Review Detail
9.7 77 10
(Updated: October 26, 2023)
Overall rating
8.0
Audio/Video Quality
8.0
Audio Editing
8.0
Visual Editing
8.0
Narrative
8.0
Enjoyment
8.0
Here we have a HOBBIT FANEDIT - MASH-up of HOBBIT FANEDITS!
I am actually surprised it has not happened before, so here we are with Stromboli Bones (SB) first time edit. And it is a doozy folks!
BUT FIRST...
DISCLAIMER: I approved this First Time Editor Edit as an Approving Faneditor.
Does that conflict me...NOPE!
If it met all the srequirement standards and was bad...I would certainly be telling you all for sure HOWEVER, I am please to report this is a very well put together piece of work (light years better than my first submission).
Watching, let alone reviewing any HOBBIT edit is not easy for me having spent 4 years crafting mine, but over the past few months I have plucked up th e resolve, and dipped my hairy toe (they are hairy), into this pool of creativity, again.
It is a brave person who openly announced on the IN-THE-WORKS threads that he intends to mine over half a dozen other fanedits to create a "greatest hits" of Hobbit Edits.
"THIEF", I hear some cry....
##Get a life, I say to the naysayers. This site is build on repurposing, re-imaging and applying in many case extremely creative and complex new elements to existing filmakers material.
Ahh, but the naysayers might persist..."he just bolted bits together that he did not make"
HORSE FEATHERS! (look it up)
What is an EXTENDED EDITION, if not just bolting on some more bits...(and some are actually very hard to pull off if you are going to complete the deleted scenes etc)....BUT BACK to this MIDDLE EARTH Smorgasbord.
What SB has done here is spent COUNTLESS hours watching variations upon variations of scene after scene of material, over, and over. Judging what suits his vision, merits inclusion, is the best option, most agreeable (and some MUST GO regardless moments) to create a pot-pourri "one-stop-shop" HOBBIT!
So does it work?
I'm please to say it does, and drawing from such diverse visions, it works very well indeed.
And that betrays an important point; SB has also made many many changes to this from his own tastes and preferences. Sometimes switching mid-scene to another source edit, sometimes making his own changes from scratch. That, in my opinion, starts to really make this, another fanedit (albeit, others have put in their effort before...but that's the same as using The Theatrical Versions vs. The Extended Versions).
I go into all this so that I can reason that the score that follow are based on this edit as a whole, no differently than if a new version of Blade Runner had been created from 5 versions of Blade Runner (Theatrical, International, Director's Cut, WorkPrint & Final Cut)....
Philosophically, my view is we are in the same camp.
Audio/Video Quality - 10
I did not detect any issues viewing this on a 55 Inch TV on either.
Visual Editing - 10
Flawless execution throughout, paying particular attention to SB's de novo work
Audio Editing - 10
Although earlier verions of this had some VERY minor issues, they would not have changed this score since in % terms they were "stylistic" in nature and not flaws or errors (and a tad subjective in some instances)
Narrative - 9
It is EXTRAORDINARILY hard to pretend that one has not seen these when viewing them, and to that extent when minor narrative assumptions have to be made the real question has to be, what would someone who has not seen these (but is watching with a person that DOES own the source and who obtained the edit)...what will that newbie viewer make of it?
SB goes to great lengths in his write-up to explain certain choices. A couple that come to mind is the reveal that Bilbo did not hand over The Arkenstone, The Flash of Sauron's eye when Bilbo removes the ring in his encounter with Smaug, the absence of Gandalf's parley with The Elves, and a couple more. These changes are very well reasoned, but for me their presence (or not) do create questions and could be a distraction or confusion for some. That alone would drop a half point, and I believe in rounding up; the other half point drop comes from "Blunt the Knieves". My dislike of this scene notwithsatnding, is that it's presence creates an unnecessary delay to propel the narrative forward at a crucial time. This is especially true in a structure which is episodic. Further, if you are someone who dislikes these songs, you might think there are more to come, but thankfully there are no more. I believe that a disciplined approach, given that all other musicality is removed, would conclude removing this as well. in regards to Sauron's eye; I believe it would have worked better with Gandalf in Mirkwood so it's relocation is a gamble. It will for sure get newbies wondering.
Having said that, this narrative, at 9 / 10 is TOP NOTCH, and skillfully and crtitically judges very well the components to use, modify, removed and add...and SB adds MANY flourishes of his own throughout.
Enjoyment
Now we are in subjective territory; I did enjoy this, tremendously so. Given that I also scored Don Kamillo's (DK's)Anti-Cringe edit a 9 here as well, I feel compelled to allocate the same score for the same reasons, and NOT because DK's forms an important scaffolding for this edit. The reason is MY enjoyment...The only things that detracted from it were a hadfull of Cringe movements and modern idiom which REALLY pulls me out of the movie. This, coupled with a few minor such things mean's, at least 9/10.
But please be assured, this is a HUGELY enjoyable romp:
OVERALL:
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
I wish my first submission was half as good, and I would encourage you to view this with an open mind and embrace it for SBs superb work and the homage that he has paid to the editors whose material inspired him, no, COMPELLED HIM to go where few editors have gone before. I for one am flattered that a few moments from mine, crept in.
Thank you for your trust, engagement and hard work.
BRAVO!
I am actually surprised it has not happened before, so here we are with Stromboli Bones (SB) first time edit. And it is a doozy folks!
BUT FIRST...
DISCLAIMER: I approved this First Time Editor Edit as an Approving Faneditor.
Does that conflict me...NOPE!
If it met all the srequirement standards and was bad...I would certainly be telling you all for sure HOWEVER, I am please to report this is a very well put together piece of work (light years better than my first submission).
Watching, let alone reviewing any HOBBIT edit is not easy for me having spent 4 years crafting mine, but over the past few months I have plucked up th e resolve, and dipped my hairy toe (they are hairy), into this pool of creativity, again.
It is a brave person who openly announced on the IN-THE-WORKS threads that he intends to mine over half a dozen other fanedits to create a "greatest hits" of Hobbit Edits.
"THIEF", I hear some cry....
##Get a life, I say to the naysayers. This site is build on repurposing, re-imaging and applying in many case extremely creative and complex new elements to existing filmakers material.
Ahh, but the naysayers might persist..."he just bolted bits together that he did not make"
HORSE FEATHERS! (look it up)
What is an EXTENDED EDITION, if not just bolting on some more bits...(and some are actually very hard to pull off if you are going to complete the deleted scenes etc)....BUT BACK to this MIDDLE EARTH Smorgasbord.
What SB has done here is spent COUNTLESS hours watching variations upon variations of scene after scene of material, over, and over. Judging what suits his vision, merits inclusion, is the best option, most agreeable (and some MUST GO regardless moments) to create a pot-pourri "one-stop-shop" HOBBIT!
So does it work?
I'm please to say it does, and drawing from such diverse visions, it works very well indeed.
And that betrays an important point; SB has also made many many changes to this from his own tastes and preferences. Sometimes switching mid-scene to another source edit, sometimes making his own changes from scratch. That, in my opinion, starts to really make this, another fanedit (albeit, others have put in their effort before...but that's the same as using The Theatrical Versions vs. The Extended Versions).
I go into all this so that I can reason that the score that follow are based on this edit as a whole, no differently than if a new version of Blade Runner had been created from 5 versions of Blade Runner (Theatrical, International, Director's Cut, WorkPrint & Final Cut)....
Philosophically, my view is we are in the same camp.
Audio/Video Quality - 10
I did not detect any issues viewing this on a 55 Inch TV on either.
Visual Editing - 10
Flawless execution throughout, paying particular attention to SB's de novo work
Audio Editing - 10
Although earlier verions of this had some VERY minor issues, they would not have changed this score since in % terms they were "stylistic" in nature and not flaws or errors (and a tad subjective in some instances)
Narrative - 9
It is EXTRAORDINARILY hard to pretend that one has not seen these when viewing them, and to that extent when minor narrative assumptions have to be made the real question has to be, what would someone who has not seen these (but is watching with a person that DOES own the source and who obtained the edit)...what will that newbie viewer make of it?
SB goes to great lengths in his write-up to explain certain choices. A couple that come to mind is the reveal that Bilbo did not hand over The Arkenstone, The Flash of Sauron's eye when Bilbo removes the ring in his encounter with Smaug, the absence of Gandalf's parley with The Elves, and a couple more. These changes are very well reasoned, but for me their presence (or not) do create questions and could be a distraction or confusion for some. That alone would drop a half point, and I believe in rounding up; the other half point drop comes from "Blunt the Knieves". My dislike of this scene notwithsatnding, is that it's presence creates an unnecessary delay to propel the narrative forward at a crucial time. This is especially true in a structure which is episodic. Further, if you are someone who dislikes these songs, you might think there are more to come, but thankfully there are no more. I believe that a disciplined approach, given that all other musicality is removed, would conclude removing this as well. in regards to Sauron's eye; I believe it would have worked better with Gandalf in Mirkwood so it's relocation is a gamble. It will for sure get newbies wondering.
Having said that, this narrative, at 9 / 10 is TOP NOTCH, and skillfully and crtitically judges very well the components to use, modify, removed and add...and SB adds MANY flourishes of his own throughout.
Enjoyment
Now we are in subjective territory; I did enjoy this, tremendously so. Given that I also scored Don Kamillo's (DK's)Anti-Cringe edit a 9 here as well, I feel compelled to allocate the same score for the same reasons, and NOT because DK's forms an important scaffolding for this edit. The reason is MY enjoyment...The only things that detracted from it were a hadfull of Cringe movements and modern idiom which REALLY pulls me out of the movie. This, coupled with a few minor such things mean's, at least 9/10.
But please be assured, this is a HUGELY enjoyable romp:
OVERALL:
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
I wish my first submission was half as good, and I would encourage you to view this with an open mind and embrace it for SBs superb work and the homage that he has paid to the editors whose material inspired him, no, COMPELLED HIM to go where few editors have gone before. I for one am flattered that a few moments from mine, crept in.
Thank you for your trust, engagement and hard work.
BRAVO!
W