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Warner Brothers Insults LOTR and Hobbit Fans With ME: UCE

JWPlatt

JWPlatt

Commodore
Commodore
Warner Brothers is in prerelease of their "ultimate" insult to Lord of the Rings and Hobbit fans with reconstituted stuff you already have bundled with some nice SWAG for $800. Yes, the decimal point appears to come after two zeros. An Amazon reviewer says WB turned down Peter Jackon's offer to produce the content they all promised in favor of crap and a grab at your wallet so blatant that it could easily be seen as gouging or a special kind of robbery in competition with Turing Pharmaceuticals' Martin Shkreli and Daraprim.

See Bill Hunt's post here:
http://www.digitalbits.com/columns/my-two-cents/081716_1215

And the Amazon prerelease with reviews here:
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B01KKN0I44
 
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One, I don't feel insulted by this. Two, it is a choice to buy it. Three, looking at the special features on my extended BluRays and what's on Amazon, their isn't much difference. Four, it does look very pretty. Five, that one star review on Amazon is very funny and certainly made me chuckle reading it.
 
So it's an overpriced collection of stuff that's already been released. I don't see what's so horrible about it.
 
Warner Brothers does not think the release is worth having Peter Jackson fulfill their original intentions, as mentioned in the commentaries on the discs in this set, to produce a collection with "great [new] material [that] was specifically collected for an ultimate retrospective documentary on all 6-films that Peter Jackson wanted to create for a set like this… including deleted scenes." Instead, nothing new except some swag for $800.

As the Amazon review says:
Michael Burns said:
For over a decade, Peter Jackson has teased fans with talk of additional documentary material--series retrospectives, deleted scenes, and bloopers for all six films--and despite many of us diehard fans having purchased these films 10+ times already (first the individual theatrical releases on DVD, then the individual Extended Editions, then the box sets, then the Limited Editions with the Costa Boates documentaries, then the theatrical Blu-rays, then the extended Blu-rays, and then all over again with the Hobbit films), Warner Home Video has the temerity to turn down Jackson's proposal to produce this new material, re-package "everything" they've released on Blu-ray (but not the theatrical versions of the films!, wrap it up in some attractively but cheaply produced swag, call it an Ultimate Collector's Edition, and charge $800 a pop for it?
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But really, even if it were the dream release, $800 is insane. I wouldn't do it.

Edit: I didn't realize until reading Brian W. Collins' Amazon comment that the physical media for the six movies is not included. I did know that Hobbit 3D is not included. I don't care about 3D, but "ultimate" should be ultimate. This is really an anemic "ultimate" release.
 
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If I had eight hundred dollars to drop on this set, I would. I don't have the Hobbit extended editions, nor have I upgraded my LOTR extended editions to Blu-Ray, so this set fills a gap. Plus, I like the packaging, and the replica Red Book is really something.
 
Right Stuf used to (maybe still do) sell empty boxes for some releases so people could collect their individual purchases into a box set without rebuying the discs. That'd be a nice option for LOTR collectors. For myself, I don't have any space for the discs I do own so these things don't really appeal to me personally because I don't know where I'd display them so it'd probably just end up in storage.
 
JWPlatt said:
Warner Brothers does not think the release is worth having Peter Jackson fulfill their original intentions, as mentioned in the commentaries on the discs in this set, to produce a collection with "great [new] material [that] was specifically collected for an ultimate retrospective documentary on all 6-films that Peter Jackson wanted to create for a set like this… including deleted scenes." Instead, nothing new except some swag for $800.

As the Amazon review says:

But really, even if it were the dream release, $800 is insane. I wouldn't do it.

Edit: I didn't realize until reading Brian W. Collins' Amazon comment that the physical media for the six movies is not included. I did know that Hobbit 3D is not included. I don't care about 3D, but "ultimate" should be ultimate. This is really an anemic "ultimate" release.
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It is annoying, but I still wouldn't call it an insult to the fans.
All I have is the Extended edition LOTR DVDs, so I would have no problem getting this if I could afford the $800.
Do people actually buy all of those different versions of the movies? I could maybe see upgrading from DVD to Blu-Ray, but I haven't been able to justify that to myself for the Star Trek and Star Wars collections, which are probably my two absolute favorite movie series.
 
Eh, you're making a mountain out of a molehill, JWPlatt.

I'm perfectly content with my Lord of the Rings Extended Edition DVD's and I have no intention of getting The Hobbit trilogy on DVD (I'm happy with the 4.5-hour fan edit I recently watched).

Yes, the price is overblown, but whatever.
 
I already have the extended LOTR blurays and 50th anniversary hardback book and well, DVD's and paperback of the Hobbit, I'm good.

But sets like these have been made for a few franchises. They're pricey but made for the really serious collectors, not average households.
 
Why is this a big deal? How many "collectible" items are out there now, like Anovos props, and replicas by Weta Workshop, etc, that are way overpriced? Do I own one? Nope, because that's not for me. It's probably for other people and that's just fine.

If the price tag is too much, then I won't buy it. I have the LOTR EE trilogy on DVD as well as the Hobbit EE trilogy on DVD.

Don't buy it and let capitalism take its course.
 
Chemahkuu said:
They're pricey but made for the really serious collectors, not average households.
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Bill Hunt of DigitalBits.com has a readership of a LOT of "serious collectors," and he is hearing from them:
Bill Hunt of DigitalBits.com said:
What’s frustrating about this is that the studio either doesn’t seem to get, or worse care, that a release like this is extremely disappointing to the diehard fans who have loyally collected these releases along the way – the very same people who would most like to get that exclusive packaging but would be most irritated to be asked to re-buy the same damn discs they already own to do so! Personally, we’d rather have the opportunity to buy these Extended films in 4K with HDR and Atmos than be insulted by this SKU. How about doing a true Ultimate Edition with the all-new bonus content fans have been told to expect for years now. This is very, very frustrating and judging by the number of e-mails and private messages we’ve gotten from you guys this morning, a LOT of you feel the same way.

It’s like the Sackville-Bagginses were in charge of coming up with this lame fan-fleecing plan. We’ll tell you this much: It’s for damn sure that no one who is actually a fan of these films… or more importantly a collector of these films on disc… came up with this idea. Ugh.
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fireproof78 said:
Don't buy it and let capitalism take its course.
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Obviously. But it would make sense to offer what people would buy. Yes? Suits almost never look at these things and say "We made a mistake. We'll do it again, but better with everything you want." They say instead, "People don't want it, so we're dropping the product and also scaling back on home media product plans with our other franchises."
 
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JWPlatt said:
Obviously. But it would make sense to offer what people would buy. Yes? Suits almost never look at these things and say "We made a mistake. We'll do it again, but better with everything you want." They say instead, "People don't want it, so we're dropping the product and also scaling back on home media product plans with our other franchises."
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For some reason I'm not offended by this.

I agree that it's a stupid marketing mistake. But, guess what? Companies make stupid marketing decisions all the time. I tried to Google it but Google just came back with "too many damn results! Try again."

I'm in the wait and see mode right now.
 
Emh said:
Eh, you're making a mountain out of a molehill, JWPlatt.

I'm perfectly content with my Lord of the Rings Extended Edition DVD's and I have no intention of getting The Hobbit trilogy on DVD (I'm happy with the 4.5-hour fan edit I recently watched).

Yes, the price is overblown, but whatever.
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I'm where you are, though I haven't seen this fan-edit you speak of. The Hobbit trilogy was a bloated disappointment and I wouldn't spend a cent on it. What gets me is this, however:

... and despite many of us diehard fans having purchased these films 10+ times already (first the individual theatrical releases on DVD, then the individual Extended Editions, then the box sets, then the Limited Editions with the Costa Boates documentaries, then the theatrical Blu-rays, then the extended Blu-rays, and then all over again with the Hobbit films) ...
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What a mug. You're bitching because you've already spent an unnecessary fortune to satisfy some completeness obsession and now you get your knickers in a twist when this company - knowing you lot are out there - try to squeeze an exorbitant amount out of you in a (perhaps) final effort to milk the franchise? Christ, I would.
 
fireproof78 said:
I agree that it's a stupid marketing mistake. But, guess what? Companies make stupid marketing decisions all the time. I tried to Google it but Google just came back with "too many damn results! Try again."
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Well, conversely, Star Trek: The Compendium was Paramount's mea culpa for the debacle of the STID release:

Bill Hunt of DigitalBits.com... said:
A little bit of background before we continue… many of you will no doubt recall that, back when Star Trek Into Darkness was first released on Blu-ray, we here at The Bits were critical of the way all of the special features content was split up and given away as exclusives to different retail partners (see our column here and our review of the Blu-ray here), making it nearly impossible for fans to get all of the extras. A few weeks after our posts, I was invited up to Paramount to meet with the studio’s home video team to talk about the issue. I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised. They were honest, acknowledged that they’d made mistakes with the title (with the best of intentions, believe it or not – new people were in charge and they really didn't expect the fan backlash) and wanted my opinion on how they could make it up to Trek fans. And they really did want to make it right.
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http://www.thedigitalbits.com/columns/my-two-cents/062314_0600

So, good on them. That's how you do it.
 
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