I saw Return of the King last night as a part of a 12 hour marathon* in which the extended versions of the Fellowship and Towers were shown and than Return of the King.

You really can't watch the first 2 movies without it being the extended versions. They left way too much out to have a continuous story.

Although Return was not the extended version, unlike the first 2 the story wasn't all chopped up. There are some things they took out, but nothing that I remember being critical to the story.

Return is very very good. Go see it in the theatres.

-Steve G.

*Due to some very nasty server issues at work, I couldn't leave early and missed the first movie of the marathon. Damn computers.