Lord of the Rings, The: Book VI – The End of the Third Age

--This review is about all six books, not only about this one--
So, I finally got to see Kerr's vision here. In total, it's about 7 1/2 hours long and therefore around 1/3 shorter than the extended editions.
That said, I don't think the pacing of this "Red Book" series is too fast, but the events told sometimes (really only sometimes, like the fellowship's voyage from Rivendell to Moriah, Frodo's encounter with Faramir or Aragorn's meeting in the path of the dead) feel a bit rushed - but that might also be just because I knew what's been cut out...
What I like about Kerr's approach is that his Middle-Earth landscapes feel bigger, more epic and more fitting to the story - yes, even though Jackson always gos for bigger, I really always thought the movies felt small regarding the landscapes! So wonderfully, Kerr achieves to let LOTR happen in more adequate geographic surroundings. This and his use of alternative music (besides of course the well-known various themes of LOTR) give his edit a more mythical and awestruck quality.
What I do not like is (and yes, I know it's this edit's trademark) - or put better, what didn't work too well for me was Kerr's approach to tell the several story lines each by itself and without switching from one to the other.
I mean, it's okay and one might like it, but imo it's one of the original book's strenghts and tricks to achieve a certain grandeur that gets lost when ignored.
Now for the cutting itself, I think it's rather flawless - Kerr is successfull in keeping in all significant highlights in all their glory and removing much of what could be considered lenghty, inadequately blown-up or simply unnecessary. He also changes the placement of backstories (or puts them back in the original book's order) in convincing style, meaning Peter's changes for the better of the movies themselves are all "corrected", and still Kerr's cut is not suffering from that, which is quite an achievement!
All in all, his LOTR feels more serious, more mature - but then again, I must admit I haven't seen the original Extended Editions for years, maybe these are not as overloaded as I remember them?
I also want to add that I saw Kerr's edit in compressed DVD resolution which just looks not too good on today's HD TVs.
I definitely can recommend this edit, and it was a joy to watch, but it won't be my go-to-version.

As with the rest of this edit, I enjoyed the final chapter. The story moves along briskly without jumping away of dwelling on extraneous stuff. Removing the Eye of Sauron and the searchlight bits was effective; it was still oppressive enough without that.

The last fight over the ring on the slopes of Mount Doom almost seemed too short. Almost. In the end it worked well, and got right to the final climactic fight. Followed on by the quick end of the battle at the Black Gate; could have been considered short changed, but since that is now irrelevant it held the correct amount of attention.

The postscript section even feels long in the books, and the edit does a good job of moving things along.

I sat through the end credits because of the new music added. I had not run across it before, and enjoyed the different feel it gave from the original.

I can only give this fanedit a perfect review since I just truly loove this version of LOTR so much more than the original cut / edit (both theatrical and EE). To me all of Kerr's 6 books are a masterpeace. Only thing distracting is that, as far as I know, there is no HD-version of it available, so when watching the Hobbit fanedit beforehand, the quality difference is noticable. Let's hope an HD version comes out someday. This will be the version I will watch from now on if I watch the LOTR. Thank you Kerr for the work you put in!

As with the previous five edits, this is likewise brilliant. Yet again the editing is flawless, and Kerr does what he intends to do. It is great to have these edits as an alternative, and, as neglify states, if you are a fan: check them out!

Highly recommended, all six edits. I might as well throw in a recommendation to Kerr's edits in general, because they are consistently well-edited.

Review by Mr.Lovebucket — December 25, 2011 @ 12:51 am

*This rating was given before reviews were required*