GoldbergBlog

Go Throw Yourself into Mount Doom

If you look at the Amazon pre-order page for the upcoming Blu-ray box set of The Lord of the Rings, you’ll see it has a 1 1/2-star rating based on 1,979 “reviews”.  Why all the negativity?  Because the extended editions aren’t included.  This is the problem with consumers who think they’re owed something by a company because they’re not getting the product they wanted.  Not that they bought, but the one they wanted.  Here’s a very simple solution:

Don’t buy it.

Would it be nice if the extended editions were included?  Sure.  Will they arrive in a box set of their own sometime in the future?  Of course.  But fans aren’t owed anything.  Warner Bros. could lock it in a vault never to be seen again.  Just because you’re a fan of the series, that doesn’t make you entitled to the exact product you wanted.  None of these “reviews” are based on the product or how these movies look in HD (my prediction: they will be visually stunning), but because Warner Bros. wants more money.  Yes, this is how a business works.  You’re not getting ripped off because you’re not being forced to buy anything nor are they selling you a defective product.

I don’t recall this amount of whining back when they released the DVDs this way.  Want to know why?  Because they’re entirely different.  There’s an entirely different set of features and the films play differently because of the pacing.  Peter Jackson has said he’s happy with the theatrical cuts and he should be.  They’re the whole reason people wanted extended versions in the first place: so fans could have even more of this world that Peter Jackson scored with when they debuted in theaters.  That’s fine, but they also change the way the movie plays.

So why doesn’t Warner Bros. include the extended editions as well?  Contrary to popular belief, Blu-rays cannot hold seven hours worth of highly-detailed visual data.  Well why not put them on separate discs?  That’s a great idea except now you’ve expanded the nine disc set to a twelve-disc set.  Keep in mind that on DVD, the extended editions had even more special features than the theatrical editions.  So now you’ve got a 15-disc set: 3 theatrical cuts, 3 digital copies (of the theatrical cuts), 3 extended editions, three special feature discs for the original version, and three more special feature discs for the  extended edition.  How much do you think that set would cost?

But why not release them at the same time so people can choose?  Because they can already choose.  They’re just not getting one of the versions right now.  Want to know why?  Because you can’t up-convert a DVD to a Blu-ray in an afternoon and Peter Jackson, being committed to the franchise, is busy with other stuff like helping to make a fucking prequel to these beloved films.  And yet people are being whiny babies about how they’re not getting what they want right now, so they’re giving one-star ratings to the Blu-ray of the theatrical cuts because they feel entitled to have both and Warner Bros. is screwing them and trying to earn more money with a double-dip.  It’s not really a double-dip when you’re getting two different movies and two different sets of special features.

If you honestly believe that the extended versions are better than the theatrical cut, then I respect that, and I’m sorry you’ll have to wait for your preferred version.  But if you’re pissed off because you want everything right now and Warner Bros. isn’t giving it to you, then I you need to grow up.

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