The Lord of the Rings Collection Theatrical Version

The media could not be loaded. The new 2021 Remastered Extended Edition is THE way to watch The Lord of the Rings (if you don’t have a 4K TV). The 2021 Remaster was a complete rescan of the original film into both HD (for this Blu Ray) and 4K, providing a much clearer picture and removing the infamous green tint from the 2011 Blu Ray editions. It also featured a sound update, making it crisper and clearer than ever before. While the box set isn’t as pretty as the 2011 edition, everything else is the same but better. The same 26 hours of special features, the same amazing story, just updated and even clearer. Got a chance to watch Fellowship so far, and it was amazing, especially the Balrog. This is THE way to watch the trilogy now. Read more

I've been slowly building a 4k blu-ray collection and this year I went in on some movies that I haven't watched in a few years to experience them in 4k. The LOTR trilogy is one that I re-visit about every 2-3 years over Christmas break, and this year it was time once again. I just completed it last night and wow!! It was almost as good as watching them for the first time. The quality of these disks are exceptional. Colors jump off the screen, clarity is unbelievable, sound will test your sound system to the fullest (I'm running a 5.1 system, so I can't comment on the Dolby Atmos soundtrack). Each of the 3 movies (either the director's cut or theatrical cut) comes on 2 disks, with each disk about 1 1/2 to 2 hours long. I had no issues playing any of the disks of the director's cut. The packaging is well done for a small box containing 12 disks. I can't recommend this collection enough, if you haven't or haven't seen these movies you'll love watching them in 4k glory! Read more

I ordered this after watching Fellowship in the movie theater. I should give it 4 stars because of the poor condition I received my first set in as there were 3 discs that were scratched. While watching Return of the King, the scene with the Nazgûl, the disc had a hiccup for 10 seconds. Even the second set had a scratched disc. I was able to swap the one poor disc with a clean one. Experience: this is the way to watch LotR. It’s been sound engineered to incorporate Atmos. The sound, even on an older soundbar, is incredibly immersive. The colors pop better than any other LotR Experience. That green film? GONE. I’ve heard complaints that it’s really just upscaled 2k > 4k. I’m sure that’s true. However, it looks vastly superior to any other LotR medium, especially 4k streaming. It includes the theatrical and extended releases. Despite the serious flaws in QC/QA, several other customers have noted scratches, if you get a clean set, it’s worth it, even if you have to keep ordering sets to have a complete clean set. Read more

I was pretty late getting on the bandwagon for this new 4k release, I had looked at other people's reviews for them (it is very bipolar) and figured that I would give it a shot. I actually got the extended trilogy on 4k digital on a sale that VUDU had almost a year before I ever got the physical media ($30), although I hadn't watched them through except for a few scenes here and there just to get a glimpse of how they looked (seemed good to me, but that's not really a good example). After I finally got the physical media (again on a sale for about $50), I decided to actually give them a watch through to see what all the fuss was about (extended editions of course). I was very happy to see that the green tint that plagued The Fellowship of the Ring on the Blu-ray edition was gone, the detail also got a very nice upgrade. In terms of detail, I'd say that the Fellowship might be the most detailed of the three, but the Two Towers and Return of the King are still the best they have ever been and are amazing. You can really make out the texturing on clothing, the pores in people's faces, and some of the cool New Zealand landscapes (I do hope to go there someday). With the new 4k resolution, there were times that the CGI seemed a little out of place, but I didn't think that it really deterred from what else was on the screen that much (nothing like the original trilogy of Star Wars. I really wish George Lucas would release the despecialized editions). I have also noticed some DNR that others have mentioned, but it didn't seem to be that much to me (some said it was like T2, no one looked like Barbie dolls to me so I don't know what they were looking at. The new 4k Star Wars editions also come to mind). I also liked that they used so many more costumes and practical effects for the LoTR Trilogy unlike the Hobbit Trilogy, it just made everything seem more realistic (shooting on film rather than digital can also have something to do with that). The new Dolby Atmos track was pretty stellar, it was great to hear what was already a great track to begin expanded to height channels, hearing rain and arrows coming from above was exhilarating. You could also hear voices echoing between each of the speakers better when the characters were in either the Mines of Moria or in the caves above Minas Morgul. The subwoofers had a pretty good work out too, the scene with the Balrog, or the drums from the orcs are always cool. Dialogue was never hard to hear (Tenet, I'm looking at you). Hearing Howard Shore's orchestral track is always treat. I have not watched the movies in Dolby Vision yet, only standard HDR, but even that was pretty impressive. The one thing that I did wish that was included was the Appendices that were on the original extended DVDs, it would be nice to see how Peter Jackson created this world in an updated format (even if that were standard Blu-ray), especially for those that never had them to begin with. I do find it a little odd that only the 4k versions are included and not also the standard Blu-ray, but that is something that I can deal with. I have loved this world that Tolkien created and these movies since I was a little boy and these additions have made me appreciate them even more. While I do believe that the books are better (please read them!), these movies will always hold a special place in my heart, especially with how well they were handled even if there were some things cut (The Hobbit Trilogy was a pretty abysmal adaption, though the J.R.R. Tolkien Cut of the film was pretty good since it removed all the unnecessary material that was never in the book and made it one 4 1/2 hour film rather than three 3 hour films). If you are 4k capable and have a 4k player, get these, it is the best they've ever looked and sounded, and they look better than a lot of other 4k movies out there. Read more