Review Detail
9.7 20 10
Overall rating
10.0
Audio/Video Quality
10.0
Audio Editing
10.0
Visual Editing
10.0
Narrative
10.0
Enjoyment
10.0
Did you fall in love with Middle Earth as a kid, when your parents read Tolkien to you at bedtime? This edit will make you feel like that kid again!
Following Peter Jackson's outstanding Lord of the Rings, expectations were unbelievably high for the Hobbit prequel. Not surprising, the 3-movie version fell short. Painstakingly, Adam Dens has edited The Hobbit back to its book origin. Not to the letter, but to its spirit.
The outstanding achievement of this edit isn't about trimming it to 6 1/2 hours, though that helps. It isn't about cutting Blunt the Knives, though that helps too. It's creating a movie that feels like a book is being read to you. Storylines get more time to build up before we switch from one group of characters to another. They resolve before too many new ones start up, enabling us to keep up with the story. Battles are shorn of their worst CGI.
The two-part structure, consistent with the original movie intention, is not merely the three movies cut down the middle. Instead the story is restructured to create a satisfying beginning, middle, and end for each Part. To that end, the cliffhanger at the end of Part 1 is certainly inspired.
Some viewers will miss the Eagle escape. This and other sacrifices keep the overall narrative focused. On a practical note, the absence of subtitles makes dialog in several scenes harder to follow, so keep your remote handy.
Does this edit replace the original? Yes, wholeheartedly. Does this edit surpass the other fanedits of The Hobbit? For me it does.
Following Peter Jackson's outstanding Lord of the Rings, expectations were unbelievably high for the Hobbit prequel. Not surprising, the 3-movie version fell short. Painstakingly, Adam Dens has edited The Hobbit back to its book origin. Not to the letter, but to its spirit.
The outstanding achievement of this edit isn't about trimming it to 6 1/2 hours, though that helps. It isn't about cutting Blunt the Knives, though that helps too. It's creating a movie that feels like a book is being read to you. Storylines get more time to build up before we switch from one group of characters to another. They resolve before too many new ones start up, enabling us to keep up with the story. Battles are shorn of their worst CGI.
The two-part structure, consistent with the original movie intention, is not merely the three movies cut down the middle. Instead the story is restructured to create a satisfying beginning, middle, and end for each Part. To that end, the cliffhanger at the end of Part 1 is certainly inspired.
Some viewers will miss the Eagle escape. This and other sacrifices keep the overall narrative focused. On a practical note, the absence of subtitles makes dialog in several scenes harder to follow, so keep your remote handy.
Does this edit replace the original? Yes, wholeheartedly. Does this edit surpass the other fanedits of The Hobbit? For me it does.
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