The iconic images regain intricate specular details, and Lesnie's warm cinematography is freed of its unfortunate blueish-green tint, rendered now in its purest intent. The white snow and shimmering lights are more brilliant than ever before. The result? The pitch blacks of Moria are deeper. From there, they used digital color grading to create the most desirable image possible, carefully balancing contrast and expanding dynamic range. In remastering the footage, Jackson and his team returned to the original 35mm film negatives and scanned them with greater fidelity afforded to them by today's technology, creating a higher-resolution intermediate with which to work. Visual Improvements in the 4K EditionĪrmed with modern tools that provided meticulous control over every visual component, Peter Jackson began the restoration process. This change in color timing proved jarring for many fans who were distracted by oddly-colored skies, spider veins on actors, and off-color darks and lights which were truer blacks and whites in their initial theatrical release. Yet, nearly two decades after their premier, the Lord of the Rings movies needed an update: the sharpness of image quality, or lack thereof, began to show the series' age, especially when compared against the more recent Hobbit films and the other fantasy films inspired by the original trilogy. Though the extended editions offered oodles of additional LOTR content, the remastering process used for the movies resulted in an infamous greenish-blue tint thrown over practically the entire runtime.
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The original Blu-Ray experience hardly did Lesnie's vision justice. The result of his and Jackson's attention to detail is a franchise brimming with iconic images, from vast wide shots to intimate close-ups, working in tandem with brilliant performances and a wonderful score to capture the fantastical world.
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His is the eye through which audiences saw Middle Earth: Lesnie turned the sweeping landscapes of New Zealand into the varied, and evocative, terrain of the Fellowship's odyssey - even his dark, cavernous underground sequences make careful use of light and shadow. Lesnie's work on the original trilogy was a major component in its success. Why The Lord of the Rings Needed A 4K Restoration In 2020, Jackson and his team to return to their original opus and give it a definitive polish that would make the late great Rings cinematographer Andrew Lesnie proud.
THE LORD OF THE RINGS TRILOGY EXTENDED EDITION BOX SET BEST BUY MOVIE
Shortly thereafter, Jackson and company returned to Middle Earth armed with new filmmaking tools in their arsenal to create The Hobbit movie trilogy, which failed to meet the high expectations of its predecessor. Updating the movies to the next level of high definition had unintended consequences that negatively impacted the iconic trilogy's visual aesthetic. But when the trilogy was brought to Blu-Ray format in 2010, the reception was mixed. Naturally, this success led to various home media releases, including lengthy extended editions.
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Related: The REAL Reason The Hobbit Was Made Three Movies In short order, the second and third films in the trilogy were released to similar critical acclaim, each canonized in the annals of fantasy and blockbuster filmmaking while earning high placement in the celebrated IMDB Top 250 list. In short: The Lord of the Rings was a massive success. Tolkien's fabled novels to the big screen proved to be a massive undertaking, but Warner Bros and New Zealand filmmaker Peter Jackson saw their risk pay off: The first installment provided a nation reeling from the brutal reality of 9/11 a much-needed outlet for escapism, building an immersive world that measures up to Tolkein's evocative writing and earning nearly 10 times its budget at the box office. Featuring a meticulous visual overhaul and even more painstaking audio reworking, the latest edition of the fantasy adaptation is no doubt impressive - but why was the restoration made, and what specifically did it entail? Does it succeed on all levels, or does it connote unnecessary director tinkering like George Lucas's infamous Star Warsrevisions?īringing J. Peter Jackson and company exceeded all expectations with The Lord of the Rings, which nearly 20 years later, was subject to a 4K Ultra High-Definition restoration supervised by Jackson himself.