Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey - Arkenstone Edition, The

A new Kerr fanedit of Tolkien material is always a cause for celebration. The Hobbit AUJ Arkenstone Edition was conceived from start to finish with definite ideas for tone, pace and story, and those ideas have been applied with brilliant judgment to achieve a consistent and lucid viewing experience.

First off I want to call attention to the sound design. The musical score has been changed or replaced in many sequences and Howard Shore's original score has been used as much as possible. That makes the whole movie sound and feel much more familiar (which is a good thing). It also makes for much better integration of action and musical atmosphere, really bringing the plot into better focus and making it more readily comprehensible and coherent. Given how much of the soundtrack has been reworked and redubbed, the final product sounds very clear and smooth with very minor variations in sound level and balance. The reworked sound design by itself transforms the movie.

Kerr has trimmed about 40 minutes from the movie and it is so much better with lighter baggage. Many times the action moves along smartly instead of slogging through scene after scene of fan service. Even some suspense is restored to some of the sequences that were buried under layers of meandering exposition, cartoony slapstick, and call outs to the first trilogy. The action and fights through the whole movie are more believable, something I appreciate a lot. Everything in Goblintown was far more snappy and the riddle sequence is more powerful now that it isn't intercut. You get a stronger sense that Bilbo has survived a test that has changed him. Everywhere there's less grandstanding, more subtlety.

The editor's knife is more deft than ever and sequences are rebuilt with a great feel for maintaining the rhythm of scenes, inserting reaction shots that flow well, synchronizing with musical beats - all the fine points of the fanediting art.

I have my disagreements with the story structure that Peter Jackson & Co. came up with and the fanedit still has at least two too many flashbacks for my taste. But here they move along better and don't bog down the main story quite so much. The Rivendell sequence seems more relevant and less pointless and inert, and I could not detect the rotoscoping even though I was looking for it.

I'm still eager to see Kerr's more radical edit that he is planning after all three Hobbit movies are released. For now, this version is one that complements the LOTR trilogy instead of being an embarrassment. I hope that anybody who hasn't seen the Hobbit yet gets to see the Arkenstone Edition as their first experience of the movie.

Professionally done. This is a great alternative to the original movie. My issue with the original movie was that sometimes it feels like we jump from a movie to a video game (stone giants, goblin town escape sequence). Radagast also had too many silly moments and his original introduction scene felt like we suddenly jumped to Narnia. All that and more was improved by this edit.

Another major improvement this edit has to offer is the sound editing and some alternative soundtracks (Thorin vs. Azog and eagles rescue scenes, especially) which work incredibly well.
I think, the minor negative I have in this regard is the missing sound piece from the scene when Gandalf breaks the rock to reveal sunlight on the Trolls. I liked that scene, as it originally was, with the Trolls' response to Gandalf.

Overall, it's an awesome work with a lot of heart put into it. This should have been the movie released in theaters.
Well done, Kerr.

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.

“Some stories deserve a little less embellishment...”

Kerr’s tagline perfectly captures the woes and shortcomings of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. The tag further extends to the recently released extend edition also, Arkenstone Edition aims to tell a tighter and more streamlined introduction into Peter Jackson’s Hobbit films. Kerr has marvellously achieved just that (and a little more).

Having watched the (easy on the downloads) mp4. version of the edit there is an understandable degradation of video quality, this can be seen in scenes that feature indicate details such as the many thousands of gold coins within the halls of Erebor. The compression artefacts can be noticeable at times, however this is a necessary sacrifice to obtain the more desirable download of only 3.37 GB. The audio quality appears to be top notch, no issues were heard due to the compression.

The visual editing is high quality, the cuts are smooth and unnoticeable. Having watched the Extended Edition not too long ago, I was delighted to find none of Kerr’s cuts jarring. Coupled with intricate audio editing all the transitions flowed perfectly. The re-structure of the Rivendell scenes was highly impressive and aided the film’s pacing and Bilbo’s growth as a character. Kerr’s cutlist mentioned a slight colour correction which unfortunately was undetected by me. A harsher correction that removes the cartoon-like vividness of the picture would certainly aid in bringing An Unexpected Journey closer to the visual style of The Lord of the Rings.

The way Kerr replaces the film’s score with Howard Shore’s original compositions is uncanny, while (as I understand it) the mp4. version has some audio balancing issues such as Bilbo’s faint voice over the new music in the edit’s introduction. Upon reviewing the scenes that had musical replacements multiple times (I have an affinity for these kinds of things) there was no part where I could hear the faint echoes of The Lord of the Rings’ score. In many sections the audio has been rebuilt from scratch and mostly it is brilliantly done. However the reconstruction of the audio during the scene where the company is saved by the eagles could have had further work done. This section felt somewhat hollow audibly. Other than this one grip, the audio is well done in general. One moment that particularly stood-out as great audio editing was the removal of the Nazgul theme when Thorin confronts the pale orc.

Overall Kerr’s Arkenstone Edition focuses the narrative into a tighter-paced and much more enjoyable experience. The shorter running time also encourages the chance for multiple viewings without thinking of having to endure the computer generated mess that many of the action scenes embraced. Kerr has nicely done away with the over-the-top antics that were present in the troll fight and the escape from goblin town. Arkenstone Edition sets a brisk pace yet still allows for the extra subplots to naturally flow and expand foreseeing the possibilities of the two remaining Hobbit sequels.

Almost full marks. I enjoyed this greatly, the movie suddenly gained seriousness and depth without annoying scenes. The theatrical release was a disappointment, but this edit made it worthwhile and enjoyable, love it!

I noted some problems with audiolevels, where the music sometimes made the dialogue hard to hear, but that can have to do with my stereo system.

Thanks for a great edit, I can now try to forget the theatrical release.