Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey - Arkenstone Edition, The

This was the movie I was hoping to see in the theatres. I am a huge Tolkien fan and was incredibly disappointed with all six movies, but especially the Hobbit trilogy. The over the top dialogue and action scenes, constant battles, distractions from plot flow, and I could go on and on, left a sour taste in my mouth for these movies that had so much potential. then I saw this, and I have been telling everyone about it since- this is instantly my go-to version. I love the streamlined plot, and that it still kept some of the new ideas in the movie that were extrapolated from other Tolkien works.

Kerr is a gifted editor who shined in this edition. the only negative, other than minor nitpicking over the inclusion/exclusion of script/plot choices is that the dialogue is a little difficult to pick up at times in the beginning over the really great redone score.

Arkenstone has restored the warmth for Middle Earth, and I hope Kerr takes a stab at the next 2 in the trilogy, whether they are in one or two films.

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.