Hobbit: The Original Two-Film Structure, The

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.

I have seen a great deal of Hobbit fan edits over the past 2-3 years...so many that it has been hard to keep track of them all! Some have been excellent (Spence's Edit), some have been astoundingly poor (The Tolkien Edit which got a lot of press for being the first Hobbit edit, yet was released using a bootlegged DVD copy of Battle of Five Armies). This two-part edit falls somewhere in the middle for me and I will explain why.

First off, the title of this edit (The Original Two-Film Structure) is a bit misleading. Peter Jackson and his team have said that when the Hobbit was still two films, they intended to end the first film with the company meeting Bard at the river. This edit splits the story at a completely different point.

The audio/visual quality is truly excellent. Just as clean and crisp as the actual Bluray releases. I loved the custom Bluray menus as well; very beautifully done. There are hardly any visual edit issues save for a noticeable color correction issue that happens during the transition from An Unexpected Journey to the Desolation of Smaug. The edit intends to merge two scenes together that are lit and colored completely differently. Some simple correction to the latter's footage would have solved this. The audio editing is mostly solid aside from a few fades and transitions.

Most Hobbit edits floating around the Internet (and on this site) have landed somewhere between 3 and 4 hours long. This (to me at least) indicates that there is a minimum baseline of garbage to be removed from the Hobbit trilogy by faneditors. I've even seen a daring cut that was only two hours long! However out of all the edits currently listed on IFDB, this edit is by far the longest at over 6.5 hours. It is an interesting choice by the editor to keep so much content in the edit, but unfortunately it is also what detracts from its enjoyment and overall quality. These films were lambasted for their narrative excess for a reason, and I feel this edit unsuccessfully splits the difference between the original films and the much leaner and cleaner versions out there.

Several editing decisions jumped out at me during the viewing of this edit. Why does Frodo show up at all here? He is completely cut save for one awkward shot of him walking in Bag End. No explanation is given. Why remove Blunt the Knives yet include the dwarves' song in Rivendell (which wasn't even in the theatrical release)? I've seen some edits that include Radagast, but do we really need the cross-eyed pothead humor? Why are Alfrid and Legolas still so visible, and at the expense of actual scenes from the book like the eagle rescue? Why are the were-worms still here, with even less foreshadowing than the original films? Other faneditors have easily removed these things without ruining the narrative flow of their edits.

I admire the reworking of nearly all the Orcish/Black Speech subtitles, even if they do venture into hokey fan-fiction on occasion. I really liked how the first part of the edit ends with the Sauron reveal cliffhanger, and picks back up on Part Two with the Bree flashback leading into Laketown. Some inspired bits of editing and re-working of scenes are evident here, but ultimately it is just not enough. There is still too much bloat and excess, which becomes more evident as the edit gets into the Battle of Five Armies. While still trimmed from its original length, the battle carries on for far too long.

Even though the editor claims to want this edit to feel closer in tone to the LOTR trilogy, we are still treated to plenty of ridiculous CGI buffoonery (Legolas tap-dancing on the dwarves, flying on a bat, generally outrageous and impossible stunts, silly troll antics, etc). Moments like this are what made The Hobbit films compare poorly to the more grounded LOTR trilogy, and other editors have worked around many of these issues with success. Despite its high technical quality, "The Original Two-Film Structure" doesn't remove enough from the original films to make it a true standout amongst the ever-growing pantheon of Hobbit fan edits.

This edit completely changed my attitude towards The Hobbit movies. As a huge LOTR fan, I was really excited to see them, but like many other people I was... disappointed is too strong a word, because they're decent movies, but they failed to scratch an itch; an itch that the LOTR trilogy managed to scratch perfectly. I was dumbfounded that at the end of The Hobbit trilogy certain characters died and I felt NOTHING. Because I didn't care. Because the focus was off.

The main reason why I love Adam's edit is because it scratched that itch! Through clever rearranging of scenes, bringing the focus back to character development and certain character dynamics and cutting redundant scenes, Adam achieved something that the originals failed to do: He made me care about the characters.

I love how Adam's lighting and colour adaptations make the edit feel like the LOTR trilogy. It really feels like they're part of a 5 part saga now, and that's a huge accomplishment!
After watching the edit I immediately wanted to watch The Fellowship of the Ring! Because it feels like they connect perfectly.

The new subtitles for the Black Speech sequences are genius. They make total sense and tie the events of the movie together, like right before Dol Guldur spews out Orcs. It just made total sense! Azog barking out tactical maneuvers now feel more genuine too.

I enjoyed this edit to the max, and would recommend anyone who wants to feel that familiar LOTR vibe again to watch it. With friends. In LOTR cosplay.

I know The Hobbit films very well, and I've seen several fanedits that I think greatly improved them. But this one rises above them all. Adam Dens has created the definitive version of The Hobbit here. For fans of the book, you have a narrative vastly restructured and improved to focus on Bilbo and Thorin's journey, while drawing on all available material to hit all the key narrative points. For fans of Lord of the Rings, you have two films vastly more in-line with the Lord of the Rings trilogy, preserving the Nercromancer subplot, and even enhancing it with some excellent reworking of the Black Speech subtitles to both make the enemy's plans clearer and more engaging, and to pepper in some delicious references to Tolkien lore WB didn't have the rights to.

"The Gathering of the Clouds" is like most AUJ edits, trimming down the "multiple beginnings" syndrome and getting us into the action quicker. I wish the "Sebastian" scene had been cut here to improve this, as other edits have successfully introduced Radagast when he meets the company. The masterstroke however in this film is introducing Azog after the Goblin Tunnels, using the Goblin King's reference to introduce a mystery element the original's didn't have. I won't spoil how, but with some re-subtitling, and moving around of key scenes Adam Dens has created an entirely new sequence here to bridge AUJ with DOS in place of the "Out of the Frying Pan" scenes, and its very effective. One minor quibble, the ponies they had before the tunnels are present again out of nowhere, and then gone. But the pacing here is not only maintained, but better than many other points of the film as a sense of urgency and peril is injected into what had been up to that point, a very meandering and somewhat childish quest. Gollum's scenes are also uninterrupted to better engage audiences with Bilbo's experience, a trick Adam Dens explains he is fond of in the brilliant accompanying special features. I feel this film would have benefited from some additional cuts to fit the vision of keeping in tone with LOTR. Many of the beats in Radagasts scenes for instance could be cut to make him feel more like a character we can take seriously. And the run time could have been improved by sacrificing moments other edits have, like the rock giants or extended Beorn intro and forest scene. But these, granted, will please book purists. Finally, Tauriel and Legolas are handled well. Both are cameos and supporting cast in this version rather than active participants. Meanwhile, Gandalf's subplot is accelerated and used to bookend the film. If you're really familiar with these films like I am, I'd warn some of these early changes may seem a tad jarring. But its done very well. Tauriel's romance is cut for instance, but she is still used to help explore the culture and different points of view of the Woodland elves.

Film 2, "There and Back Again" is simply brilliant. The looming threat of Sauron and his army, foreshadowing the beginning of the battle for middle earth is ever present and much clearer from the go. The scenes flow brilliantly from one film to another. The bridging of the ending of DOS into the Battle of Laketown has been done before, and it couldn't be more obvious this was the way it should have always been. But Adam Dens edits it with more professionalism and skill than versions I've seen before. Overall this film really flows and is emotionally resonant and engaging in a way the same material never was before. The restructuring and editing of the Battle of the Five Armies is masterful. It now feels emotional, engaging and like there are real stakes, whereas before it was tonally muddled, confusing, and unfocused. On a final note, I would have liked Alfred and the Master to be cut down a lot more, again because their characters are tonally inconsistent with the rest of the film and with the LOTR films. Other edits for instance have been very effective in waiting to introduce both characters till the scene where Thorin and company are brought before them, and even imply Alfred died in the Battle of Laketown. I'd have also liked Gandalf's eulogy from the appendices to be included in the Funeral, which Adam Dens so effectively mined for the "Acorn scene" and used to deeply emotionally enrich the battle. But these things are all down to preference.

Adam Dens has delivered the version of these films the world deserves to see, and for that I applaud and thank him.

I watched almost every single fan-edit of “The Hobbit” trilogy available out there. I consider the Maple Films Edit (MFE) performed by eldusto84 for very far the best cut. Technically speaking, the MFE is perfect and the running time clocks in 4h. Every single aspect from MFE is flawless and its strongest feature is indeed presenting “The Hobbit” in the closest way to the novel. So, for purists, MFE will be the edit to go without a doubt.

However, if you prefer a more cinematographic approach to the Tolkien’s saga be welcome to experience the most comprehensive cut to enrich “The Lord of the Rings” (LOTR) cinematographic universe. Indeed, Adam Dens claims about his work are undeniable. He accomplished two chapters which are a must before watching LOTR. The visual tone is corrected here and coupled with the one shown in the first trilogy. All the narrative clearly moves forward to be organically integrated into a five-entry saga and for me, this is the greatest achievement of this edit. A big plus in Adam’s edit compared to the MFE cut is the running time. You will enjoy two extra hours of Middle Earth in Adam’s cut and once again this is another first-class feature here. It is not about showing more footage for free but showing more footage for narrative purposes. I personally disliked the theatrical version of “The Hobbit”, I always saw it as a missing chance. Moreover, despite great performances from Martin Freeman and Richard Armitage I felt zero engagement with the story. After Adam’s edit viewing… I experienced the epic once again, I really cared about the different characters and I was moved in many parts of the story.

Endless gratitude for this gift, as Adywan’s work is a masterpiece in the Star Wars universe among fanedits, “Hobbit: The original two-film structure” deserves the same consideration into the ring franchise. Be welcome to experience the best fan edit of the year and ones of the best ever!