Hobbit, or There and Back Again, The

Well, well, well.

To anyone that is a usual fanedit viewer, the fact that L8wrtr makes a new fanedit is always good news.
It is a matter of quality over quantity here.
L8 always makes his work with the higher quality: seamless view, no noticeable cuts, smooth well paced narrative...

But I am just a casual fanedit viewer, so who am I to give a long opinion on that. How pretentious.

I just wanted to thank L8 for the work being presented here. I'll try to explain why:

L8's take on the Hobbit Trilogy saves the day.

I watched Volume 1 without a blink, and the way the movie is presented made me smile several times: I remembered some good memories of my childhood when I read the original book. The way things are now presented, this feels much more like the story we first read back then.

I watched Volume 2 without a yawn, and I even cared for what was happening in front of me. I enjoyed the magic in some scenes that had got lost in the original swollen release.

The biggest surprise for me is how well paced this edit is. Volumen 1 could be more or less easy to edit but L8 succeeds in making us enjoy MORE every bit of the film, and not feeling rushed at all. Volume 2 is a true masterwork. The movies were a mess, and this edit succeeds in letting us go through a beautiful mythic story.

I enjoyed the fanedit a lot, and after watching it, I am now listening to the movie score, reading trivia and stories about it... this only happens when you really enjoy a movie.

This is a near-perfect edit of the 3 movies. Bravo! and THANK YOU.

I still enjoy the extended theatrical editions of The Hobbit trilogy, despite their many faults. That being said, the opportunity for a streamlined fanedit is clear, and L8wrtr has brought his great skill to this project to provide a wonderful alternative to the official releases.

The story is tight and focused on the emotional core of the characters and their relationships. The pacing and scope still feels epic and has room to breathe, but the fat is trimmed and Peter Jackson's more indulgent impulses significantly reigned in.

There are so many highlights and clever editing manoeuvres on display here, but the whole is still greater than the sum of its parts. It feels like the carefully executed vision of a great storyteller, and has the professionalism of an official studio release. Technically flawless, and thoroughly enjoyable.

L8wrtr has done a tremendous job streamlining The Hobbit, a series I felt way too bloated and unnecessarily long. Gone are many of my the grievances. I am torn, however, because while this version is vastly superior to the original, I still feel some scenes played out too fast while others felt they could be trimmed. While not a perfect film, this version is thoroughly enjoyable. A/V quality is what I would expect from a BR source, and while I saw no noticeable video edits I did pick up on a few audio cues that seemed to fade abruptly. This didn't lessen my enjoyment though.

I was a huge fan of Jackson's LotR trilogy, and, like a lot of people, was really disappointed with the confusing mess that was the Hobbit trilogy. I've watched several fanedits, and this is the best I've seen. I thought that the path Maple Films took, following the book as closely as possible, would have lead to the best outcome, but there were still problems, and the film felt a little empty after disposing of so many plotlines. I really enjoyed the Spence Edit, but it left out the Eagles and Beorn.

This edit is the best I've come across so far. It makes the best out of the source material without trying to artificially constrain it to Tolkien's original work. The use of Tauriel is absolutely fantastic. The audio and visual quality is superb. I now have a way of watching The Hobbit that doesn't make me actively question my life decisions. L8WRTR does it again.