December 9, 2003

ABC Primetime RotK and Hidden Trailer
Bob Praz

In response to Mr. Underhill, I did watch the ABC Primetime special on ROTK, and I was satisfied with it. I wasn't expecting anything huge, seeing as it's just a one-hour special on ABC after all, not a National Geographic documentary. As for the Arwen and Elrond scene, I think it's fine, and it makes sense that Arwen's body temperature would decrease if she became mortal; I'm sure PJ and the others have made some kind of research on this. Remember that the elves have an incredible resistance to the cold and to the elements, as well as overall endurance, so it's reasonable to assume that their bodies are even warmer than that of men. However it is starting to border too much on science and biology (this is Middle-Earth, after all, not rocket science), and I always thought that even if Arwen becomes mortal she would still keep her Eldarin qualities until she dies. Although that's just the way I saw it; maybe I'm wrong.

Speaking of National Geographic, however, I’d like to ask those who own the Collector’s edition of FOTR or TTT (or both) whether or not it was worth buying instead of the regular EE? Was it good or was it more of the same stuff we’ve seen in other places?

As for the easter eggs on the TTT EE, there is only Gollum’s MTV acceptance speech on the first disc. The ROTK trailer is not on it, because it will be, of course, on the ROTK DVD (theatrical edition). The reason why the TTT preview was put on the FOTR EE was because it wasn’t going to be featured on the TTT theatrical edition DVD - since it’s not an “official” trailer, I suppose. Too bad there was only one internet trailer for ROTK this year (and they didn’t even bother to provide a high-quality, full-screen version, which was disappointing and, frankly, pretty lame on New Line’s part).