Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey - Arkenstone Edition, The

I like the original AUJ. It was a very nice return to Middle-Earth, but lots of pacing issues, prequel-itis and plain odd stuff prevented this movie from becoming truly fantastic like The Lord of the Rings.

Kerr wanted to fix this and edited An Unexpected Journey to make it the beginning of the Middle-Earth saga instead of a direct prequel to The Lord of the Rings, cut all of the odd stuff and fixed the pacing issues.

The Audio/Video editing was flawless. I especially liked how Kerr reinstated Howard Shore's original music and replaced it with borrowed music from The Lord of the Rings. The color correction was also very nice. Even though the green hue never bothered me, the new picture looks better.

The narrative is fantastic. Personally, I would cut Old Bilbo and make the prologue as if Ian Holm voices a random narrator, with "In a hole in the ground..." Up to "...and all the comforts of home" transitioning over the "Good morning" scene. I would also keep Blunt the Knives and Bofur's song from the EE as they establish the dwarves' merryness, and keep some setups for the next films like some parts of the White Council, or more of Gandalf and Galadriel. But other than those preferences, what's been aimed has been achieved perfectly. Well done!

This movie really succeeds in being much better and fitting the next two movies, and I recommend it to ANYONE.

Audio was fine for me - I watched the BD, through headphones via my sound system.

I enjoyed this cut immensely - until the end. The warg tree fire fight thingy just felt totally unnecessary.
The film felt ended on "I will help you get your home back", cut to looking at the Lonely Mountain. Now I know you kept Azog because of continuity, but nothing really happens in this fight at all, and I would wager it could be safely cut.
I liked the cuts to the trolls, although it was maybe a little *too* short now.

I didn't notice the music changes AT ALL, so kudos there! The music is really good, and the sound FX work / foley that you did - WOW!

This is certainly to date the *best* version of AUJ by far, and is my go to version - but I'm still waiting for another edit to come along. Look forward to see what you cook up after viewing DoS and seeing what more can be cut in AUJ.
(Enjoyment is a solid 7, the original I would rate about a 5, maybe a 6. So the Enjoyment and Narrative ratings are more a reflection on the underlying film, rather than the edit itself. I just think more can be cut (which kerr himself said introducing this edit, so...!))

Applause for another amazing kerr edit.

I remember being very impressed by Kerr's LOTR fanedits, so when I heard he was working on an edit of AUJ, I was thrilled. So, I downloaded the AVCHD version and sat down to get in the mood to watch DOS at the cinema next week.

For me, AUJ was a bloated missed opportunity which had me feeling that Jackson was trying far too hard to "have his cake and eat it", by making The Hobbit a film which acts far too much as a direct prequel to the LOTR. This may please many, but that coupled with the fact that 3 films of 3 hours each, is something which I feel will lessen the effectiveness of this particular trilogy.

Reading Kerr's intention with this edit, I was pretty excited that he was going to try and redress the balance of the story to really be about Bilbo's journey and acceptance into this "company". The excellent new prologue, the cutting of the Frodo scene, the trimming of the festivities at Bilbo's house, all set in motion the tone of where Kerr's going, and I was immediately hooked. Even losing the entertaining introduction to Radagast works here, as the way Kerr now introduces this most entertaining of wizards is even better. The word is pacing... and boy is this fanedit paced to almost perfection.

All of Jackson's worst excesses have gone, most noticeably an excellent piece of editing with the trimming of the Troll scene, and then the ridiculous CGI-fest chase when the company escape the Goblin hordes, which now feels just about right.

I can't emphasize how impressive this edit is. Visually, the editing is absolutely perfect, with nothing feeling out of place or forced. To me, it's as if this is always the way the movie should have been. The same would go for some absolutely brilliant audio editing. The rebuilding of sound during various sequences is hugely impressive and to be honest, to notice a difference you really do need to be listening for it.

So, my hat off to you Kerr. This is as good as The Hobbit:An Unexpected Journey can be. You have truly created a masterful fanedit which truly shows just what can be rescued with this most wonderful and under appreciated of artforms. If you're in any doubt about visiting middle earth again... then doubt no more. Anybody interested in fanediting needs to see this.

This was a jolly good fanedit. The pacing is much much better. A worthy alternative to the Theatrical and Extended cuts. I look forward to the eventual kerr fanedit complete set(s).

A/V quality: 10
Editing: 10 visual, 9 audio
Narrative: 9
Enjoyment: 9 (original 8)

Recommended drink: Grass Hopper

Hi!

I am not a Top reviewer, just one of those users lurking in the shadows and not skilled enough to make my own fanedits -even though I've tried several times-.

So I must first say: THANK YOU. I am a fan of your work, Kerr, and I was waiting for this movie edit eagerly. Even if I enjoyed the theatrical version of the film, I found many scenes to be out of place and wanted so bad to see this kind of work with it...

The video and especially the sound in your edit are brilliant. It is very difficult to realise when something has been cut or added, and the blending with the music is close to perfect. Howard Shore must be proud!

The movie is faster and a better cinematic experience than the original, which I keep in my living room in Blu-Ray, but this is a great complement to it.

However I would like to point out two elements that I found disturbing when I watched the movie and that I have been surprised to find that are still in your version:

1) Saruman at Rivendell. For me it was a let down to see Saruman in the movie. If I am not wrong, Saruman does not appear in the movie. The whole council scene was too urgent and forced. For me, it felt like the Lord of The Rings movie could start anytime soon, and Saruman is blatantly rude... I expected him at least to be more subtle. I would like to see a version that takes Saruman away, but I don't know if Peter Jackson has other intentions for this character in the upcoming movies.

2) Thorin's sword when he is knocked out. Before blacking out, Thorin tries to reach the sword with his right arm and fails. Then when the eagle comes, it takes Thorin and by some sort of magic (or obvious filming mistake) the sword is next to Thorin's body, so much that the eagle takes Thorin and the sword easily. I usually forgive this kind of mistakes in a movie, but this one was too obvious for me and I hoped that a fanedit would fix this detail. There is no need to show Thorin trying to reach the sword and failing. I believe!


All in all, it is a great, close-to-perfect edit. Just hoped it to fix these 2 elements!

Thank you, anyhow! Terrific job.