Hobbit: The Original Two-Film Structure, The

This edit is truly the definitive version of Peter Jackson's vision. The Hobbit movies had a fantastic core with a great cast, but were bogged down by out of place elements. Adam doesn't relentlessly cut down the movie and reduce it to a plot driven action film. Instead, he keeps the intended tone and atmosphere of the original films and builds on that. Peter Jackson's Hobbit was not meant to be a direct adaptation of Tolkien's novel with no additional input. It was a culmination, a final word by someone who had worked in Middle-Earth for so long. Adam understands this and beautifully gels the Necromancer plot to the overall Erebor story in a way that deepens the latter. The new subtitles and restructured Dol Guldur scenes give the viewer a keen understanding of why this quest to take back the mountain is so important. Azog's plot is also improved by the restructuring. The Azog flashback comes at just the right moment. The way that the three plotlines in the film (Azog, Necromancer, Erebor) are combined to create one strong narrative is the best part of this edit. Each plotline also has symbolic relevance, as they all contribute to an overall theme about perseverance in the face of corruption.

Thorin's new "coming back from madness" scene is seamlessly cleaned up. The OTT gold flood is removed and the scene becomes hugely introspective. This example lies at the core of Adam's work here. Small changes that play a major role.

The only (and I mean only) part where I felt like I was watching a fanedit was the lead up to the Azog flashback. There's a shot of one of the dwarves looking anxiously at Thoron. It's a short clip that's strangely reversed and repeated a few seconds after it initially occurs. It's just a bit awkward.

Other than that small bit, a genuinely fantastic edit. My favorite of any of the Hobbit fanedits by far.

The trifecta of my childhood will always be the Middle Earth movies (The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings), Star Wars, and the MCU movies. I grew up with Lord of the Rings, and I was drawn into the epic adventure and grand celestial battles along with its characters (even as a kid). Fast forward to twelve year old me in 2012, and I was hyped for The Hobbit. As I grew up, the nostalgia goggles started to fade and the flaws had shown their-self (I still love them but dear lord the flaws show). Then, I searched for an edit that would restore the magic I had once seen. I've been searching throughout all of Middle Earth practically for the best edit of Peter Jackson's The Hobbit trilogy. I was told of The Maple Films Edit. While it was good, it cut some things that I liked. Which was The White Council scenes, yes they're drawn out but you can trim them down well enough. Now, Gandalf randomly appeared and it was kinda jarring because I was like, "Wait. Where's Gandalf?" then BOOM! here he is. It was a very well done edit, but something was missing. Tauriel was cut and Legolas was cut but there was something missing. I tried The Spence Edit, and that is the best all in one edit. To anyone who wants to experience the movies all in one, that's it. It wasted no time, was a seamless edit, trimmed The White Council perfectly but still something missing that I couldn't quite figure out. It was the magic that drew me into the movies in the first place as a kid (Spence came very close).

Then, after braving through Mordor and fighting off the goblins, orcs, dragons, and wargs. I found it. Much like Arwen and her elvish beauty, it drew me in. The Original Two-Film Structure is the perfect edit of the Hobbit movies. The audio and visuals are done well probably the best in any edit. I didn't even have to turn it up or down a lot, it was perfect.

The prologue was kept, the dwarf backstory was there, Radagast was there, and much of the first movie was intact pretty much. It transitioned to the second movie well and ended well during the first part. I would say the same for the second part, it was great mostly. Alfred was even fine in this, I liked the way the editor did it. The ending of the second part was amazing as well keeping the "Old friends" ending with a new song (I love it). The Dol Godur sections were great too. OMG! Thorin's getting over his dragon sickness BRAVO! loved the way it was done. However, my criticisms are things that are done better the other edits. That being, Legolas' tap dancing was kept, the Smaug section was good until it builds up to the chase but doesn't happen (point goes to Spence for that). The Battle of the Five Armies section (the actual fight as a whole) was fine but Spence and The Maple Edit did it better. Meaning the elves and dwarves should've squabbled and then come together when the orcs show up (they shouldn't have fought). Also, the trolls being stoned by Gandalf should've had more of a build up seen in the original and the other aforementioned edits. The goblin tunnels started off fine, but was too short (point goes to The Maple Edit for that section). The entirety of Lake town was amazing, but the killing of Smaug coulda been better (point goes to Spence for the Smaug killing). Finally, the re-worked subtitles were great most of the time (especially in part 1), but the second part they came off as fan fiction-y towards the end.

In conclusion, there are a couple of things the other edits to right but this is the best edit of the Hobbit movies bar none. It is by no means a book cut, but makes well with what Peter Jackson made. The story has time to breathe and is more memorable. I could definitely see these being standalone theatrical versions directed by Peter Jackson. It restored the magic for me. I'm not sure why. Maybe it was because most of the first movie was intact mostly or what. All I know is, criticisms aside, this is a great edit. Well done Adam Dens, you did an amazing job. Thank you for this edit.

I watched this fanedit after reading some of the stellar reviews on this site. I hadn't actually watched all 3 Hobbit films since I first watched them in theaters, and decided I didn't want to see the last 2 movies a second time. While the editor did a great job with the material he had, the second act still struggles due to the heavy use of poor CGI, and some overblown story telling. Sorry, this is not a review of the source material, but of the edit. So yeah, great job. Honestly the deleted/extended scenes you used to add detail to Gandalf's story was incredible. Loved how the first movie flowed and was very entertained. The second movie, again, story editing was as good as it could get and really love having these edits so I can enjoy Middle-Earth some more. There were still things that I wish were not in the movie, but again, I think the editor, Adam Dens, made solid decisions to keep some of the less desirable material in order to tell a story. Thank you.

Just finished watching this 2 movie fan fix edit and I couldn't agree more with the all round praise this edit is receiving, it is simply a masterpiece of fan editing. The fact I actually feel emotions for the characters is a massive achievement in of itself. Furthermore when Bilbo is standing back in his empty home at the end, I actually feel just like him...sad that the adventure is over and there is this massive emptiness felt from the sudden absence of it and his friends that he shared and experienced it with, 3 of them which he will never see again.

It's simply night and day from the one and only previous time I watched The Hobbit movies when they were theatrically released, the fact I never watched them again and effectively forgot about them as I walked away from the cinema is a testament to Adam's edit in being able to so drastically flip that reaction for myself this time round. There were a few minor issues that I noted throughout but they pale into insignificance and are almost forgotten in light of the overall achievement. For the sake of feedback though I'll just very briefly list them below:

- Nearly all edits/cuts were seamless but it felt like there were some obvious ones that distracted slightly from the viewing experience due to the knowledge of watching a fan edit. From memory the 2 to 3 main obvious ones were around the first Radagast meet up with the Gandalf and company and arriving / departing Rivendell. They were just too sudden and you could feel the missing footage that had been removed between the scenes. That is with a very hazy memory of the theatricals though and when trying to look at the edits in a fresh light, the story still ends up making sense and the cuts simply feel a bit odd at their abruptness.

- This was probably my biggest gripe (which is minuscule next to the success the edit was for me) that did distract me again somewhat from the movie when I realised that we don't get any footage of Smaug smashing open the front entrance of the Erebor before flying off to Lake Town. I'm not sure as to the reason for this as the whole point of the map and the key with the secret entrance was to gain entrance to the mountain, but if Smaug simply "leaves" through an existing opening then why couldn't the company just enter that way as well? I'm trying to remember from the book which I haven't read in a great many years now, whether the Dwarves knew / assumed the dragon was guarding the front entrance? Otherwise this omission from the story of him smashing open the sealed entrance doesn't make a great deal of sense and it leaves us questioning this matter instead of keeping focus on the movie at the time.

Those matters aside, I would highly recommend this edit any day and it is now my definitive go to edit for The Hobbit. I fully support the proclamation made by doug23 and manu90 in their reviews of this edit sitting up there with Adywan's Revisited Star Wars edits. Congratulations also to Adam on a well deserved award of FEOTM!

Edit: Just watching the Cutting Room making of feature reminded me of something else - when Radagast goes to Dol Guldor and he looks down the hallway where the Necromancer / Sauron starts to manifest / show himself at the end of it and the camera zooms in, I think it could cut earlier once it reaches his face. It looks scary freaky as f##k right up till the edges of his mouth get dragged down and Sauron's shadowy face turns into a Scream mask caricature which turns it almost comic and instantly removes all the menace and mystery from the scene as he turns into a clown. Watch at 5:48 of the feature if unsure what I am talking about.

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.