M4's The Hobbit Book Edit

When I first saw the Hobbit trilogy, I remember being being relatively satisfied until Desolation of Smaug's ridiculous chase scenes and love triangle. BOFA was a massive disappointment. I had heard about Hobbit fanedits for a while now, but this year I finally sat down to watch this one. And my mind was blown.
On a technical level, this edit is professional quality. I couldn't even tell that I was watching a fanedit. The video and audio quality are flawless, the transitions and editing appear natural and effortless. By staying strictly faithful to the book, all of the bloat has been cut out, and the best parts, especially Martin Freeman's performance, shine through more. A brilliant example is removing Bilbo's rescue of Thorin in AUJ. Removing that moment made Thorin and Bilbo's friendship feel much more natural and developed. This and other changes are possible thanks to the fantastic VFX work in this edit, especially during Smaug's attack on Laketown, which manages to remove Bard's son from the scene in a way I didn't think was possible. To make a long story short, if you want a version of the Hobbit that follows the book to the letter, containing only the best parts of the trilogy, look no further than this edit.

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.

Absolutely loved this edit. THe narrative really ulls you in as it cuts out all those unneccessary additional storylines. I loved the project so much I even got to making subtitles for it.

Look no further, this is the best Hobbit edit out there! It turned a bad trilogy into a great movie. Many of the trilogy's shortcomings have been ironed out. It feels like a real movie now and is closer to how the Hobbit should be in the first place.
An enormous effort that culminates in a great work. Now i can finally enjoy the Hobbit.

Edit is absolutely incredible. Made me go back and rewatch the whole hobbit trilogy for first time in years. Love the feel of the film and turned it into one great evening watch