Ever since the announcement that 4K remastered editions of both The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogy were on the way, fans have been patiently waiting for more information about the kind of changes that the team is planning to make to the saga. Now, director Peter Jackson is here to explain how all these years later he’s set out to renovate the franchise for newer audiences.
While the tools with which filmmakers and their crews take up the editing process have improved significantly over the past two decades, many would still argue that the LOTR pics look great, even by today’s standards. They’d be right, of course, as the trilogy holds up in terms of CGI to its modern counterparts. Though when it comes to other technical aspects, like lighting, color reproduction and even image sharpness, there’s a stark contrast between The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit movies.
This is apparently the biggest change that we can expect to see in the 4K remastered edition. As Peter Jackson himself explains in the new video above, this is the sort of inconsistency that stands out the most when watching the two trilogies back to back, noting:
“It was interesting going back and revisiting these films because I realized how, you know, inconsistent they were. And that’s really due to the way in which The Lord of the Rings trilogy was shot first about 20 years ago.”
The legendary director also reassures diehard fans that they haven’t enhanced or changed any of the actual effects from the movies. And that they’re going to look exactly like they did in theaters, but just with improved colors and image quality.
The remastered versions of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings films released in the United States yesterday. So, if you’ve been waiting for an excuse to revisit the world of Middle-earth, now you have the perfect one.