J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit (Maple Films Edit)

A good way to watch these if you want to see the book adapted to film without committing to the 9 or so hours of the originals. Considering this doesn't flow perfectly anyway, I honestly think it could have been even shorter. I also get the sense that the original movies just weren't that good, meaning this did not add up to an amazing whole either. I may update this review removing my recommendation if I find a shorter edit that I prefer.

Overall I thought this edit was fairly good, I did think it was a bit overhyped. I found their color corrections to be a bit over the top and very noticeable in the shire specifically. Before watching this one I originally watched the Tolkien edit which has far lower quality video but I did find a few things about it that I personally proffered. I think that the Tolkien edit handled the overall story a bit better but I really enjoyed the maple edit for some of it's character development .

Certainly an improvement over the originals. And, besides a few awkward A/V editing moments (nothing major but just a few times where cuts were noticeable), the technical elements were great. Unfortunately in my case, the films are still far too bloated, even at only half their runtime: with some ultimately unnecessary set-ups and sequences left seemingly untouched. Obviously this cut has impressed many, and it more-or-less has done the same to me, but it's just not quite there.

I am a huge LotR's fan but really struggled to enjoy/finish the original Hobbit trilogy. I found them extremely bloated and tough to sit through (I fell asleep in the theatre several times). Fortunately, this was one of my first introductions to fan editing and it honestly set the bar extremely high. Not only did I love this edit but it's now my only go-to when watching these movies.

The scene edits for the most part are perfectly executed with only a few very small cuts that are slightly noticeable. I was particularly impressed and how the Smaug scene played out as that seemed to go on for days in the original cut.

The pacing and storytelling were very well done considering a large chunk of the trilogy was cut and anyone who can still keep my attention for a 4-hour feature length film has my instant approval.

I only had the stereo SD version for years but thankfully just got the 5.1 1080p version and can't wait to watch this again.

Thank you for making these movies watchable in one sitting and inspiring me enough to take on my own edits. I highly recommend this version.

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.