Review Detail

If you're looking for an edit of The Hobbit that puts the movie more in line with the Lord of the Rings film trilogy in both look and narrative, you can't really do better than M4's edit, for my money. The color grading and film overlay succeed in making the movie look much more of a piece with the LoTR trilogy. The editing is seamless and top notch, including 5.1 surround throughout.

You could totally play this as part of a LoTR extended-edition movie marathon, and if the audience didn't know better, they wouldn't even realize it's a fan edit. The new effects and foley audio that M4 has created are integrated completely seamlessly. My only tiny quibble is that it would be nice to completely excise the "old bilbo" prologue and epilogue since those are really the only remaining thing that link this to the LoTR movies in a way that doesn't make a ton of sense if you watch this first, but I get why they were kept as there's just not much to work with in terms of the opening of the movie without them.

I love that M4 created an audio commentary to explain his process and the decision making that went into his edits (I'm listening to it as I write this!), as well as ISOs complete with menus and special features which really make it feel like a professional release that can be proudly displayed on the mantle next to the LoTR extended edition box set.

If you're looking for a short version of the movie, this might not be the version for you, since it's essentially as long as the Return of the King extended edition. But if you just want the most professional, book-centric version of The Hobbit possible without regard for length, you'll love it.