Worse still, the climax of the Helm's Deep battle is lessened by the new fate of the surviving Uruk-Hai. The Shire and its inhabitants are more detailed and relatable, as we see more of their carefree existence.

Everything from the previous Extended DVDs has carried over here, virtually all of it is in anamorphic widescreen and there are subtitles too. It's nice that there's no aliasing or artifacting, especially in some of the more frenetic or sharply moving moments, but this particular entry in the Extended Edition set isn't any significant upgrade from the previous disc. Besides Sauron, Saruman, and Gandalf, the only character to get real attention is Aragorn, the hidden/obscured/irrelevant king. It's funny how they always work out in the end, and no featured gift or offering goes without purpose or point in the grand scheme.The friendly competition between warriors is set aside, if even briefly, in the dire circumstances that haunt the night.

Meanwhile, Aragorn, drawing closer to his kingly destiny, rallies forces of good for the battles that must come. The Rings films have so much detail, texture and action that they really need room to breathe on disc - even in high-definition.With Gandalf and the rest of the Fellowship, their struggle is to survive, to continue fighting against immeasurable odds, facing death with every battle head on, and accepting fate, rather than fearing it. In that sense, 'The Lord of the Rings' isn't all that different than 'Star Wars,' save for the fact that each new habitat is on the same planet, rather than one per each varied area. The cast is so deep with talent that the likes of Hugo Weaving, Liv Tyler, and Cate Blanchett don't even get mentions in the review up until this point. Each case also includes a paper booklet that largely replicates (in smaller form) the booklets from the DVD editions.

No matter what gets said down the line (if anything is said at all), the end result is a picture that is not as engaging or inviting as the other two films in the epic motion picture trilogy.I’ve heard things about Topaz intoducing artifacts from the previous frame to the next, when changing to a different shot, so I wanted to know if you have encountered something like thsy with the recent Topaz releases. Put in the additional paper inserts in the case (the shameless advertising, such as a Harry Potter mini-catalog. The LOTR films have a green tint (Fellowship is the worst) and the new remastered have changed the colour of the LOTR movies to match the look of the Hobbit films. So, sadly, what may be the finest long cut of the trilogy is (there is no may be's or possibly's here) the weakest visually, with completely unnecessary little "fixes" that don't quite fix anything. Soon enough, these treefolk wage war against the man that has been pulverizing their ranks for some time, and reek serious vengeance upon their industrial counterparts, with actions very befitting of nature dominating over manmade creation.