By Dennis Hartley

(Originally posted on Digby’s Hullabaloo on July 2, 2011)

The Lord of the RIngs: The Motion Picture Trilogy (Extended Edition) – New Line Home Video Blu-ray (box set)

It’s quite possible that the bloodiest battle fought over Middle Earth is nowhere to be found within director Peter Jackson’s epic, three-film adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s beloved book trilogy. That particular kerfuffle rages in countless chat rooms.

For the past several years, “Where’s the Blu-ray of the extended editions?” was the rallying cry of hand-wringing fantasy geeks, waxing wroth on the discussion boards and getting their braies in a bind over the dreaded “double dip” extorted from fans by the releasing studio (or in this case, “quadruple dip”, counting the staggered wait between releases of the standard and BD versions of the original theatrical cuts).

The coveted Blu-ray box set in question was finally released this week…and already a new controversy rages. It concerns the color timing of these HD versions of the extended editions (I won’t bore you with details-just Google “Lord of the Rings green tint”).

At any rate, I picked up a copy, and to my eyes…it’s all good-the transfers are fabulous. Besides-this is a fantasy world…right? New Line Home Video has imported all extras from their original DVD version of the extended edition. Hopefully, this will be the one edition to rule them all (until the next Latest and Greatest format).