5 Best (& 5 Worst) Lord Of The Rings Extended Edition Scenes
Extra Sean Bean is always a bonus.
Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy is undoubtedly one of the most lovingly crafted sagas in film history, from The Fellowship of the Ring's epic sweeping prologue through Middle Earth to the emotional farewell at the end of The Return of the King. However, one debate has raged on within the fandom: theatrical edition or extended edition?
Jackson weighed in on this debate, noting "I did the extended versions for the fans...we had thirty to forty minutes of footage that fans of the books might be interested in." With nearly three hours of entirely new scenes or expanded versions of existing scenes, the extended edition is a bigger beast but one that does outstay its welcome at times.
In this sprawling extra slice of Middle Earth, characters who were previously only allowed a few minutes of screen time and subplots that were previously rushed are given more time to breathe. However, alongside some much needed backstory the extended edition also sees a lot of unnecessary filler that even some of the most die-hard fans struggle to justify...
10. WORST: Aragorn's Age
Part of what makes Viggo Mortensen's performance as Aragorn so mesmerising is the air of mystery that surrounds him. Throughout the three films he talks of his place as the rightful King of Gondor and his devotion to Arwen but rarely anything else which adds to this enigma.
So in the extended edition of The Two Towers the decision to add a scene where Eowyn talks to Aragorn and he unwraps one mystery by candidly discussing his age - looking good for 87 - feels entirely out of character. The scene also sees her cook some revolting soup for Aragorn which he attempts to stomach before throwing it away in a demonstration of psychical comedy more akin to Gimli than his more serious demeanour, a strange moment in this extra scene.
The scene - and the whole unrequited love for Aragorn story line - has little purpose other than to give Eowyn some more screen time and boost the female characters in the trilogy up to a pitiful three. The scene also sees Aragorn talk about himself, somewhat out of character as it is something he is often reluctant to do, and we find out he belongs to a race of men called the Dúnedain who are blessed with long life.
While this is fascinating, in some ways with Aragorn the less the audience know the more intriguing he remains.