Lord of the Rings: Two Towers Extended Edition

Just finished watching the almost four hour long version of Two Towers today (it runs at around 223 minutes, so it is a scant 17 minutes away from being four hours long). I must say, I can understand why they cut the movie for theatres, but I am so glad that they came back around to put the actual vision of the film back together for us to see. At almost four hours long, the movie would have been too long for the theatre. I don't think any of us could survive it, nor could theatres afford to show a four hour movie. Though, I think it would be a cool throwback to the past if they did do a four hour showing complete with an intermission in the middle so that people can go to the restroom and -- most importantly to the theatres -- go out to buy a drink and some more popcorn. The expansion of the movie is fantastic and really goes to incorporate more of what is in the book into the film. The Hurons make a good showing in the film and explains a lot at the end. Faramir's part is greatly expanded and the movie now brings the audience into why he does what he does. There are lots of other parts that were inserted into the film that make it just that much more enjoyable. I give applause to Peter Jackson, the cast, the crew, and New Line for going through all that it takes to get this edition out -- just like the previous extended edition of The Fellowship of The Ring. There looks to be a lot of extra work that had to go into this extended edition to get it out -- since a lot of the inserts are not merely extraneous stuff, they have special effects and new scoring done for them. Do I have both editions on DVD? Yea, you have to have the theatrical release to remember how it was seen in the theatres. But, I truly prefer the longer extended edition over the theatrical release. One day, when they finish up Return of the King, I will get that one (both theatrical and extended) and will have to try my hardest to watch all three movies (extended editions) in a row. That would be quite a fun experience!