Letting a guy who previously made B monster movies make Lord of the Rings was obviously a gamble, but it paid off. Jackson’s vision is uniquely his, and also seems peeled straight from the imagination of those of us who read the book. And while his primary focus is necessarily on effects and editing, he doesn’t leave the character moments on the cutting room floor. He finds time for everything that matters.
An absolute miracle of preproduction planning and postproduction editing and effects. There isn’t enough good to say about all three of these movies.
I’d be interested in seeing the alternative version of this, made by an auteur like Villeneuve. (I don’t want them to remake it; I mean I am curious about an alternate history.) But I’m not convinced we’d have a better movie if an auteur was in charge. I think we’d get better photography, but a far less interesting rendition of this story. And I’m grateful that this trilogy seems like the sort of thing Warner Bros doesn’t dare remake (even though I’m sure some executive somewhere is dying to, Harry Potter style, green light a TV show).
Watched the first half on 1080p disc, but switched to 4K for the second half. Liked the 4K version of this film more, but the trilogy definitely needs a little bit of attention from some restoration specialists at this point.