"Two Towers" Extended Edition DVD News!

cinematic Happenings Under Development (CHUD) ^ | December 29,2002 | Mike Arsenault

[Long Cut]

News on the Extended DVD is out already! Among the highlights to be found at www.chud.com:

There will again be 30-35 minutes of extra footage;

The battle at Helm's Deep may get an "R" rating after the new footage is included;

More footage of Gollum will be included.

Hit the link for more info: CHUD Article on TTT DVD

[Long Cut]

I did a search, no one's posted this yet. Comments? I think it's great myself; I will of course buy it.

[Libloather]

What - more blood? Not possible...

[Long Cut]

PING! Hey, can you guys get this placed in the "Hobbit Hole" section? I'm not sure how to do that.

Hope I didn't put this in the wrong place. AM, if I did, Please move it, and my apologies for being a ham-fisted poster.

[Long Cut]

How about one of your famous "Ring Pings", E?

[Nubbin]

I'll buy it also. Today is my birthday precious, and I went to see the Two Towers for the second time. I've never gone to see a movie twice before!

[Long Cut]

"What - more blood? Not possible"

It seems that they will be including some more scenes of battle with the attendant decapitations and assorted Orc-maulings, similar to the ones included in the FOTR Extended Edition release.

Probably scenes cut to please the censors at the MPAA. You know, the ones who have no trouble whatsoever with nudity and sex?

[BrucefromMtVernon]

Creatures such as the Balrog/Orcs/Nazgul actually exist on the Astral Plane (hell). These are the types of creatures who operate through that walking/talking corpse we know as Hillary Rodham Clinton. She is a "transparency" for these creatures from hell.

[Long Cut]

I cannot hope to explain your personal opinion of a movie. That is yours alone. If you didn't like it as much as the rest of us did, then it is certainly your right to pass on purchasing the DVD, or seeing it again.

What I CAN tell you is that it seems like about 90%+ of the folks disagree with you, based upon the reviews at rottentomatos.com. Also, the film has grossed over $400 million so far.

Just a suggestion, but perhaps a second viewing might improve your opinion? The movie DOES take place quite quickly.

[Gordian Blade]

I saw it twice in the theater, which is rare for me. I liked it better the second time, mainly because I wasn't looking for places where it departed from the book. Sign me up for the extended DVD; maybe I'll get it for Christmas 2003!

On a related subject, I got the FoTR extended DVD for Christmas 2002 and I've watched it three times so far. Now I need help from some computer guru out there. What I would like to do is make a collage of my favorite scenes for my office. (OK, I'm old enough to know better, but I have a wall where the previous occupant tore some things off that is in dire need of something to replace whatever was there before.) I have a program that I use to grab images off the screen and make bit maps or JPEG files. ("Capture Ez") But when I freeze frame the DVD on the scene I want and try to do a screen grab, for some reason the bit map or JPEG file doesn't show the whole frame. Worse, when I remove the DVD, the bit map or JPEG file shows only black. I've tried grabbing the whole screen, only the DVD window, a rectangular area, etc., but nothing seems to work. Where am I going wrong?

[KantianBurke]

I agree. The movie was dumbed down and inferior to the FOTR. I mean c'mon - Gimli as comedy relief?

[Long Cut]

Check it out, fellow Hobbit-heads!

[general_re]

Worse, when I remove the DVD, the bit map or JPEG file shows only black. I've tried grabbing the whole screen, only the DVD window, a rectangular area, etc., but nothing seems to work. Where am I going wrong?

Windows uses a video overlay for DVD (and other video formats, too - you'd have the same problem trying screen caps of an .avi file, for example), and so the video image isn't in the frame buffer, and isn't really part of the image that's captured by screen caps. Sucks, doesn't it? ;)

Most DVD playback software has the ability to do frame captures, though. My first suggestion is to look over the documentation that came with your DVD player software, to find out how to do it. Or, if you post which program you use, someone might be able to tell you exactly how to do it.

[Walkingfeather]

I often wonder about those that pan an obvious popular film, just so they can distinguish themselves from the crowd....Not saying that is you but it makes me think....

[Long Cut]

PING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Check it.

[Gordian Blade]

Thanks, I suspected something like that. My FoTR DVD seemed to insist on using "InterActual Player".

[BenLurkin]

Maybe it will have a closer resemblance to the book.

http://disc.server.com/Indices/166274.html

[Lancey Howard]

Thanks for the post. Good news.
I will most certainly be buying this DVD the day it comes out.
The more LotR, the better, as far as I'm concerned.
I presume this DVD would be the "director's cut"?

[Dialup Llama]

In the book the Battle of Helms Deep took all of a page and a half and you knew who would win from the way it was told. The departures from the book make the movie an improvement over the book and more true to the story.

The movie shows how close to defeat they were and what would be the cost of defeat. When the king rode out to the enemy, it was a last ditch attack where he decided he would die attacking rather than die trying to bar a door shut. The futulity of that attack was not brought out in the book.

Because the movie correctly describes the battle, the moment when Gandolph arrives (the one who rose from the dead bringing light to the world) to turn the tide actually makes more sense.