Review Detail

It’s tough to find anything to say about The Battle of the Five Edits that hasn’t already been said, but I’ll try anyway!

If you’re looking for an edit of the Hobbit that puts Enjoyment over all else (even book-accuracy), then your search thats taken years and countless dollars is at an end. As is the case with all edits, Stromboli left in some things that some people could do without, and removed some things that some people loved. He circumvented this a bit by including “Alternate Versions” of most episodes regarding the biggest bits of criticism, which then let him have his own version + a “fan” version. None of that really applied to me though, as this edit was perfect for me, too!(MAYBE with the exception of Del Toro’s)
I’ve seen a handful of the edits that Stromboli cited in his own (M4 book-cut and J.R.R. Tolkein’s The Hobbit), and while borrowing from other edits isn’t an idea that is original to this edit, I think the “will to culminate all Five” was a great idea due to the crazy amount of Hobbit edits that are out there, each with their own really cool ways of handling different things. It was really cool to read the Changes tab and forum post after watching and see how feedback directly influenced certain changes, even after release! The timing of the Eagles rescue is one he seems really stoked with, and I think it worked really well, although I gotta say I’m probably gonna to have to rewatch the unedited movies once again to fully understand what all was changed.

Basically, if you haven’t seen this edit yet and you love the Hobbit, you should give it a go.