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Hi everyone,
NOTE: If you would like a Mega download link to the whole movie please DM me.
This is my first post on this forum. I am big fan of theatrical cuts of LOTR due their superb pacing and fantastic editing, but there are scenes from extended cuts that I always thought enhance overall experience. There’s plenty of extended scenes that I also don’t like, or they are fine but ruin the pacing and flow of the scenes. So I decided to make my own “Theatrical Plus” editions and share it with the community in case someone will appreciate these.
I made sure that the colour grading is as true to the original as possible (since many official releases are average at best). As a base I used Dwalin / 44rh1n’s version and replaced some scenes with Dremastered 4K version with added grain. Shots were replaced either due to some banding / artefacts in EE release (mainly in the skies and once instance in Orthanc) and some were replaced due to wrong colour grading (some shots were still on greener side / skin tones were off, I tried to correct them but was getting nowhere near to match the Theatrical colours).
Software: Final Cut Pro + Dehancer Grain plugin
Sources for video and audio: Dwalin / 44rh1n (main source) & Dremastered 4K (replacing shots)
Quality: H.265 1080p, AAC 5.1 surround sound
Please know that these cuts are my personal preference so you may not agree with the certain scenes inclusions / exclusion. If that is the case then this might not be a release for you. Probably not for the book fans either as most of them prefer EE.
Please do not ask me to include / remove scenes. If you however spot editing error / encoding issues let me know.
I just finished with Fellowship of the Ring so will be moving on to the Two Towers next. Below is a list of changes.
Scenes kept:
- Vey Old Friends (good to keep it there so Bilbo doesn’t just look that he’s a paranoid old man but has a reason)
- A Long Expected Party (it’s good to have Frodo and Bilbo having conversation and sort of farewell words before Bilbo’s sudden departure)
- Bree (just kept he line where Frodo says that “the enemy would look fairer but feel fouler” as that makes him more cautious and perceptive, I removed the rest of the changes in the Bree chapter)
- The Sword that was Broken (scene that helps with Boromir’s character, definitely a keeper)
- The Council of Elrond (another good Boromir scene, the Black Speech moment is fascinating to me and displays Boromir’s persistence and draw towards the One Ring)
- Gilraen’s Memorial (good scene to learn a bit about Aragorn’s past and his reluctance to become king)
- The Pass of Caradhras (Boromir’s line that this will be the death of the Hobbits adds more to his character)
- Smeagol (quite important information as Frodo mentions this in TTT)
- Lothlorien partially kept (I really like the Boromir & Frodo scene but not the rest so have edited around it)
- The Breaking of Fellowship (just a few seconds of more violence / fighting, no need to edit out)
Scenes removed:
- Isildur’s death (undermines the later reveal and has pretty noticeable green screen)
- Concerning Hobbits and The Shire (probably controversial, but I restored the original Shire beginning due to it’s superb editing and to avoid having yet another exposition scene after prologue, Bilbo’s panic attack also feels out of place in what suppose to be cozy introduction to Shire). This one was a tough decision as I love Concerning Hobbits scene on its own.
- At the Green Dragon (affects pacing and removes tension from previous scene, singing is good but other than that it doesn’t really add anything important)
- Passing of the Elves (ruins the pacing and Sam’s future excitement that he’s going to see Elves in Rivendell)
- The Midgewater Marshes (slows the pace down, just shows more travelling and comedic moment which we already got before, I am pretty meh about Aragorn’s singing and story, not detrimental to the story in the movie)
- Flight to the Ford (found this scene of Bilbo’s trolls unnecessary, we can connect the dots)
- The Departure of the Fellowship (kind of ruins pacing, transition from Bilbo to Fellowship crossing the bridge flows better)
- The Ring Goes South (small scene of Merry and Pipin tackling Aragorn, not important to me as they already tackled Boromir to show their strength)
- The Gates of Moria (this scene mostly reiterates what we already saw and kind of tells us something’s coming very shortly)
- Dwarf Doors are invisible (I didn’t find this scene as important)
- Nothing’s Happening (found the TC cut better, no need to delay the entrance to Moria more)
- A Journey in the Dark (spoils the Mithril reveal a bit during the fight)
- Balin’s Tomb (moment between Aragorn and Boromir is nice but it slows the pacing of the battle and seems like Boromir would have more severe injuries from that troll’s throw)
- Carras Galadhon (only shots I kept from this is fellowship arriving to the stairs, always found the cut a bit jarring where they walk among the trees and sudden cut to Frodo already standing there. I kept this otherwise as TC cut, that scene in EE drags for way too long. Also removed the Lament for Gandalf extended scene, TC is more than sufficient and avoids unnecessary joke)
- The Mirror of Galadriel (not important to me, the tone is off too)
- Farewell to Lorien (probably another controversial cut but I found this scene completely stops the momentum, a lot of the gifts we can just connect the dots and realise that they were given to the Fellowship at their departure)
- The Great River (affects the pacing, don’t find it adds anything new even though it’s new Boromir scene)
- The Departure of Boromir (I found the silence more effective than Aragorn saying something that’s obvious)
Below is a link with samples for you to check for specific edits of two scenes. First one is when Arwen is trying to save Frodo, I really don’t like Elrond’s floating head while we are transitioning to Rivendell so have removed it. It also spoils his reveal few minutes later.
Second scene is entrance to Lothlorien. I included a bit from EE where Boromir talks to Frodo but have removed vast majority to keep the pacing. I was contemplating to just use the theatrical cut here but unfortunately thanks to my strong OCD it’s not doable hah. The burned in subtitles in TC do not match the style of burned in subtitles in EE. Yes, we find out the name of Haldir in TC (because Aragorn directly addresses him) but in EE the subtitles don’t even translate Haldir’s name when Legolas mentions it and unless you saw the movies before / read the book you wouldn’t pick up on it as a first time viewer, so I kept it out.
Link to the samples: https://mega.nz/folder/vqByEKQA#heDOZYUDG80w6S0r_VBtXw
