Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Edits, The

This was an excellent edit! It felt like a super fun mini series version of The Hobbit, highlighting what worked in the original films: the excellent cast, costumes, music, effects, and sets; and cutting out the gratuitous elements: Legolas running up falling bricks, the Tauriel love triangle, and most importantly Azog--I really appreciated how cleanly this edit removed Azog as a named and backstoried villain without compromising the final fight between Azog and Thorin. The episodic structure worked well too, emphasizing the different structure of The Hobbit as compared with The Lord of the Rings. What I was especially looking out for was the Battle of Five Armies, since this was something that various edits I've seen have handled with the widest degree of variance. What I appreciated here was how Fili's death gave Thorin's final fight with the now unnamed lead orc (previously Azog) impact despite the two of them having no other backstory together, and too I appreciated that in this edit Kili got to go on a little revenge killing spree before he too was brought down.

I would certainly recommend this edit and will be watching it during my LotR marathons!

Attempting to reimagine the Hobbit franchise into something stomachable has become a favourite pastime of various editors in recent years, spawning dozens upon dozens of edits over the years. The original films were a bloated mess overall, with any scene of notable quality being crushed flat under the weight of the surrounding trilogy's endless cavalcade of shoehorned b-plots, excessive CGI, and a main character who gets little overshadow somehow.

With those past flaws in mind, I am happy to report that the work Stromboli has done here is nothing short of extraordinary. By mixing the narrative structuring, editing techniques, and CGI touch-ups of a variety of editors (including his own important additions) into a cohesive whole, he has managed to make an episodic version of the Hobbit which surpasses the original in every conceivable way.

The audio and visual quality were superb, with the editing somehow being rarely noticeable in spite of the sheer complexity of the cuts.
The narrative of this cut never fully breaks its own internal logic at any obvious point, managing to be mostly book accurate while also not being afraid to flesh out action sequences/characters if it improves the series. The elimination of so many problem plot-lines/characters/scenes without losing any vital information is both a testament to the skill of the edit and how much useless filler was stuffed into the trilogy.

Finally, the pacing of the edit was a notable highlight. The only time I felt it drag a bit was during the titular final battle, but even then it still blows the original pacing away. Overall, the pacing made the action set pieces of each episode much more enjoyable.

I would recommend this to just about anyone who likes fantasy shows. One last note: there is a plethora of audio/visual quality options to choose from for this edit if your particular about that and have the space for it. Thanks for the edit Stromboli!

Oh yes!
After having the Maple edit for some time, I now got this jewel! As others mentioned before, this will definitively be my go-to version!
It's got great pacing, and while M4's edit is also rather trimmed, this here has more... magic:
It's not purely the book, but only the good ideas were left in from Jackson's original, so you have that grandeur which made LOTR so special without feeling ridiculous or bloated to the max and then some more on top!
It's utterly charming and made me smile several times, so joyful was the ride into Middle-Earth! Everything I read before I watched this edit regarding its strenghts is true. THIS really is what I expected when I went to the movies back then...
Then, there's technically flawless editing from visuals and audio - THANK YOU!!!!

As a newbie sometimes I'm a bit daunted at the range of edits of particular films, so it's difficult to know where to start! For anyone in my position, I'd like to point out this serial version of The Hobbit. Having just finished it, its a fantastic example of what can be achieved and could easily be viewed as being a part of the original Jackson franchise. Hats off to all involved for the time and effort. My kids are Tolkein fanatics and all loved this version in-spite of initial hesitation!

This is the best edit of the Hobbit trilogy I've seen.

Stromboli Bones' view matches 99% of my preferences. I've watched a lot of Hobbit edits trying to find the "perfect" version for myself, but all of the others have had at least one major thing that has left me a little disappointed. Not this one. There are no plot holes or continuity issues that would distract from the enjoyment.

The edit is cut into a five part miniseries format. Each episode is about one hour long, so everybody even with a busy schedule should be able to knock off at least one a day, and still enjoy it fully. It really feels like you are watching an official The Hobbit Series. The only time I might consider watching another edit is if I have 4-5 hrs straight to spend watching, and want an "extended edition" movie experience - in these instances I might choose a one movie extended edition edit instead. But speaking from experience, binge watching all the five episodes straight works too!