So, watched the Extended Edition of the LOTR:TT movie last night. This was a very different beast from the LOTR:FOTR:EE; with the first movie, the extra scenes were a whole bunch of nice scenes that were wisely removed to help the pacing of the film. Except for the Lothlorien stuff, everything that was removed made the movie better by its absence.

But in TT, not so. Here, it felt like I was seeing the movie they actually wanted to make, and that the theatrical version was cut down too relentlessly to hit its running time target. Most of the problems of the movie were solved by this longer cut. For instance, in the movie Merry and Pippin spend about two hours of screen time just being carried by Treebeard; here, they stop and have periodic things to do (including a bit where Treebeard gets to be Bombadil). In the movie, Faramir is totally worthless; in the DVD, we see him interacting with Denethor and Boromir, and get to have some sympathy for him. The “White Wizard” stuff is handled more smoothly. Theodred is handled better. Eowyn has more of a chance to develop.

All in all, it’s just a plain ol’ better movie than the theatrical version. Those who had fundamental problems with it probably won’t find themselves turned into fans, but those who thought it was basically sound but a bit clunky will be pleased by this.