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Lord of The Rings DVD, Now or Later?
Entropy_ah writes "As many of us know, the Lord of The Rings: Fellowship of The Ring DVD was released Aug. 6. It is a 2 Disk version of the movie with a few added goodies. However, New Line Home Entertainment is going to release an extended 4 disk version and a DVD gift set on November 12th. The Kanas City Star has an article discussing the merits of each addition and touches on the issue of this being an attempt by the movie companies to gouge as much money from die-hard fans as possible." I'm waiting, but I definitely find this whole mess frustrating.
Well i think i will wait that the 2 others movies will be released to have a nice box with all three together.
No need to buy something now, when we know they will do a nice collector edition later.
Pelops
The movie is what the collector lusts after... the extras (documentaries, trailers, etc) don't have too much repeat value, IMHO. Get the first edition ASAP, and rent, or borrow the special edition from a friend who chose to wait for it (for the extras).
I didn't like this whole mess either! I think I found a good solution though. I did buy the 2-disc set and watched all the material. When the 4-disc set comes out I will purchase that one as well and give the 2-disc set to my parents :)
Happy parents = better loot in the will
... [Insert decent Sig]
Honestly, what's the big deal? We all know about it already. It's not like they released the regular edition now and surprised us with the expanded edition a month later. We KNOW and HAVE KNOWN for awhile now they are going to release the expanded edition later in the year. The fact that they've been VERY upfront about this has been a breath of fresh air.
Honestly, if you really can't wait, there's this thing called a VIDEO RENTAL STORE! Go rent it (but please, rent from something OTHER than Blockbuster if at all possible).
Not until the 35-disk set with all three movies, including the Director's Cut, the Producer's Cut, and the Gaffer's cut comes out will I even consider buying a LOTR DVD set. If I really decide I need to see it again, there's always NetFlix.
You can only drink 30 or 40 glasses of beer a day, no matter how rich you are.
-- Colonel Adolphus Busch
That might be true for the version out right now, but the "special extended version" coming in November will contain 30 extra minutes of the actual movie that were removed to make the film more mass-compatible. I'm looking forward to seeing those. All the other extras, I couldn't care less.
Switch back to Slashdot's D1 system.
Because I actually just want to, you know, watch the damn movie.
Guess I'm a bad American consumer or something, but if in November I have a hankering for that deleted footage, I'll rent the "specialer" edition. But realy, I just want to watch the movie! Sheesh. Newfangeld technology... shoulda kept my betamax....
(...but what about the "custom bookends"?)
Karma: T-rexcellent.
I also own two copies of the hobbit (a 2nd and 7th editions) as well as 3 complete sets of the other books (2nd, 4th, and uh ... 7th? editions). Besides, if they *only* released the 4 or 5 disc box, we'd be without watching a dvd-quality lotr til November ... and I couldn't wait that long.
Buy now, and sell it to a used dvd store, or on ebay when the other comes out. Trust me, it's not the end of the world.
I bought the 2-disc set on the 6th. Why? Because it had value to me. I wanted to see the film again, and it was worth the 20 bucks to me to own a copy of it.
When the 4-disc set comes out in November (or whenever), I'll decide if the extra content is worth whatever they're charging for it. If it is, I'll buy it. If it's not, I won't.
Why are veryone's knickers in a twist about this. It's a very simple equation.
And, The EA game was cancelled, I believe, since they were not going to make the deadline. Read it here
Friends next door have bought the first one, and came over last night to watch it on our huge screen. Impressive. Now we don't need to go out and buy our own copy, if we want to see it again (probably not for another month or so), we'll just borrow it again.
We are waiting until the 4 disk set comes out, and we'll buy that version. Between the two of us, we'll have both versions, and can swap as needed.
All of us are waiting for a couple of years from now, after all the films have been released, WETA finishes all the CGI SFX, and Peter Jackson makes the final extra-long directors cut. That will probably be a 7 or more DVD set. Showings will then be day long affairs with a couple of meals between films, lots of drinks, and regular bathroom breaks.
the AC
Hemos is like...sci-fi fans;he thinks technology is cool, but he hasn't bothered to understand the science it's based on
Truth table of the thead title:
Now Later Now OR Later
1 1 1
1 0 1
0 1 1
0 0 0
So, I'm the top row, so my answer is "yes".
Comment removed based on user account deletion
And yet, all the geeks who go out to buy the 4-disc set and not the 2-disc (myself included) will just be reinforcing the notion that you can "add all the shit you want, they don't want the original version" (the original cut will not be available via branching). Granted, since opening sales of the LOTR DVD outsold the previous winner, Harry Potter, they might not get to say that after all.
Schnapple
I scanned all of the comments, and no one has mentioned the best reason to buy both the editions, which is what I am going to be doing now. I already had the best set on preorder, and swore that I would not get the normal 2 disk edition. However, when I saw how cheap it was at Circuit City (15.99), I went out and got it.
To my surprise, there is a $10 rebate in the set for those who puchase the larger set in November, which means I'm only going to be paying $5.99 for this 2-disk edition. I think that's well worth it to hold me over until that released date, and it's only barely cheaper than the rental suggestion that some people have made.
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Just test drive a KIA and get a free copy of the current release. Then buy the extended one, if you want it, in November when it comes out.
When you go to the movie theatre you vaguely assume that you are seeing "the same" movie as everyone else. But as cineastes know, there are often minor variations in content even during the first run, and major ones on second runs, re-releases, etc. Oklahoma! was filmed concurrently in 35mm and Todd-AO so the two versions actually represent similar but different performances, etc. etc.
Recently this has all become more _visible_ (in the form of deliberately labeled "special editions," "director's cuts," etc.) There's now so much of this going on I have to wonder whether the whole idea of "a" movie is gradually becoming obsolete.
Multiple versions of movies are now available to fans within a year of the release. Of course, the variations in the versions are trivial (unless you're a dedicated aficionado...)
There was a World's Fair where some director, Czech I think, showed a movie in which at ten or eleven decision points, the audience got to vote on what the actors should do. Of course, the plot was engineered to reconverge on the next decision point (so the amount of film that needed to be shot was only 2X, not 1024X or 2048X the running length of the movie).
I wonder just where these DVD's are going? DVD's supposely offer the ability to choose different camera angles, but I've yet to rent one in which this ability was actually enabled... Are "movies" going to gradually become a participatory experience? Where you have at least the illusion of a trivial degree of participation?
In the fifties, food companies (supposedly) discovered that housewives did not like complete cake mixes, because it made them feel as if they were being lazy. So they gradually moved to mixes that required adding some ingredients (milk, eggs, etc.), supposedly not because fresh ingredients actually improved the flavor, but because housewives felt they were doing a better job if they had contributed SOMETHING to the process.
I dunno, though...
On the whole, I think I would just prefer to "watch a movie" and assume that for better or for worse the producers have made all the decisions for me, and all that's left for me is to like it or not.
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
I have children.
I want my children to view the "PG-13" version of the movie, so I've purchased the current release. I also want to have the extended version, which reportedly will include scenes that would warrant an "R" rating. I'll get that one for myself and allow my children to view it when they are older.
At least they are telling everybody that there is going to be another edition coming out in November.
Let us all consider what George Lucas would do in this situation. Release a VHS tape, and claim that there won't be a DVD for 5 years. A few months later, a DVD will come out... surprise! Too bad if you already bought the VHS.
George Lucas gouges his fans deceptively. At least with Lord of the Rings, they are telling everybody about the special edition in November. That way, if you want to wait for it, you can. They aren't tricking anyone into buying the first version. If you can't wait until November, and you want to see it still, rent it! Or borrow it from somebody!
I'll personally just buy both.
Believe me, I know the anger people feel. I'm one of the chumps who bought the Tron bare-bones CD virtually the day before Disney announced the two-disc enhanced version. And I'm steamed about that, because the second release is a proper superset of the first -- the entire first release (which was essentially just the movie) is contained in the second.
But that's not the case here. Not only have I been told, upfront, that there is a later set coming. I also know that the second set is not just a proper superset of the first. The first contains things that the second won't. So my value is not negated.
For the casual fan (and believe it or not, there are a lot of casual LOTR fans), the August release is what they expect: A faithful reproduction of their moviegoing experience, with some typical extras thrown on as is de rigeur. For the hardcore fan, the November release is what they desire: The extra scenes, some more background, a wealth of detail. And the really, truly diehard fanatic can simply consider this a single, 6-disc set that happens to be released in two parts but has all the things a diehard fanatic would want: the theatrical movie, a "director's cut", a Two Towers preview, behind-the-scenes footage, background detail, audio commentary.
To my eye, these guys are the first in Hollywood to realize that the DVD market is not homogenous -- to not treat everyone as the lowest common demographic. They're giving people options rather than making one dictatorial decision. I think it's a development we should applaud, not attack.
(Aside: Note that what transforms this from an underhanded marketing ploy to a consumer-friendly menu of options is the fact that all three discs were announced simultaneously, putting information into the hands of the consumers and empowering us to make an intelligent choice. That's perhaps the most important lesson of the current age: Freely-available information empowers the citizenry.)
The Mongrel Dogs Who Teach
Although the article does touch on the idea that it might be a gouging tactic, they quite plainly follow that up with a perfectly reasonable explanation. The other DVDs are taking more work, and Peter Jackson hasn't finished the extras for release 3. When they put the extra material back into release 2, they had to have the composer add new music. Yes, they could wait until December to release all three... but why on earth would they? Most folks will be quite happy with just their copy of the movie "as seen in theatres". Anyone who wants the extras will wait for their preferred edition, and in the meantime you can rent it if you're desperate.
C'mon, read the whole article. The entire second half deals with this. Peter Jackson's enough of a loon that personally, I don't think he'd try to screw over Tolkien fans. He's shown how committed he is to the material, let the studio make its money while he finishes his definitive editions.
~ Leilah
I just saw a commercial today that if you go test drive a Kia car or SUV, they will give you a free copy of Lord of the Rings on DVD! I don't know if this is just in the Cincinnati area (where I heard the ad) or everywhere, but if you don't mind getting to play with a car and listen to a sales pitch, you can score a free copy of the DVD.
Check out the information here
--Won't that be grand? Computers and the programs will start thinking and the people will stop. - Dr. Walter Gibbs
"WTF such a great movie and it only gets an average DVD, this is another example of the movie industry not putting effort into less mainstream movies while true art like this is overlooked."
If they only released the movie in november...
"What the hell it took them that long to create the DVD? look i could have done that in three weeks from my basement with my computer which i built myself AND Id be making the world a better place by using linux at the same time."
My advice? rent now, buy later. options arent always a bad thing
--aiee
Call me quirky because I come from a finance background and I read SlashDot...
::Colz Grigor
The value equation for you may be:
Pay $20 now for the access to the content.
Evaluate the November version to see if the additional footage is worth an incremental $30.
_If_ you decide it's worth it, the total outlay is $50.
For me, the equation is:
Avoid being shunned by my friends for not having access to FotR content between August and November. (Opportunity cost)
Buy November version.
Total outlay: $30 + the opportunity cost of having not owned access to the content for three months.
The difference in cost, and thus the debate, is this: from my perspective is three months of not being able to view the content worth $20? from your perspective is the additional footage worth $30?