Hobbit: Fire of the Dragon, The

I mostly echo kellenpure. Overall there's a lot to like about this and it is certainly an improvement over the theatrical cut. That said, deeper cuts ARE needed IMO and, I'm happy to say, Ranger has provided those deeper cuts in his soon-to-be-released Into The Fire cut. That is my preferred version, but if you like the more over-the-top action, this is the one for you. I have never read The Hobbit, so I am not a "book purist," but I want these movies to work with the LotR trilogy and I'm afraid, for me, those scenes just don't fit the tone. I'm not an editor, but I didn't perceive any technical issues. Narratively, I'll stick to Into The Fire (and that one will get higher marks from me when posted), but that is merely preference and I do believe many will prefer this version. I was very happy to contribute in my small way. Great job!

After seeing Desolation in both 2D/3D and much lamentation, I could not heartily recommend it to any but the most devoted of Tolkien fans. The excessive use of green screen, extended drivel of a love interest and meandering motives of Thorin left me wanting. Smaug, while a lengthy portion of the tail end of the film, added some respite from the failure to tighten the script.

ranger's edit does precisely what I hoped it would do. I nearly forget the parts that were cut, helping maintain a good pace, while not overexposing some of the later mysteries. Many edits trim too much, leaving holes in your narrative that are filled by past viewings. My wife watched this cut after a single viewing of theatrical Desolation and enjoyed it far more than the original without being able to explain why. That's a high water mark for me. Helping to focus the viewer on the key story elements brought out more of the magic of Bard and the Master, which I was a bit too tired to enjoy after the first hour of orc-riding elves and pointless love connections.

Again, bravo. Looking forward to your next edit.

I posted minor feedback during the making of this fanedit, but I think I can nonetheless provide an unbiased review of the final product. I will start by stating I have been awaiting an edit of this movie like a dog waiting for a bone. And ranger613 was the first to throw me that bone, for which I am grateful. The theater version of DOS left me completely disillusioned with the Hobbit film idea, to the point I wished I'd never seen it. What happened to the realism and amazing writing that characterized the LOTR movies?

Yet I did not lose hope that underneath the ridiculous theater release there could be a salvageable movie. But I knew it would require some major cuts. With Fire of the Dragon some cuts were made that resolved glaring issues, such as orcs and elves in Laketown, and other smaller problems with dialogue. The transitions for the most part were smooth, and technical quality of the edit overall very good. But I do not believe the cuts went far enough. The barrel scene and dwarf fighting dragon scene are utterly ridiculous in my opinion. Because they were left in this edit, I can't rate it higher than a 7 in narrative.

I recommend this edit because it is a clear improvement over the theater version. Anyone not looking for a serious movie, closer to the book, will likely enjoy it.

I’m sorry but this edit is not for me. Even though I liked a lot, I felt too much was cut.

First of all, the technical stuff. The video and audio editing was great, however the audio tone shifted from time to time and it was very distracting.

I missed the Gimli reference because unlike a lot of people’s beliefs that it was a badly shoehorned moment, it was the truth, Gloin is Gimli’s father. And that look of Legolas was a great moment; it was a great scene in my opinion.

The love triangle was executed great in the original movie IMO. It was about ignoring and destroying the two races' hate, and falling in love. This will be greatly explored even more in The Battle of the Five Armies. Removing that was risky, and careful watchers will say; wait, where are Kili, Fili, Bofur and Oin? Though it made no impact in the story's quality (since it was a subplot), it did make the movie a little less interesting to me.

You should have deleted stuff more carefully because you also deleted Legolas being Thranduil’s son. This made Legolas a badly shoehorned character, as if Aragorn was put in The Hobbit. It made no sense, unlike the theatrical cut. People will be confused. If you had left the Thranduil/Tauriel scene in (which I really like) we would have learned Legolas is Thranduil’s son, and it would have made sense. I understand that you deleted it so that the love triangle is deleted, but deleting the rest was enough, this scene had little to no connection to the triangle.

Another thing I disliked was since you removed Legolas, Tauriel, the four dwarves and Bard's family in the third act as well as the Laketown attack, the part where Bard takes out the black arrow and is never seen again felt very choppy and pointless.

Now we get to Azog and Bolg. Wow. Why you cut these I will never know. Here, after a chase scene in the beginning we never know what they are doing. Cutting the Azog/Bolg scenes makes it very confusing. Why is Azog no longer looking for Thorin? Why are Bolg and the orcs attacking the dwarves in the river scene? Why is Azog in Dol Guldur instead of looking for Thorin and Company? This is all explained in the theatrical cut but here? Nope.

Misty Mountains is a very good song, both the dwarf one and the credits one from AUJ. However, the reason for it not being used in DoS is because we got past the Misty Mountains and we don't need a reminder. A cue in some scenes don't even work, sorry! And then, the end credits. Where was "I See Fire" you ask? Thrown to the side for the sake of “Misty Mountains”. “I See Fire” is a better fitting song for the context of the film, and Misty Mountains doesn't work because of reasons I just said above.

All in all, the fanedit has a lot of positives and a lot of negatives. The narrative is slightly worse, and this edit is definitely not going to coincide with the Azog included edits of AUJ (like Kerr's). I do recommend it though, for people who dislike the Gimli reference, the love triangle, Azog and Bolg. But this isn't for me.

The disorienting introduction to the Hobbit part 2 is still present. Although I don't know how you could explain how our heroes got from the relative safety at the end of the Hobbit part 1 to the dangerous beginning of the Hobbit part 2.

The edits at the end of the film, namely the chase sequence in the Lonely Mountain and Laketown where welcome. They moved the story along at a far superior pace to the theatrical cut. The editing of the chase scene in the Lonely Mountain left me a bit spatially confused. I found it difficult to figure out where the other characters where that where off screen but obviously still running about. This was not a problem with the Theatrical cut of the film and possibly the reason for the unwanted extended chase scenes.

The only problem I had with the Laketown sequence being cut was I don't think you cut enough. At one point the action jumps from the chase in the Lonely Mountain back to Laketown. We get a scene with Bard's daughter saying something and Bard grabs his arrow from the ceiling of his home. Then the action jumps back to the Lonely Mountain chase.

As Smaug never actually reaches the town that scene could have been removed. Cutting that scene may have caused more continuity problems in editing than it was worth however. Regardless, it was a bit jarring going from the well paced action sequence of the Dragon chase to a man grabbing his arrow then back to the chase.

Overall this cut was better experience and I am happy that I had an opportunity to view it.