Review Detail
9.7 4 10
(Updated: January 06, 2018)
Overall rating
8.3
Audio/Video Quality
10.0
Audio Editing
8.0
Visual Editing
8.0
Narrative
7.0
Enjoyment
9.0
Video/Audio quality:
Seemed perfect to me. Blu-ray quality. File was huge though, so I guess that's expected.
Visual editing:
I haven't seen the theatrical or extended in a while, but I noticed lots of cuts. I wouldn't necessarily be able to tell what was cut, but it was obvious to me in several places that something was off visually or that there was a narrative jump. The most obvious being the rearrangement of clips for dealing with Sam's absence at the spider cave. Although a clever idea, I don't think it works in practice. It's the weakest part of the edit, and as one reviewer put it, seemed obviously fan-made.
Audio:
Mostly good. Levels were a bit inconsistent, which at times may have been a fault of the source, but FX, dialogue and music were not well balanced. Dialogue was, in fact, impossible to hear on occasion - specifically, when characters spoke under thier breath.
I noticed some alterations in score, but nothing jarring.
Narrative:
A bit off in places. Some restructuring worked, some didn't. Pippin running around randomly after noting Faramirs survival and then appearing back at the top again was odd. Golem not sprinkling crumbs but crumbs appearing on Sam's shirt was odd too, let alone the other stuff that followed for that part of the story. The Kings burning felt cut too short as well.
The general pacing of the whole film, however, was excellent and the time flew by. In that respect it flowed far better than the theatrical or extended. Lovely to see so many awful CGI craziness gone as well. Less Legolas antics - beautiful. Gimli felt hardly present though... I'm assuming much of him was cut.
Also, personally, for me, the ending is still far too bloody long.
Seriously.
Overall:
By no means perfect, but certainly a good edit. Despite some noticeable cuts and jarring adjustments to the narrative, this is the most I have ever enjoyed watching ROTK. It certainly inspired me to have a go at my own sometime...
Seemed perfect to me. Blu-ray quality. File was huge though, so I guess that's expected.
Visual editing:
I haven't seen the theatrical or extended in a while, but I noticed lots of cuts. I wouldn't necessarily be able to tell what was cut, but it was obvious to me in several places that something was off visually or that there was a narrative jump. The most obvious being the rearrangement of clips for dealing with Sam's absence at the spider cave. Although a clever idea, I don't think it works in practice. It's the weakest part of the edit, and as one reviewer put it, seemed obviously fan-made.
Audio:
Mostly good. Levels were a bit inconsistent, which at times may have been a fault of the source, but FX, dialogue and music were not well balanced. Dialogue was, in fact, impossible to hear on occasion - specifically, when characters spoke under thier breath.
I noticed some alterations in score, but nothing jarring.
Narrative:
A bit off in places. Some restructuring worked, some didn't. Pippin running around randomly after noting Faramirs survival and then appearing back at the top again was odd. Golem not sprinkling crumbs but crumbs appearing on Sam's shirt was odd too, let alone the other stuff that followed for that part of the story. The Kings burning felt cut too short as well.
The general pacing of the whole film, however, was excellent and the time flew by. In that respect it flowed far better than the theatrical or extended. Lovely to see so many awful CGI craziness gone as well. Less Legolas antics - beautiful. Gimli felt hardly present though... I'm assuming much of him was cut.
Also, personally, for me, the ending is still far too bloody long.
Seriously.
Overall:
By no means perfect, but certainly a good edit. Despite some noticeable cuts and jarring adjustments to the narrative, this is the most I have ever enjoyed watching ROTK. It certainly inspired me to have a go at my own sometime...
