Yeah, yeah. They were long. Get over it.
The EE's are really only for fans of the movie who were willing to sit on their asses til they got numb teh first time around, only to want more when the credits rolled.
The point I was trying to make (because I too agree that they are long) is that the movie is about a journey, a huge, monumental journey in which characters ACTUALLY DEVELOP. Frodo becomes something he is not -slowly degrading into a slave to the ring. Sam, the slave, becomes a hero (samwise the brave). Aragorn goes from a nomadic loner to king of all men. Merry and Pippen finally leave the shire to face their fears. Both Legolas and Gimli face their prejudices and come out the most unlikely of best friends. All of this takes time. But at the same time, there are an incredible number of other characters which serve other roles, and a tremendous amount of action that has to take place to get characters from one place to another, etc., etc.,
What the EE's allowed PJAckson to do was to slow down and take soem time when the story and the characters needed it, rather than cut those quiet moments for fear that the audience would fall asleep or lose interest. In the EE's, he knows he's got us, and he can take the time to let a character laugh or smile or have a side diversion that is not entirely related to the plot (to show us something more about the character). These things make the movie, in my opinion, better. It also allows the movie to have a more natural pacing, which is what I meant in the beginning, rather than the unnatural editting that needs to be doen in order to please the masses (which they apparently did very well too.)
Anyway - it's just my opinion. Yours may vary.
