M4's The Hobbit Book Edit

First of all, I would like to say my brief thoughts on the original Hobbit Trilogy and other edits that I've seen, plus my relationship with LotR in general. I have read The Hobbit and the LotR trilogy many years ago, although I did that after seing LotR in cinema. I enjoyed all of them, it is an amazing work that changed and shaped the fantasy theme forever. I also loved the LotR movies, seen them many times both in theatrical and extended versions. The Hobbit films on the other hand, not so much, with the exception of the first. I also did watch them several times, both theatrical and extended versions. The first one I really liked, I don't care that it alleviated from the book. I didn't like every minute of it, nor did I enjoy having as a new main villain a cgi monster, but whatever. Let's just say that from the overall three hours extended version, I could easily cut 20-30 minutes and be completely happy. The second Hobbit, was just a drag. It wasn't bad per se, I was just bored out of my mind, felt like a filler. Finally, the third one I really disliked. At first I thought, ok we went through the filler the last time, now it will be the good stuff. Nope, that was a bad movie alright. But I should have known, when they decided to make a trilogy out of a 300 pages book and some extra notes.

Before this I watched "The Hobbit, There and Back Again" version, by L8wrtr. Unfortunately, he saved only the second film for me. To be more specific, I was fine with everything up until the death of Smaug. So, overall, the third film remained to be saved. I needed a more aggressive edit. When I remembered to search about it, there where actually quite a few of them, but I saw lots of people mentioning this and Maple's edit, so I went with this. I checked to see the runnitme here after the death of Smaug, and I realised that M4 had cut an extra 20 minutes compared to L8wrtr's version. So I thought, maybe this will do it. Yeap, it did!

FIrst of all, even thought I was ok with the folllowing in the original, I realised I didn't mind at all or even liked:
- that Galadriel was gone
- Radagast too
- the fight with "Sauron", Gandalf, Galadriel etc bye bye
- Azog was only at the end as an unknown leader
- Legolas was as a cameo
- and the most important change of all, the removal of Arkenstone's effect on Thorin. Now, the overall problem was greed, one of the oldest reasons in history of "man".

Be that as it may, although I understand that the editor was going for a "book edit", I couldn't get over the following two cuts (the third one I just went with it):
- Firstly, the flashback of the war with the dwarves and Azog, was a much needed scene in order to establish Thorin as a character and make the audience understand where he comes from and why he is a little bit of a jerk. After all, besides Bilbo, he is the main character, so the background was important aaand it didn't contradicted the fact that we see him again at the end of this edit.
- My second issue has to do with the second and third film. Removing everything about Bard, first of all created a missing part with the destruction of the town, where everyone suddenly is safe and sound in a camp, after the onslaught of Smaug at Laketown. I mean, at one moment Smaug destroys everything and Bard kills him and then "everyone" is ok outside the city. Secondly, it wasn't a bad plot having Bard playing a role as a leader to these people, it actually enriched the character.
- Lastly, by removing everything that actually involved Gandalf offscreen, it made him look as if he is always missing for no reason! It makes the viewer wonder, why isn't Gandalf, yet again, with the company? What on earth is he doing?

So, for anyone who is a purist or didn't like all of the films, I most definitely recommend this version! I mean, how much more to cut out without it becoming a mess? And a huge plus, it has subtitles!!! For me, it will be my go-to version for the last two films. I checked if I can watch this after I watch L8wrtr's version up until the death of Smaug, but it's not possible, they contradict each other a lot. So I will either watch L8wrtr's edit of the first one or even the original movie and for the last two films, M4's will be my go-to version!

Thank you M4_ and thanks to anyone who read my review!

Let me start by saying that I wasn't an Hobbit fan until I watched the fanedits. And only had the discs because someone had gifted them to me to pair with my LotR discs.
I didn't like the originals at all. There was potential in them but poor execution/editing. I would rate the originals as an "ok", a 5 out of 10. There was just too much nonsense in them. The fanedits raised the quality to a 7 or 8 out of 10.

I initially watched M4_'s edit during the weekend. And I liked it so much that I ended up rewatching The Hobbit during next week; but this time went with Stromboli Bones' edit.
If you're wondering which version to watch then it mostly depends on how much free time do you have. They are both equally excellent and have made The Hobbit something I intend to rewatch, through their fanedits.

I always find it difficult to write reviews because I easily forget things. Particularly the supposedly "small" things.
But I guess that is the effect of a true craftsman. Removes the warts so you never knew they were there. Polishes the rough edges so everything looks smooth.
In any case one only needs to scroll through the list of changes to see how much work was put into it.

Since I watched both fanedits in such a short period let us hope I don't mix something up here.
And the above section of the review is common to both.

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I absolutely loved M4_'s fanedit. And prefer it to both since it's more concise. It's a 4h epic that never gets dull nor silly nor tiresome. You can easily watch it in a sitting. And it even has an intermission moment for a quick pause :)
From the technical point of view I have nothing to add. Everything is flawless and perfect to my eyes.
From a director's point of view as far as I can remember I think the only changes I would have made would be:
- trimmed the Goblin King's song
- extended the scenes of the battle of the five armies
- included the scene where the Elven king shows his scars - but maybe this wasn't in the books?

Great fun to watch. Highly recommend to casual fans and book purists alike!

First I want to say thank you for your hard work that brought us this entertainment!
I must admit that Adam Dens' "Hobbit: The Original Two-Film Structure" was my go-to version of the Hobbit films, but this one finally takes the cake! :)
I never really could get into the original versions, neither the theatrical, nor the extended cut, but this edit stays at the core story without any compromise: Bilbo's story, and the interwoven dwarfs storyline. Anything else is cut, if it does not further the main story. What is really interesting about it is that none of the other stuff is missing. No Radagast, almost no Azog, no Necromancer, no Tauriel, etc. are in the movie anymore and in hindsight, this removes all of the artificial bloating of the original movies. There are really enough good scenes and story arcs available just sticking to Bilbo's and the dwarfs' journey, which we only found out thanks to M4's eagle eyes and merciless cuts.
There is a lot more that was edited (see change list) that I do not want to comment on here. But the color scheme and the edits (visual AND audio) blend in very well. The story and entire movie feel very fresh and more serious and real and seem like an anti-modern-Hollywood statement: quality over quantity, story over jokes and special effects.
I wished many more movies would follow this scheme as it would prevent fan editors having to work forever to "correct" a movie based on their likings, which turns out to be the liking of so many others too ;)

I encourage everyone to watch this edit as it is a diamond and almost makes me like this movie now more than the original LOTR movies (pardon the sacrileg) :)

I'm just going to come out and say it: this was the Hobbit movie I wanted the first time around. Having grown up with the material, the Jackson films and the books, the Hobbit was one of the biggest letdowns of my movie-going life. Then along comes this cut. Most of the edits aren't even noticeable unless you're familiar with the scene. Even then, it was interesting to see a new spin on things and new life breathed into them. Because all the needless fat and pointless additions have been stripped, the acting and craftsmanship of the original cuts shine like never before. I was impressed by the VFX to patch certain scenes, such as removing Bard's son from the climactic arrow-shooting scene. I say do yourself a favor and watch this version.