Howdy,
Not sure if anyone else here has got the Extended Edition of The Lord of the Rings, Return of the King as yet.
Just thought I'd add my thoughts, anyone else that has it/has watched it, feel free to add your thoughts too.
CAUTION: Slight Spoiler below.
As many will know - Return of the King is the final installment of the three part epic, that is The Lord of the Rings.
If you havn't watched the previous two movies - The Fellowship of the Ring, and The Two Towers, then you probably won't find this terribly interesting.
First of all, my only real gripe:
The Extended Edition, like the other two EE's, comes on two DVDs. The change from disc one to disc 2 is in a really bad position, in my opinion.
Towards the end of disc one, I was watching the time counter wondering how much more they could fit onto one disc (and if disc 1 was this long, would I be able to survive the second one in a single sitting). In fact, disk 2 is a little shorter than Disk 1.
I think that they could have moved the scene change back by about 2 or 3 scenes, to the end of the relatively quiet period. Say, just after Aragorn goes down the path 'under the mountain'. I think there's only about 10 or so minutes in it, so it shouldn't have been an issue for space.
Instead, they have the change to occur just before Aragorn goes down to stop the ships entering Gondor (Yes, this is an entirely new scene - you see a small portion of it in the Extended Edition Trailer)
Now onto the really good bits:
Sound
The sound is excellent, just as with the others.
Watching this movie in DTS EX 6.1 Channel surround was amazing.
There is extensive use of the LFE (Low Frequency Effects) channel (the .1 in 5.1 and 6.1) - or for us normal folk "The sub really gets a workout".
The scene with Sam, Frodo and Golumn/Smeagol as they prepare to climb the long stairs at Minas Morgul really raised the hair on the back of my neck with the Nazgul's rending screach, while shifting your ass out of the chair from the sheer kickback on the sub.
The surround channels are also made use of extensively, I noticed this more in the battle scenes, where you're surrounded by the sounds of swords and axes clanging.
Extended Scenes:
These are integrated really well, and smooth out the rough bumps of unexplained events in the Theatrical release.
I'm not sure how many people noticed that the theatre release trailers showed Gandalf on Horseback (Shadowfax, I presume) being challenged by the Witch King on the back of a Nazgul, however this scene wasn't actually included in the final Theatrical release.
Suffice to say this scene is included, and goes to explain just where Gandalfs staff went to in the later scenes.
Oh, and a continuity error, perhaps: Gandalf has his staff back in the final scene, where Bilbo, The Elves and Frodo leave middle earth.
The obligatory easter egg is good too, funny, but a bit of a let down to the real killer that was in The Two Towers.
It's in the same place as the previous two:
* Insert Disc Two
* Go to Main Menu
* Go to Chapter Selection
* Go Right, and select the last Chapter grouping (34-37 or something, from memory)
* Keep pressing 'down' about 4 times, or until an image of The One Ring appears near the bottom of the screen.
* Press Select, and sit back and watch.
Final Rating: 9.5/10.
That disk change position is what stops it getting the full 10/10 from me.
If you're a LOTR fan, then you definitely should watch it.