M4's The Hobbit Book Edit

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.

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

M4 achieved his goals in this edit. It loses all the weird time-filler side plots, it loses the physics defying antics of the elves and dwarves. Focus is back on Bilbo's adventure.

The technical aspects of the edit are flawless. I detected no issues with cuts or transitions and audio was great. The intermission was put in a great spot. I actually paused the movie a few seconds before it thinking it was a good place to take a break.

For the cuts, I liked how the early portions were adjusted; the story got going quickly and the meeting at Bag End was well trimmed. Really, up to goblin town I think it's all just right. I could have done with a bit less of the song there, but the rest was good. There was just enough running battle to get a sense of the escape; I prefer that over completely removing the running fight. Riddles in the Dark was very on point, I love that scene.

I like how the warg fight and eagle rescue was reworked, very well done. It is smooth enough that I hadn't realized the amount of work done until reviewing the change log. Again, I'm really happy with the edit right up to meeting Bard.

Perhaps because I know the original material well, the initial meeting with Bard has a big continuity hiccup--at least to me. Since the entire barrel fight is cut, there is no context for the fresh damage to them that Bard fingers; since this contributes to his suspicion of the dwarves' story it is a bit jarring to me. Granted, the battle needs to be trimmed, a lot, but there could have been a bit left to explain that. I'm undecided on the Laketown entrance scene being entirely eliminated; it felt a bit abrupt suddenly offloading, but that could be my familiarity filling in the missing bits again. Otherwise, losing all the unnecessary side plots worked well.

The dwarves' entrance to Erebor, and Bilbo's meeting of Smaug runs really well. Getting Smaug recolored when he bursts out of Erebor is masterfully done. The attack and defense of Laketown works really well.

Really my only quibble for the Erebor/Battle of the Five Armies section is that everyone simply teleports to the top of Ravenhill. A couple of short clips of the Dwarves travelling up on the boars would be enough. Otherwise it is a great reworking of the sequence. You get all the drama and major events of the battle without any silliness or side plots distracting from the main story.

While this isn't my favorite edit, it is really well done and worth the watch.

As aomeone that read the book, I knew I had give this edit a shot. As the pale orc is not in the book I was very curious how it would come together. In the end the film came together flawlessly. I’m always surprised how few lotr lovers have only seen the movies so this was very much a, “thank you!” Experience as it was much closer to Tolkien’s vision imo. Overall as a newer viewer, if I don’t recognize that it’s an edit it’s great to me from a detail standpoint. Great edit!

Die-hard Tolkien fans, you need look no further! Ilúvatar has heard our prayers and sent his emissary M4 to bring us the definitive Hobbit edit. I was lucky enough to watch this masterpiece before it was featured in these fora and, although there were already some great fan-edits of the trilogy out there (I personally still keep Maple’s Durin’s Folk and the Hill of Sorcery as an appendix to the main story), M4’s Book Edit immediately became my to-watch version. And here are the main reasons for that:

1) Faithfulness: I’m a bit of a purist when it comes to adaptations. I mean, I never demand a word-for-word translation of the source material, but at the very least I expect to keep it close to the original’s spirit and follow its basic guidelines. M4’s Book Edit exceeds in that. His approach is that of a purist as well, but not to the point of botching up the narrative or the characters for the sake of faithfulness alone. The dwarves, for example, are often (deservedly) criticized for being too goofy compared to their book counterparts - some of them at least, like Bombur and Bofur. M4 trims away most of the misplaced humour without depriving them of their individual traits as depicted in the films, and never leaving them like empty shells of characters. It goes without question that all of the other annoying elements of the trilogy have been removed as well; Tauriel, Radagast, the awkward love triangle, the excessive, gravity-defying action pieces, all gone. Even Azog the Defiler is cleverly “replaced”, although I must confess that I wouldn’t mind if some references to his name were kept in and the Orc leader in the end identified as him, as long as he wasn’t a recurring villain throughout the whole film. All of the above are achieved through multiple seamless cuts and a good deal of digital tampering, which brings me to my second point...

2) The VFX: It’s what brought me to M4’s edit in the first place, after accidentally bumping onto his VFX creator’s reel on Youtube. I simply have no words for the work done on that area. It’s astonishing and really makes a difference! The digital reduction of Thorin’s wounds, the removal of the arrows on the barrels after the (now completely cut) river chase or even the replacement of Bard’s son during Smaug’s attack… And that’s just the tip of the iceberg! The attention to detail is impeccable when addressing continuity errors which may arise due to cuts or different approaches, bringing this edit flawlessly as close as possible to the source material.

3) The transition from An Unexpected Journey to The Desolation of Smaug: It’s a tricky part to edit, that’s for sure. Maple Film’s edit chooses to make this transition with some voice-over from Gandalf as the company moves from the Eagles to Beorn’s house. M4’s solution brings an air of 50’s and 60’s cinema to the table. Like Ben Hur, The Ten Commandments or Gone with the Wind, an intermission is used where The Journey ends and The Desolation starts. It’s old-school, it’s elegant and classy, and gives the audience a legit point to split the whole viewing experience in two. Absolutely love it!

I won’t dwell on all the other changes made (colour correction, Howard Shore’s OST etc.) As a conclusion to my review, I just want to address to any Tolkien lovers and LotR fans out there. Do yourself a favour and check this edit! It’s not just the epitome of a devoted, flawless fan-edit. It’s a total filmsaving experience that will make you see The Hobbit in a totally new light and fall in love with Middle-Earth once more.