The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers - Extended Version Gift Set

Looking for the perfect holiday gift? Look no more. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers - Extended Version Gift Set is bound to please just about anyone on your list. This boxed set includes the extended version of the movie, The Two Towers, which is the second in the Lord of the Rings Trilogy by Director Peter Jackson, and based on the novels by JRR Tolkien.

This series of books sold more copies than any other book ever with the only exception being the Bible. That's saying something. Previous efforts to bring this masterpiece to the screen have been utter failures... until now. Jackson keeps the feeling of the books remarkably well.

The first in the series was Fellowship of the Ring and was a mega success. Here we pick up where that left off and continue the saga of the quest of Frodo to destroy the One Ring. The cinematography is breathtaking, the acting right on the money.. just everything about this built on and even surpassed the excellence of the first one. For more on the plot if you are not familiar with the story, you can read an excellent in-depth review of the theatrical release by Vormancian here: http://www.epinions.com/content_85126450820

This gift set has the extended version of the movie which includes over 40 minutes of never-before-seen footage, bringing the total run time up to a spell-binding 223 minutes on 2 discs. If that isn't enough, there are 2 more discs just chock full of special features.

You get full audio commentaries by Peter Jackson and the writers, another with the design team, one with the cast, and yet another with the production/post-production team. That's over 1100 minutes of new ways to watch the movie. Amazing. What's even more amazing is that they are all interesting in their own right so you do not get bored watching all the commentaries at all... I couldn't wait to get to the next one.

Quite a few of the Special Features from the Fellowship gift set are continued in this set. You get more in-depth with The Origins of Middle-Earth, From Book To Script, and Designing & Building Middle-Earth. You get a look inside the Weta Workshop, Design Galleries on both the people and the realms of Middle Earth.

Had enough? Too bad... you still have The Taming of Smeagol, The Andy Serkis Animation Reference, The Gollum Stand In, The Gollum Design Gallery, The Middle-Earth Atlas (an interactive map), and New Zealand as Middle-Earth... we're only up to disc 3. heh.

Disc 4 has Warriors of Middle-Earth, Cameras in Middle-Earth, Production Photos, The Flooding of Isengard Animatic, several Visual Effects documentaries, Editorial: Refining the Story, Music for Middle-earth, The Soundscapes of Middle-earth, a Sound Demonstration: "Helm's Deep", and a documentary titled "The Battle for Helm's Deep is over".

I adore all the special features! You would not believe how much you will learn watching these. I'm telling you, even if there was nothing else, this is worth it just for the special features. They spared no expense on this.

You sold yet? Hang on..

This boxed set also includes a wonderful special edition sculpture of Smeagol that is exclusive to this set. This statue is sculpted (and signed by) Jamie Beswarick, with signatures also of Peter Jackson and Andy Serkis. He's about 7" high and is squatting on a rock holding a fish, taken from the scene by the forbidden pool. This is hand painted and just has a wonderful attention to detail. You can buy a similar statue of Gollum separately, but not this exact pose. I don't think it was meant to be a bookend, but that is what I'm using mine for right now. I'd have paid the $60 for this alone.

But wait! There's more!

Also in this boxed set is a book all about Gollum inside it's own hard-bound box. In this book you will see still shots form the movie and conceptual drawings, along with articles regarding Gollum by the folks that brought him to life like Alan Lee, Mike Asquith, and Jason Schleifer. Very interesting little book, that. But it isn't just the book in this part, oh no. This also includes yet another DVD exclusively on the Gollum/Smeagol and other LOTR collectibles.

You have to figure that the extended edition of the movie is about 30 bucks by itself... so for only another 30 or so you are getting all these great extras. It's a steal, I'm tellin ya. Buy two. One for yourself, and one for that Hobbit fan in your life.


Fellowship of the Ring Gift Set:
http://www.epinions.com/content_89717313156

The Lord of the Rings Tarot Deck and Card Game:
http://www.epinions.com/content_117771243140