Review Detail

This was a great introduction to the fanedit world. I enjoy the original versions of the movies and am not as bothered as some by the extra stuff put in there. That said, this edit definitely cleaned up the story arc and moved things along.

The cuts all made sense and most of it I did not miss even with the knowledge of what was dropped. Only a couple places felt abrupt jumping past scenes. That was mainly in Beorn's house and Laketown. For me a little bit of what was cut would help smooth the story a bit. The group just appears at Beorn's dinner table where some short cuts to show how they got there would help. While most of Laketown's side plots were extraneous, you are left to make assumptions about Bard--particularly how he suddenly is imprisoned when Smaug arrives; having watched the original movies helped me fill in the blanks. Cutting the battle in Erebor helped a lot, but there's only so much that could be done with CG Smaug bursting from the gates covered in gold.

Overall I really enjoyed this take on the movie that more closely follows the original book.