Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Edits, The

My wife and I watched this together, and we were extremely impressed. I didn't think the bloated original Hobbit trilogy could be fixed, but somehow here it is in a fully enjoyable format!

At times there is the sense that something was cut, but only because we'd seen the originals and knew there were entire sections of the movie missing by the time we get to the finale. The only jarring edit in the whole edit might be the intro, which threw me for a loop before I realized it was the same intro for each episode. I can't blame Stromboli for wanting a fun consistent opener.

Overall, incredibly impressive work! Highly recommended to everyone!

Hi Stromboli -

Now, I’ve been with Adam Dens’ edit for some time now, but it’s time for a changing of the guard.

Your edit is absolutely stupendous. I’m so used to the above edit it took me time to adjust to the “new material” or remember what was changed.

But I’ll be with this one for a while.

Btw, I loved the White Council. Excellent placement as an add-on.

I’ve expounded a bit on this film with Adam’s, so I’ll just mention a few things that really do knock this one out of the park:

1) obviously the 6-ep formatting made the viewing very pleasurable.

2) all changes from Dens’ edit make sense and improve upon those ideas.

3) bard = excellent character development

4) the story is so streamlined it truly should have been done this way. You say it’s not necessarily a book edit, ah, but a book edit it is. Beautifully simple story.

5) the crown achievement of your edit is thorin and bilbo. This was the most frustrating part of PJ’s original, because even at 11.5 hours it felt forced and false.

Allowing it to grow organically is exactly what’s needed, but your edit does one better: they never had time to develop a proper friendship. Thorin’s final scene is now rather poignant in this context. It also shows bilbo’s final line to be somewhat false, but “we get it”.

Bravo on this one, Stromboli!

6) the battle is so clear to understand, so easy to follow, that I’m amazed I was as confused as I was before. Wonderful work.

A new fave, just adding my two cents. M.C.

I absolutely hated the original Hobbit films. Yes, I get it, the big wigs wanted 3 films. How do you turn a couple hundred page book into 3 movies? Peter Jackson didn't know but he did his best. Amazing cinematography. Terrible plot. Not Jackson's fault per se, but he had to do something with it.

This person went through all of that and distilled it down into a watchable experience for those of us who read the book in our childhoods and made it palatable. This is an excellent attempt, and one worthy of praise. I think Jackson himself would love it, if he were allowed to say so. This is really good. It basically dispenses with all of the crap that isn't needed. Well done sir.

Makes the Hobbit Fun Again! The Battle of the 5 Edits offers a concise yet highly entertaining story and almost nothing is missing. I really loved the serialized approach which splits the story into bite-sized essential pieces. The editing is perfect, and I found the medium quality video looked very acceptable on my 65" OLED tv.

I watched the bonus extras as well, but aside from a preference for the alternative first episode (only because it includes the "Blunt the Knives" song,) I felt the 5 cuts were just about perfect. In fact, after watching the separate stand-alone piece on the White Council (episode 4.5,) I realized how completely unessential that story line is, in my opinion. I'm glad Stromboli Bones offered it as bonus material rather than including it as a core episode.

My only critique is that a few extra minutes of backstory here and there would have been useful for continuity, especially if someone was watching this as their first viewing of the Hobbit.

Overall, one of the most entertaining edits I've seen!

This felt much more in keeping with the pace and tone of the LOTR trillogy.