I don’t happen to agree that tTT (even extended) is the best movie ever, but wholeheartedly endorse the remainder of John Holbo’s remarks:
The extra two discs with the behind-the-scenes stuff are fantastic as well. All these geeks. They had the best. jobs. ever.
I was particularly struck by something that didn’t strike me. In Jurassic Park I was awestruck to see a stampede of struthiosaurs, but I didn’t even think to notice anything special about the Warg attack. The passing of nine years has raised our standards, obviously, but was I also distracted by the more dramatic context?
I was amused at how often I heard “this model was never meant to be seen in close-up” or “that sound-effect was never meant to go into the final.”
And where are those hundreds of swords now?
The only thing missing is disc five, containing nothing but two hours of Jackie Chan-style physical comedy outtakes. Uruks running into elves and falling down laughing. Elves knocking elves off the parapet. Aragorn poking Legolas in the eye. Saruman slipping and doing a face-plant in his palantir. Eowyn and Wormtongue flubbing their lines and doing a can-can. That stuff. As Sam would say, the ones you remember. The ones that meant something. You know they’ve got hours of the stuff. Why not show it?