back to the EE's...even if they become a slog to get through.

This will not happen with the Hobbit. I have no interest in the EE's unless Jackson completely changes the opening to An Unexpected Journey.

And no, you haven't watched them too much. I'm like this with Star Wars, or I was.

I do agree with the superfluous comment about the EE's. For me, Fellowship EE is the least superfluous.

For me, if Jackson went back and restructured Two Towers where Arwen was completely gone, got rid of the "Aragorn's dead" sequence and basically structured the climax where Saruman met his demise inside Orthanic from Gandalf and company to where the second cliffhanger (that goes along with the Shelob cliffhanger already) would be Pippin and the palantir, Towers would've been the best and it would've helped the urgency of the first half of Return of the King. And speaking of that film, completely get rid of the flashback with Smeagol and how he got the Ring. Completely unnecessary scene.

Hmm, interesting. Since I've been digging into the Rings trilogy through my digital copies over the last week, I've come to notice that I think I prefer the opening of the Fellowship TE more than the EE, but after the opening, I prefer the EE all the way. The extra time in Lothlorien is what seals it.

With the other two, I'm starting to think I like the TE's more than the EE's, just because of the pace. But, there are moments (such as Aragorn and the Palantir and the House of Healing sequence and the Witch King vs. Gandalf) in the EE that I really like and wish were in the TE's of those films. I like the first half of the EE of Towers and then prefer the TE for the second half just because the ending feels more organic than how bloated it becomes in the EE. Still hate the Boromir flashback.

By the way, is the transfer of the Fellowship TE really that bad?