Omg, I have DVD extended edition and I didn't know about the changes until now... I completely support your opinion: It is really sad (but still not like Anakin in RofJ, this was outrageous).
The only version I have is the Theatrical DVDs in the red blue and green boxes, and they hold up really well. But I'm glad to hear that it's safe to upgrade to the theatrical Blu-rays. It's similar with Jurassic Park. I have the steel book Blu-ray from before they messed up the film grain with the 3D re-release, and that's the only version I'll watch.
Meh, why not bring up the obvious that House in the ending after the fire just is a hallucination, that really he is dead but only exists in Wilson's mind? I think that is what they went for but did not want to spell it out because they wanted to be deep and artistic...
My God. I hadn't thought about this. But upon seeing the less graded original I remembered the original experience and the hunch that something what was off seeing later versions. I once had the noisy extended and they were alright colourwise if I remember correctly.
I remember seeing The fellowship of the Ring in the cinema on the big screen and scoffing at the stupid PS1 characters running around in the zoomed out shots in the Balrog encounter. I recognised it looked awful originally. On VHS and DVD it holds up better so I gave the films a pass on my biggest original criticism of them. Funny its coming back now.
A year and a half ago, I was ready to pursue my dreams as a musical theatre performer, dropping everything (I was graduating high school that year and preparing the tests to enter university) and going to college in the U.S. I auditioned in secret and got a scholarship for AMDA. By the time I was preparing to tell my parents about this, my niece died. It was a devastating blow for my entire family, myself included, and I gave up my dream school for my family. It was really hard, because in my country there isn't a stable musical theatre industry and I'm not interested in acting for camera. I'm now double majoring in History and Philosophy in my local university, working part-time, and auditioning for acting gigs in my free time. It's hard, but dreams come back to you one way or another. I want to become an actor because I'm a storyteller by heart. And that came back as writing, something I've done since ninth grade. I'm drafting my eighth novel. Giving up is part of the process.
For a restoration done well see Martin Scorcese and BFI's restoration project on the films of Powell & Pressburger. Beautiful and faithfully true restorations of the original 35mm prints. Utterly gorgeous. (Search for Cinema Unbound: the Creative Worlds of Powell and Pressburger on RU-vid) Regarding Peter Jackson's resotrations I think there's a good notion to slapping restraining orders on directors.
I think it's a bit of a stretch to say that the original filmmakers don't know what makes it great, buy you do. Instead, it's more that what you think makes it great and what they think makes it great are different. There are things that you like about the original that they might not think about. There are probably many things that they specifically like about it that you don't pick up on. It's very subjective. Something that you really like about it might not be what others like about it. I don't think any of the "issues" you listed can really be judged according to an objective and agreed upon standard. On the other hand, if they started editing the story and the characters, then it would be objectively worse.
Meh I agree that I would never want them to do a Star wars type remaster. But most of this video is for the 0.5% of people who either notice this shit or gives a shit about any of that stuff. Nearly every side by side comparison you gave either I liked the upgraded version or could care less which was they chose cuz they both looked good. On a side note I am one of the those people that would like Bilbo to be switched in the prologue. Because ever since the Hobbit films when I see that scene again I am actually distracted that it's Ian Holm.
Unfortunately, Peter Jackson adopted the same attitude that George Lucas has toward American Graffiti, who said "the HELL with maintaining the original Superscope film image. *I* want it to look like digital video." Jackson said "I want everything to look like The Hobbit". I hate Jackson's attitude almost as much as I hate Lucas'.
Jackson has explicitly said that he wanted the Green tint for the theatrical releases but was advised not to. He was so happy to finally be able to do it for the re-releases.
16:30 or so I will also note than the HDR default color temp on most TVs is set to warmer, I went in and changed both 4K HDR and non HDR profiles to medium (neutral) and they’re WAY more similar than not. Trust me I agree with you about the lot of it but also it is interesting to see how many factors on the user end can muck up the comparison and make it seem more extreme. Having done extensive tests myself between all the versions on the same setup.
It seems to me that the 4k bluray format is worse than ever at getting colors and contrast to be as it was. Why does stuff need all these digital filters and special algorithms to convert it to a special HDR mode? Why can't it just be scanned at 4k resolution but otherwise use the same settings and calibration as was done for the 1080p bluray or 480p dvd? It's not like there was anything technically wrong or bad with the older LOTR scans.
