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

Excellent stuff! video quality is not great i must say but overall very enjoyable! theres only like a couple places where it's a bit jarring and obvious of a cut like "ok yeah something used to be there" but I don't blame him for that because its better than the actual thing. This is literally the only way i will watch the hobbit from now on!

this edit can not be watched like a normal film on account of its massive runtime but for those who have had to sit through the misery that is the theatrical cuts of the hobbit trilogy its a very welcome change of pace. my only gripe is i feel like the battle of the five armies section could have been cut down way more because it seems the goal of this edit was to make the films more in like with the actual books but leaving in the actual war is a bit contradictory to that vision. if you're a fan of the hobbit films or have never seen them before i would recommend this.

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.