Lord of the Rings Extended vs Theatrical?

[VideoGameCritic]

So I pulled out my Lord of the Rings Blu Ray set and was watching the Fellowship extended edition (all the movies in the set are extended). I think I've come to the conclusion I prefer the theatrical cuts.

First, some of the additions are really off putting. Like when the fellowship first meets around the ring, there's an extra scene with Boromir in there that totally throws everything off. It kind of taints the best scene in the film.

Also, the romance between Aragorn and Liv Tyler was boring to begin with, and in the extended cut those scenes just drag on and on.

Finally, the movies are too long in general.

If I get the 4K version of these films, I'm definitely going with the theatrical cut, if it's available.

Thoughts?

[snakeboy]

I pretty much always prefer the theatrical version of a movie over an extended version. I don't really see much point in adding deleted scenes. Isn't there a reason those scenes were cut in the first place? Plus, I usually prefer movies to be under 2 hours and extended versions usually run well over 2 hours. And if a movie is pretty long to begin with like Lord of the Rings, adding in scenes ends up making it way, way too long.

[Stalvern]

Neither. The version to watch is the unfinished Ralph Bakshi cartoon from 1978.

(I'm not even entirely kidding here. The Peter Jackson movies are obviously much better films, but they have none of the book's murky mystery, its poetry and myth. Everything is very clear-cut, open, and objective, while the cartoon – mainly by being a cartoon in the first place – distorts its reality around the storytelling in a way that I find much closer to the book's spirit.)