Hobbit: The Anti-Cringe Cut, The

Sorry for the long wait for the review, I finally finished the last episode last night.

Audio/Video Quality
Yep this was all good, I didn't notice any audio or visual quality issues.

Visual Editing
The visual editing was mostly good, however in some shots the cropping made the characters look a little stretched. It wasn't really a problem most of the time, only sometimes when the shot was a closeup.

Audio Editing
Again, the audio editing was mostly good. There was the occasional awkward transition, but these were very few and far between. The only scenes that had noticeable edits were in the 'Out of the Frying Pan' sequence and the Battle of the Five Armies. However, these are very difficult scenes to chop down, so it's understandable.

There were some really cool edits, these kind of apply to both visual and audio editing, but I'll just mention them here. I really liked the way you changed the scene where Thorin goes back to normal. I didn't even notice that the scene had been modified until the end when I realized that Smaug wasn't in it. I also really liked the flashback to the Carrock when Bilbo gets knocked out, it made the tragedy of Thorin's death much stronger and made for a really good way to introduce the eagles into the battle.

Narrative
I think you made really great use of the TV show format, every episode ended in a perfect way where it felt like an ending but I still was anticipating the next episode. However I do have some small nitpicks.

One thing I noticed in the scene where Thorin goes back to normal is that some of the stuff he remembers people saying to him are from scenes that were cut from the edit. I think it was just dialogue from the scene where him and Dwalin are talking in the throne room. This could be fixed by just including that scene right before the gold room scene.

I also found it a little strange that Bard pulled out the black arrow from his living room, but seemingly forgot to bring it with him to kill Smaug and needed his son to bring it. I understand that this is difficult to avoid due to what happens in the original films, but this could maybe be fixed by just removing the part where Bard reveals that he had the black arrow all along, and it could be implied that Bain grabbed the black arrow from the Laketown armory or something. This could be a payoff from the scene where he tells the dwarves that the black arrow knocked off one of Smaug's scales. These are only very minor flaws, the narrative as a whole was very enjoyable.

Enjoyment
I very much enjoyed this edit. It did a good job in splitting up the Hobbit movies in a way that felt right with the format, it didn't just feel like 3 movies split into 5 parts. A very well done edit!

I watched the version with 5 episodes, which I thought was a great idea. I couldn’t fault the audio and visual editing for the most part, however the lurid colours used for the title at the beginning of each episode wouldn’t be to my taste, they looked a bit tacky to me. I also remember a pretty noticeable cut at the “out of the frying pan into the fire“ point, where the light changes quite suddenly. I do believe other edits have edited that part a little more smoothly. You correctly imo deleted the very cringeworthy Orc ambush/Radagast bunny sled sequence, yet at the beginning of episode 2, during the dinner scene in Rivendell, Gandalf mentions being ambushed by orcs. I was also disappointed to see several cringeworthy scenes retained in episode 2, namely some of the dwarves antics and the song number in Rivendell, the entirety of the sockem Rockem Stone giants scene and the Goblin King song. Good effort overall though.

DonKamillo belongs up there with the studios. I watched the movie format and this cut vastly improves on the theatrical releases. It has the right amount of action. The original had so much fighting going on I'm just zoned out when it came to the battle at the end. This one trims it down so it's more climactic at the battle of the five armies. This movie will always be a CGI mess but oh well. This edit is almost perfect. I personally prefer to forget that I'm watching a fanedit so I prefer edits to make it less obvious. For example, Paramount being replaced with 'Anti-Cringe' and the fanedit credit coming up first in the credits (I suggest moving it to the middle of the credits or at the end.) It raises questions from someone that I'm watching it with that doesn't know it's a fanedit. I like to have the people I'm watching with unaware so that they watch the movie naturally and aren't thinking about the editing or any changes made. In general people enjoy & care about the movie a lot more than they normally would and it's pretty great. Again, this is a great cut and lets Peter Jackson's good intentions shine through.

Like most people, I was disappointed with the theatrical releases of The Hobbit. The pieces and performances were there, but the format felt off- I always felt it was a mistake trying to mirror the LOTR trilogy with much lighter, more whimsical material- it either needed an entirely new direction, or an entirely different format.

The films really dragged for me, and while some fanedits improved this slightly, none nailed it (including the film cut here). However, re-cutting the films into hour long episodes if a fantastic idea that fixes a lot of these issues and makes the content a lot more enjoyable as a whole.

DonKamillo's edting is excellent- the cuts are more or less seamless, each episode moves with pace and intention and nothing that's been removed is missed. The episodes end perfectly, giving the narrative time to breath and the audience time to digest everything. As a miniseries, with the cuts DonKamillo has made, The Hobbit finally works as a companion piece to the Lord of the Rings movies.

For the origination of the episodic structure golden stars rain down on this fan-edit (and editor) eternally. Not sure about the colours on the intro and outro screens but hey its cool enough.... Gold is just better!!

Never-the-less I score the narrative down. Of course inconsistencies and holes are going to be rife when trimming off and cutting down but one in particular stands out where at Rivendell there is mention of an orc ambush, yet the last scene was the trolls. And the Galadriel scene with Gandalf not followed by any Dol Guldur, is redundant (and it's cringy)..... We must accept this wizard simply comes and goes with little to no notice at all from time to time!! Too; cringy dwarf/elf love at the soiree seeps its way in; Goblin King's 'made in Rivendell... Second Age' throw away remark is cringy; company - by order of the king - attempts to break down their magic door like imbecilic cringemeisters; and the black arrow fiasco needs to be done away with in favour of straight up arrow shot, as it is a cringeworthy moment - better to let Smaug die by surprise (explains away Thorin's cringy madness as being shock, hehe)..... Seriously, if this is 'The Anti-Cringe Cut' these issues need addressing!!

It might be an idea to aim for 4 episodes at ~50 mins and 1 final episode at ~40 mins, with illustrative credits only, and a LOTR trailer/teaser consisting of White Council footage combined with some Frodo at Bag End shots. Calling it 'The Battle of Five Episodes'... if not 'Anti-Cringe' this cringe will be fine!!!

Really appreciate the quick intro title screens and outro 'To be continued....' not breaking immersion too much during back to back play-through. Video editing on the episode title blooms was great except for slight stutters here and there, and the final one that got a different font. Audio editing needs bass depletion at times (mainly durge at begining) as it may anger neighbours.

Oh and one final thought is on the transition between 4 and 5. Definitely difficult here as it gets frantic. To me it seems as though the best end point for 4 is on Thorin's face when he sees all the elf arrows pointing at him. Beginning 5 with Bard looking to Thranduil and the elves lowering their bows. With the 'There And Back Again' title blooming at the point where Bilbo goes to Gandalf if the panning shot looking at Erebor over the spears can be slowed down?!?