Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey - Arkenstone Edition, The

Great stuff. There's not much to say, so my review will be brief.

I love LOTR, so I was there opening night for AUJ. I knew it wasn't going to be as good as LOTR, that wasn't possible. Like many, I found myself somewhat disappointed in the film (still love it, to be clear), mostly pacing and narrative wise. Let me just say that there's no disappointment in this edit. It's not a replacement for me (I'm still holding tight to my EE - I want as much Middle Earth as possible), but it is, most likely, the best possible version of the film. It's faster, it's not as jumbled - it's definitely more focused. I could go more in depth, but I think the easiest thing to say is look at the cutlist and understand that every change works and improves the movie.

I only have a couple of problems with the edit. First thing I noticed that was off was the shot of painting in Rivendell - color wise and because of the slow motion. Next, and last, was the audio in the final few scenes. The thing is, when the entire audio track was replaced, the music wasn't loud enough, and it felt somewhat empty. Also, some of the original music seeps through when there's dialogue, but that's not as big a deal.

Anyway, great, great edit.

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.

When I saw The Hobbit in the theater I was bored. It was too long with too much filler. It felt padded for no reason other than to stretch out what should have been a single film into three. Then I watched this edit and realized it could actually work as a trilogy so long as the running time was kept under control. With over 40 minutes cut the just over two hour runtime is no longer drags the film down.

I'm not as familiar with The Hobbit as well as Lord of the Rings, but there was nothing that stood out as missing. I know certain scenes are missing or heavily cut, but it's expertly done and if you aren't familiar with the movie you won't notice. Nothing cut was necessary and I'm happy to see it go.

The audio didn't seem balanced quite right. At times it was overpowering while others low. This may be the master track and not the fanedit itself but it was mildly distracting. I'm only knocking one point off for it because the cuts themselves were flawless.

One thing I wish Kerr had done was mute the colors just a bit. When I saw the film in the theater I thought it looked too lush and I felt the same way here. The colors are so vivid and pop that it pulls you out of film. Desaturating it a bit May have helped.

But that's nitpicking and this version of The Hobbit is definitely worth a watch. It moves along at a nice pace, never becomes boring, and is my preferred version of the film.