Lord of the Rings Trilogy (Theatrical Versions) - April 6, 2010

[Fors*]

Originally Posted by kurtlingle

Ken Brown,

Thanks for the great review, and giving us detail on each movie.

Now to buy or not to buy.... I think it's been 2 years since I watch the EE of all 3. I cannot watch the DVD's ever again (such bad PQ/AQ).

I think I'll buy these and ebay them in a few months. I cannot go without LOTR's for yet another 2 years.

It's a shame that FOTR is a 2.5. I'm hoping Ken was to hard on it and it's a 3. I guess we could compare all movies with 2.5 reviewed here and see if it's really that bad.

Maybe I'll just listen to the movies. With my new sub (PA-120) hearing LOTR's will be for the first time. I can't wait to hear the ring drop at the council of Elrond.

Ok, I must have these

I know I will feel like I am watching and listening to these for the first time, as I had a Rear-Projection TV and a small Sony HTiB set-up the last time I watched these movies (1 1/2 years ago). With what I have now, it will really be like watching/listening to them all over again. This is why I must have these now myself (despite the so-so review)!

[UTVOL06]

Originally Posted by Tempest

Nope.. I don't.. This is *G%^T$#U& Warner Brothers we are talking about.. They seem to always go CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP on everything.. they could care less.

Just look how WB treated the Harry Potter series on Blu. They didn't do anything to make the PQ better on the earlier movies. I really hope they remaster the Harry Potter series later for Blu.

As far as LOTR. This is very disappointing. I hope they remaster these films and re-release them too, but it sucks to see they did nothing on the first release of such a big trilogy. WB just cares about sales rather than the quality of the release. Knowing them they will re-release later to make more money with a better transfer.

[DetroitSportsFan]

Originally Posted by billzfan

Peter Jackson was thrilled with the bluray transfers.

Says who? He just approved them.

Which could mean he sat down and watched all 3 films in their entirety, watched just a few minutes of each film, or because he's busy - assumed the studio would do these justice and didn't watch them at all.

[Chordata]

Wish I could change my vote...

I won't be buying now, based on the poor reviews.

I learned my lesson from Gladiator: if lots of people are complaining, there's probably a good reason.

[seabterry]

Originally Posted by O_V_N

Wish I could change my vote...

I won't be buying now, based on the poor reviews.

I learned my lesson from Gladiator: if lots of people are complaining, there's probably a good reason.

I agree. I would reverse my vote, too. I didn't expect poor PQ. I'll hold on to my 3 extended versions until a better release comes along.

[TokyoLee]

Originally Posted by seabterry

I agree. I would reverse my vote, too. I didn't expect poor PQ. I'll hold on to my 3 extended versions until a better release comes along.

+1 Im With you,Im shocked by the PQ
I wish I could take back my double dip vote
When is the extend Trilogy being released.
Sometime in the fall this year?

[Ernest Rister]

As writers, Jackson, Walsh, and Boyens are so in tune with Tolkien's style and substance that they're able to adapt it as readily and effortlessly as they adapt his stories, all while remaining incredibly true to his text.

That's puzzling, because I don't remember "Nobody tosses a Dwarf!" and "Toss me!" and all the other stupid jokes inserted by Boyens and Walsh into Tolkien's text.

[SleeperAgent]

Well, this went from Day 1 buy to total pass. I will wait for the EE's now I guess in the hopes that there is a better transfer. I was totally fine double (or even triple) dipping as long as the quality was there.

Bad form New Line. Rather than making all that excess money from fans, you've lost yourselves countless sales.

[Ernest Rister]

Originally Posted by Mahatma

Pretty surprised about the PQ in FOTR by the reviewer.Thought they were shot with the same filmstock,so can't see any reason why the other two movies should look better than the first other than bad craftsmanship...

Was planning on getting FOTR only,so maybe wait for the extended editions.Maybe they give it a better trasnfer then...

It has nothing to do with the original "film stock". It's how the interpositives were transferred and mastered and monkeyed with for home video.

[johnsmeets]

Thanks ken for the review i,ll skip this one if a few million other do as well we have a new version with the mastertapes to strat with within 2 years

Just like gladiator

Warner shame on you there should be a lawsuite for compagnies whos tread customers this way

Sorry for the spellingmistakes if any

[radagast]

Originally Posted by KubrickFan

If it's as bad as Ken says in his review, one begs the question to why there were 5 different masters made before Jackson was satisfied. Maybe he watched it on a small monitor?

Are you sure PJ saw all 5 masters? I think anyone would get weary after watching 5 versions of 9 hours+ of movie material. There might have been infighting between different interests in Warner. There is probably a better version waiting in the wings to get people to double-dip.

[RSuarez]

Originally Posted by Fors*

I know I will feel like I am watching and listening to these for the first time, as I had a Rear-Projection TV and a small Sony HTiB set-up the last time I watched these movies (1 1/2 years ago). With what I have now, it will really be like watching/listening to them all over again. This is why I must have these now myself (despite the so-so review)!

It is a shame to see what they did with these movies but yours is the exact reason I am planning on getting these too...

[SHempster]

Thank you Warner Bros.!!!

You just saved me $60 by making the decision for me to wait & see what the EE PQ will be like!

Shemp

[PeterTHX]

Originally Posted by Fors*

I can't say I am happy about that, but I can easily get over it, since we were originally getting Dolby TrueHD to begin with.

The TrueHD would have sounded exactly the same since it would have been 5.1 EX like The Perfect Storm and Star Wars: The Clone Wars movie. Except now I have no way of controlling the dynamic range for the little ones.

Originally Posted by Fors*

Speaking of the audio, it says it is 5.1 DTS-HD MA ES Matrix.....what is ES Matrix??? Does this mean the soundtrack was some how already matrixed into a 6th or 7th channel on the soundtrack? I can't remember ever seeing that before?

Harry Potter Ultimate, T2: Skynet, Bolt, Toy Story and the recent Pixars are all 5.1 ES.
The ru=b is that most DTS decoders are "Essentials" which means they'll ignore the matrixed channel and output only 5.1. My $2500 Onkyo 905 (which does Dolby EX just fine) and my OPPO BD--83 are "Essentials" only so I have to rely on my 1st gen PS3 to decode the 6.1.

[radagast]

Originally Posted by Grand Bob

I agree. Audio will definitely be better, and it sounds that at least TTT and RoTK should substantially look better. At least that is something to go on. FoTR sounds like a big visual disappointment, but once the production team sees the movie, I hope they generate enough momentum to get it remastered. In either case, now that the cat is out of the bag, I can't imagine that Warner would screw up the EE's.

I think they should go back and give FOTR the same treatment Penton-man talked about, that was given to TTT and ROTK with more mature technology. Then there should be flawless HD masters made of all 3 movies.

[radagast]

Originally Posted by Grand Bob

It appears the sound should satisfy. Now the only thing left is to await delivery of the set. I was able to get the $50 deal from WB, but these next two weeks will seem like months, especially after thinking they were going to be released last year. But, on the bright side, at least LoTR fans are getting SOMETHING on BD, even if it isn't the best effort by the company. How long will we have to wait for Star Wars to be released? I'm sure Lucas isn't all that concerned, but we have finite life-spans, and it has been 33 years since the original was released.

I think Digital Bits indicated that there was a strong possibility that Star Wars and Indiana Jones would make it to Blu-ray next year.

[TheZoof]

Originally Posted by Ernest Rister

As writers, Jackson, Walsh, and Boyens are so in tune with Tolkien's style and substance that they're able to adapt it as readily and effortlessly as they adapt his stories, all while remaining incredibly true to his text.

That's puzzling, because I don't remember "Nobody tosses a Dwarf!" and "Toss me!" and all the other stupid jokes inserted by Boyens and Walsh into Tolkien's text.

Personally that is why I enjoyed the movies MORE than the books. I thought the books were really dry and too detail oriented

As for the release... as most of you are... I am dissapointed. It is sad to hear of such bad picture quality in one of my fav movies of all time(FotR).

That being said I wasn't dissapointed with Gladiator that much so hopefully I will just enjoy the upgrade in sound and not notice anything glaring in the PQ.

[PeterTHX]

Originally Posted by radagast

I think they should go back and give FOTR the same treatment Penton-man talked about, that was given to TTT and ROTK with more mature technology. Then there should be flawless HD masters made of all 3 movies.

Well, apparently Peter Jackson disagrees.

For one, I found the theatrical presentations somewhat flat and artificial looking (TTT being particularly ugly), so I'm not sure what all the fuss is about here.

[rileyparrish]

Originally Posted by Diesel View Post
Its 5 discrete channels (plus the .1 for the sub of course) plus a 6th matrixed center surround channel.


I think, I'm just going off of what I've read

If you have a 6.1 system OR a 7.1 system you will get sound out of the rear speaker(s), but it is not discrete...just matrixed between the side surrounds for a more immersive feeling, think Dolby Pro Logic IIx...

[dborgill]

Wow... so Labyrinth, a children's film from 1986 gets a video rating of 4.0 while the modern classic Fellowship from 2001, gets a 2.5 or 3.0 -- What an absolute joke and a shame. With what Warner Bros is doing with their Netflix 30 days wait time and now this, I'm tempted to never support them again.

Said thing is though, this trilogy will sell millions despite the lackluster video effort and what a few hundred peeps on here do...

At this rate, I'm suprised they even included lossless sound!