Set up, it's all about the set up.

That's what I'm saying. And I'm pretty sure those set-ups will appear (sometimes subtly) in the extended edition. Even more than the missing scenes, what you get out of the extended edition is more clarity on character motives, and more sense out of narrative pivot points. Ultimately PJ was forced to work with "these things have to happen and I don't always have room for setting them up properly because I've only got three hours."

That noted, the first hour was glacially slow and very little happened. It was, as JessiMoon noted, an awful lot of Portent and Massing.

Oh yeah, the other thing that always improves in the extended editions is the pacing. I thought RoTK had serious pacing problems.

The problem, I think, is that all the stuff that got cut because it's extraneous to the main storylines of the Fellowship characters becomes problematic because in the books those thing make sense in the final battles. Without them it's just... Yay! Ghost Pirates to the Rescue and such. Again, just acknowleding that the 30 hour version was the only real solution for some of these problems. Not a fault so much with PJ or Tolkien.

I thought RoTK had serious pacing problems.

Agreed. Also, a couple of not-plot-related logic problems. Like how cavalry works, O Ye People Of Horses, and why Minas Tirith has a heliport at all. And if it does, why it has no fence around the part of it that leads to a 500 foot sheer drop! Hello!

Actually, in order to include some scenes to a length I thought excessive, other scenes, which I thought more iconic and mythic and cool, had to be chopped or cut entirely. That bothered me. But it does leave open the hope of remedy, for some at least.

(And again, in fairness to Tolkien, I'm as viscerally disturbed by the Grendel's mother stuff, the Fall of Man being Eve's fault, and pretty much all the historical blame shifting to we the womanfolk. It's a thing. Damn it.)

I chalked this up to his Catholicism thing.

I thought RoTK had serious pacing problems.

Me too. I didn't have a problem with the Massing and the Portent, actually -- although Gandalf's endless exposition can get wearing. I thought the pacing problems were in the second half, where all the Things Which Must Happen were kind of jammed in together. And there were bits that I thought deserved more buildup, but I'm getting hung up on my knowledge of the books and where the tension came from there, which is different than the movie, so I'll shutup.

Actually, in order to include some scenes to a length I thought excessive, other scenes, which I thought more iconic and mythic and cool, had to be chopped or cut entirely.

Yes, this. But I am as one with Nutty on much of this.

why Minas Tirith has a heliport at all. And if it does, why it has no fence around the part of it that leads to a 500 foot sheer drop! Hello!

Well, Moria was the same way, though. I spent the entire Moria sequence thinking "dwarves never heard of railings? Oh, come on, no one would live like this! One bridge as a defensive measure, okay, but can you imagine raising a toddler in this place?"

(Moria was kind of a disappointment for me, actually. I wanted it more claustrophobic. Oh well.)

I thought RoTK had serious pacing problems.

Me three and I noticed it right away. I remember during the Gollum talking to himself in the water scene, I kept thinking "hurry it up - this isn't where you want to spend time!! we've seen this already in TTT and there is SO MUCH MORE TO GO." and that comes in the fist half hour I think.

Related to the cavalry question... I had a big What the Fuck when they tried to draw out the forces of Mordor, arrived on horse, then attacked on foot. Why? Why would you give up the huge advantage of a cavalry charge? Why why why?

I never thought of it as a heliport until Nutty coined the term. I just figured a city cut into the rock needed a big place for people to congregate.

So many of the cities and homes are cut into the geography -- for the hobbits it works well, since they're cut into the occasional hill, but a Helm's Deep or a Moria needs artificial open spaces (well, if Helm's Deep were a regular home, it would). I'm glad Moria wasn't claustrophobic, because it was supposed to be not a mine, but a splendour.