Off the dome…
Reworked the Arwen plot, retaining most of it but somehow making it more palatable to purists. She doesn’t set out for the Havens, yet still converses with Elrond and advocates for Aragorn. It’s been restructured substantially throughout all three films and really wowed me. She’s still a big part of the story but Kerr avoided the trigger points for purists.
Theoden’s exorcism does not show a literal possession by Saruman.
No elves at Helm’s Deep, save for Legolas. Masterfully done, compared to my efforts a decade ago.
Denethor dies on the pyre, not by running off the city.
The battle of Pelennor Fields is restructured beautifully, “fixing” something that was already beautiful.
Same goes for the entirety of ROTK: restructuring for new juxtapositions that elevate the material. For example, Aragorn challenging Sauron via palantir literally draws his eye away from nearly spotting Frodo, more seamlessly integrating this EE scene into the narrative.
Throughout, Kerr tightens things up here and there. He loved the theatrical editions, which is why I felt a desire to re-extend them somewhat like this. There overall feel, even in my version as compared to the real EEs, is a bit tighter and featuring just a bit less silliness that felt overly modern. The humor is intact, just pruned. For example, he removed the crumbling stairs from FOTR and it’d associated dwarf tossing reference in TTT.
The Mouth of Sauron is missing, and I did not try to reinstate it because it would’ve meant destroying how he had beautifully reworked that portion of the movie. (And I only would’ve included it if there were a good way to remove Aragorn barbarically killing the messenger.)
All in all, it’s a genuinely invigorating fan edit for anybody, though I think non-insistent book lovers will get the most enjoyment from it.
