kerr

Sweet! I'm looking forward to watching this. It's great that you haven't compressed the DVD files, as I would prefer to watch these in maximum quality. I think I'll post a detailed review once I've finished downloading and watching, which will probably take a while. Anyway, congratulations on finishing FotR, and good luck on the next ones!

Hal 9000 said:

By the way, in my version Gandalf now says Saruman is breeding orcs with men. I removed the "goblin" prefix.

Great! That line has bothered me to no end... I just don't understand how PJ can have misread Tolkien's books, as I can only assume that the line was taken from TTT, where Tolkien writes about the "half-orcs and goblin-men" that attack Helm's Deep.

As for the Council of Elrond, I had forgotten that Boromir's dream wasn't in the theatrical. It should stay, of course, and I guess it would be impossible to remove just Gandalf's Black Speech. Oh, well.

A suggestion for TTT: When Legolas and Gimli compare kills, you should cut Legolas shooting the dead orc that Gimli is sitting on because it was "twitching".

Hal 9000 said:

I've never actually seen the theatrical versions, to be honest. I became a fan just a year or so ago. 

What are the differences between the two versions when they enter Lorien?

The theatrical continues the scene after Haldir saying "The dwarf breathes so loud we could have shot him in the dark". Aragorn greet Haldir in elvish, and Gimli says that the woods are perilous, and they should go back, to which Haldir replies "You have entered the realm of the Lady of the Wood. You cannot go back. Come; she is waiting." Cut to the fellowship ascending the stair of Caras Galadhon.

The EE version is better in many ways, but they should have reshot it with the updated costumes. As it stands, it really sticks out as a scene that was never meant to be in the movie.

Hal 9000 said:

About your suggestion for ROTK that we remove the mystery of what Sauron will do, this would raise some trouble. In the movie, they want information of Saruon's plans from Saruman but don't get them because he is killed. So then Pippin accidentally gets some from the Palantir. And that is why they go to Minas Tirith, to get the heads up on Sauron's plan.

The only way I can think to bring this in better line with the book is to remove Gandalf saying that they got a glimpse of the enemy's plan, and maybe get rid of the "information" aspect from Saruman's final scene.

I took a look at these scenes, and think it could be doable. The Saruman scene will be difficult to edit, but the scenes at Edoras can be made to work. After Pippin has looked in the Palantir, Gandalf asks him what he saw. You could cut from this to "I saw... I saw him!". Later, in the Golden Hall, you could cut from "...he told Sauron nothing of Frodo and the Ring" to "His defeat at Helm's Deep showed our enemy one thing etc." This would also make Gandalf a stronger character, since he already knows Sauron's next move and how to respond to it.

Some more suggestions: Use the theatrical versions of the Council of Elrond and the fellowship entering Lorien. I thought Gandalf reciting the ring verse in Black Speech in the EE was weird and out of character. It was in the book, sure, but not like that. As for the entrance to Lorien, the costumes of Gimli and Legolas are different from the ones they wear in the rest of the movie in the EE version of the scene. Also, some of the shots were reused when Frodo looks in the Mirror of Galadriel. Oh, and in RotK, I suggest using the theatrical version of the Paths of the Dead. The EE added too much slapstick to the sequence.

Sweet!  I'm a huge Tolkien fan, and would love to see a cut of the films that is more faithful to the books. All your changes sound great. I have some sugggestions that you may want to consider:

- Remove the subplot of Saruman spawning Uruk-Hai, which wasn't present in the book. At the very least cut Gandalf saying that Saruman is mixing orcs with "goblin-men", a statement which makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.

- In TTT, when Wormtongue is describing the Ring of Barahir, his delivery of the line is... weird. Sounds like he's saying "Two serpents: One devouring, the other crowned with golden flowers." Something should be done to fix it.

Also, some suggestions for RotK, when you get to that:

- Remove the mystery of where Sauron will attack. He has already attacked Osgiliath, so it should be obvious that he means to attack Minas Tirith.

- The end of Aragorn challenging Sauron with the Palantir should be cut. I think it would be more effective to end it with "Behold the sword of Elendil!", as was done in the trailers.

- Recolor the army of the dead, as they are described as grey in the books.

- Cut as much as possible of "Sauron the Lighthouse".

Looking forward to seeing these! Any idea of when the first discs will be released?

One of the worst aspects of Episode III was, in my opinion, the character of General Grievous. He came completely out of the blue (for those who have not seen “Clone Wars”) and serves no real purpose to the story. Besides, as cyborgs go, his mechanical appendages seem to be far superior to those of Vader. Why wouldn’t the Emperor build Grievous, but not Vader, with four arms, for example?

Because no fan edit has yet attempted to excise Grievous from the film, I have decided to make an attempt myself. Having no prievious experience with video editing, the result will probably be less than stellar, but I will nonetheless give it a try. I have already made a rough version of the edit, and have come to the conclusion that removing Grievous both be doable and will not harm the main plot of the film. The hardest part will be the scene where Sidious reveal himself to Anakin, because Anakin enters his office to report the death of Grievous. I have yet to find another good place to begin that particular scene.

Although the main point of this edit will be to remove all traces of the General, I also intend to edit out other annoying portions of the film. The “buzz droids” are gone. So is Sidous’ fight against his “little green friend”. Other common edits will most likely also be made (the balcony scene, Padme losing her will to live etc.)

Thoughts? Comments? Criticism? Noob-bashing?

(On a completely unrelated matter, would somebody pretty-please-with-sugar-on-top send me an invitation to Demonoid? Please?)