Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey - Arkenstone Edition, The

Superb edit, nothing more to add, i've just loved this new vision of the Movie =) Hope to see you work on Desolation of Smaug (specially this one!!) and The battle of the Five Armies.

Hope to see you work with "Desolation of Smaug" and "The Battle of the five armies", in separated or the 3 in one movie =)

Nothing to add, i've just loved this new vision of the Movie =) Hope to see you work on Desolation of Smaug (specially this one!!) and The battle of the Five Armies.

Just chiming in to add that this edit got me to this site [and the world of fan-editing in general].

This is not a purist cut; it's a cut that exercises good judgement, across the board. There are maybe 4-5 minutes of footage I’d see additionally cut from Arkenstone AUJ, mostly material involving Azog (the warg chase, Amon Sul, and the Azog/Thorin duel in Out of the Frying Pan). Otherwise it’s perfect—it leaves in (compressed versions of) the useful additions to the book (White Council, Radagast) while losing the stupid parts (the stick bug, the hedgehog, Galadriel telepathy and teleporting, the Stone Giants, the Goblintown hamster wheel etc.) Other scenes are trimmed to make them work a lot better in the awkward tonal place PJ has put the movie in by adapting it as a LOTR prequel—Kerr carefully edits scenes like the trolls and Goblin King to retain some of the Hobbit’s levity but still in a world that feels recognizably like that in LOTR—no mean feat. The extended editions are lightly mined (specifically, the fantastic work with Bilbo in Rivendell), pulling only what’s necessary without rebloating the run time.

I watched it with four diehard fans of LOTR, all of whom absolutely loathed AUJ's theatrical release, and I’ve recommended it to other friends. All have had a uniformly ecstatic reaction (although none go as far as me to say it approaches ROTK, which I consider the low end of the LOTR trilogy.)

The only minor complaint, and I understand that it has to do with the available audio, is that some of the mixing in Hobbiton makes the dialogue a bit hard to follow. That’s it. That’s all I have to complain about, in an otherwise fantastic edit. I will never again watch the theatrical or extended cuts, and I refuse to allow members of my family to see them—Arkenstone only. This is the definitive Hobbit AUJ.

I'd love to see you do a similar prudent, but not book purist edit, combining material from the DoS and BOFA extended editions, as a first pass before you release your 2015 purist one alluded to in the headnotes to this.

I made an account just so that I could write this review. This fan edit was fantastic. The original film left a slightly bitter taste in my mouth. The awful slapstick and cheesy jokes did not go well with the otherwise dark-ish tone that Jackson was going for. This edit cuts all the annoying crap out, and keeps all (well, mostly all) the good stuff in. Obviously this edit was made to keep continuity with the rest of the trilogy, so as a result, plot points that seem unnecessary and added in had to be kept. Still, only the necessary shots remain in this edit.

Something MUST be said about the audio editing. I gave it a 9, which was tough to do considering it was both one of my favourite as well as least favourite aspects of the edit. The music from the original AUJ was very welcome, and the voice (and visual) clips integrated from The Fellowship of the Ring were incorporated magnificently. The only gripe I have (which is why I gave audio a 9) is that as a result of working your audio wizardry, some of the dialogue is hidden under the score. You can still make out what they're saying, but it's definitely more difficult than it should. Nevertheless, this will be my go-to version of the film from now on, and I look forward to seeing your edit of DoS (which I'm hoping to be able to watch within the next month or so...?)