Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey - Arkenstone Edition, The

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.

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.

I'll dive right into this - audio and video was outstanding. Seamless really, like it was a director's cut (but the true director is the problem lately!). Definitely put a personal stamp on the musical sound track with all the reworkings. 10s across the board well earned.

Now for the story. I recently watched the hobbit edit by menbailee, so I could not help but compare the two. Both edits are obviously such a huge improvement over the original, for the same basic reason -they cut out much of the over the top action and humor geared toward kids and made it a more serious movie. But here are my specifics for this edit:

--dwarf prologue; I prefer how menbailee moved these scenes to later parts of the movie.
--the dwarves dinner song, sadly it could have been a good scene but PJ made the action too ridiculous. kerr cut this out completely and I think that's the best call.
--trolls: I'm ok with keeping much of this, it has some silliness, but it's definitely part of the book, which has a lighthearted element. HOWEVER, I found it ridiculous that the dwarves charge and fight until the trolls hold up Bilbo - then they choose to lay down their weapons. Come on! Why would the dwarves do that? Like the trolls are going to then let them all go? Menbailee cut this - though it was a rough cut - I still would rather have that tough transition then a dumb scene.
--Radagast: kerr cut the lame scenes with stick insect and the smoking cross-eyed, nice job. however, I preferred how menbailee left the warg/rabbit sled chase out completely. Which leads me to..
--the White ORC: I don't understand how such a lame villain was created by PJ and group. Boring looking, bad CGI, generic lines and actions. I truly hate this character. As such, I was glad to see his role reduced in both edits - I very much enjoyed how menbailee almost completely cut him from the film. I realize this creates complications with the storyline, but man I'm willing to deal with it, it's worth it.
--Rivendell: kerr's inclusion of the extra material was great, particularly liked scenes with Bilbo just hanging out, and Gandalf and Elrond discussing Thorin. But the Council scene is still out of place and I would have preferred it been cut. They all just happened to be meeting around the same time the dwarves showed up? Their discussion is distracting from the hobbit story. Maybe the scene could be used as a flashback somewhere in the trilogy, I don't know.
--Goblins: well done for the most part, I like how Gandalf beheading the goblin was removed, it's very out of his character to take that so lightly. Removed all the lame video game like action scenes.
--out of the frying pan into the fire: again, i hate the white orc, so this is really a tough scene to salvage, other than shorten any shots of him. Menbailee did this, even to the point of excluding the Thorin/Bolg clash, and it worked well, though it left a mysterious injured Thorin in the final scene. Again, I dislike the white orc so much I'm willing to deal with that. And the whole thing is so Hollywood, Thorin charges, gets knocked down, villain slowly talks and casually has another orc do deathblow (see Austin Powers), and they end up waiting too long so the eagles save the day.
--final scene: Thorin's over dramatic speech to Bilbo is so horrible, have to cut it. Pretending to be mad at him still, then turning it around. Reminded me of dumb and dumber - "then you totally go and redeem yourself!"

In summary, what kerr has created is what I would call a much more mature, yet still family version of the film. The edit by menbailee has less action overall and is more focused on Bilbo - it really plays to a smaller audience of hard core Tolkienites. I see a perfect edit somewhere in the middle of these two. Ultimately the main reason I enjoyed the menbailee edit slightly more was - yes - you guessed it, almost no WHITE ORC!

Nice job Kerr, I hope you will take on the challenge of the Desecration of Smaug.

This is a really good edit of the Hobbit. Pacing is much better, annoying stuff gone. Into my eye and ear, the cuts were technically flawless.

The new soundtack is also good, and makes the movie unique. I needed a while to get used to it but it works! However in Thorin's charge against Azog in the end the music was just not as powerful as in the original movie... This scene with the original music always got me goosebumps, with this new music it came close, but did not quite do it.

Also I would have liked to see a little more action in the goblin town. I think the dwarves fight/chase was just cut too short (though the way Goblin King was handled was very good). In contrast - Bilbo's confrontation with Gollum felt a little too long to have it all in one scene.

Aside these things, very good job! Looking forward to the edits of the next two parts.

When I saw AUJ in theaters, I remember how I felt every single minute of the three hour running time. I came in cautiously optimistic - sure, I thought, the unnecessary division of the book into a trilogy will inevitably result in some filler, but how bad could it be?

Well I walked out of that theater marveling at how little had happened in spite of so much running around and action. At the end of three hours, we have gotten the counsel of Elrond regarding the door to Erebor, gotten the sense that Sauron is returning, found the ring..... and that's it. Oh! Yeah, Thorin became bros with Bilbo. Whew, glad that entirely predictable movie lengthening plot thread got resolved.

Yes, AUJ, in its theatrical form, was a massive disappointment. Now, onto the fan edit.

To speak in generalities, it is, first and foremost, wonderfully edited. The video editing is nearly flawless. It could have been shown in theaters this way. You don't feel like this is anything other than how the film was originally cut. I do saw nearly flawless. There is added film grain in the beginning to allow intercutting with material from LOTR. This makes the picture a bit less crisp and is a bit of a distraction, but that is really, really being a nitpick about it. The image quality of the blu-ray release was excellent, more than worth the additional size of the file.

A major effort in this fan edit was sound editing, and I have to say, it is hardly detectable that anyone altered the audio. The audio is mixed very, very well. I only vaguely remembered that in theaters, the movie used a lot of music from LOTR, whereas it is not in play here much. And I didn't mind, the new music fit quite well, and seemed totally in place. The only issue was during the final showdown with Azog, the vocals seemed a bit muted. Speaking of Azog...

Yes, he is still in this movie. That was one of the things that annoyed me the most about the theatrical cut. But he at least seems to be in it less, or is mentioned less, or something, because I remember in theaters they had a running question as to whether Azog was in fact behind everything (SPOILER: Yes of course he is). Here, it's taken for granted he is, as he obviously is. He's still generic, entirely unnecessary, and boring, but I can understand that it was probably difficult to remove him entirely without losing the final scene of them looking toward Erebor, as well as the reason to have them constantly bothered by orcs and wargs on the way.

The pace is much improved, and I found myself actually enjoying the progression of events more than I had in the theater. Over 40 minutes were cut, but you honestly don't miss anything left on the cutting room floor. The introduction being changed from a letter to Frodo to being the beginning of Bilbo writing the Hobbit was an interesting one. I personally didn't mind seeing Frodo pop up for a minute, but with him gone, the introduction is shorter, and that helps the pacing. That awful kitchen song is gone, the dwarf antics in Bilbo's house reduced, but with the wonderful Misty Mountain song retained, making the first act much less bloated, slow, and buffoonish. The solemnity is much better appreciated when it isn't book-ended with dwarves throwing around silverware.

Another edit for which I am grateful is the reduction of Radagast to the bare minimum. He was only in the film to inform us of the return of the Necromancer, and then quickly disappear on his stupid rabbit sled. I appreciated the extra breathing room in Rivendell, as well as the trimming of the White Council. No more cringe-worthy jokes about Radagast being on mushrooms, just quickly getting it over with. I still don't see much point for having the White Council, or Radagast at all, but I understand the editor was being conservative in his cuts to ensure continuity with the Desolation of Smaug. On those grounds I don't mind much, as they are much reduced, and far less painful.

The troll scene was still dumb, but it felt a bit shorter, and by the point they show up, we're a good 20 some minutes ahead of where we would have been in the theatrical cut, so I wasn't nearly as worn down from boredom, and thus coped with them better.

The best editing by far was the elimination of the majority of the Goblin King. Instead of constantly cutting away from the wonderful Riddles in the Dark sequence to the bland escape from the orcs, with all its groan-worthy comedic moments, we just see the troupe being captured, the Goblin King tormenting them a bit, and then Gandalf breaking in and admonishing them to fight. That's it. The next we see them they're out the door and down the mountain. This cut wisely focuses on Gollum, trusting us enough to be content with the knowledge that they fought their way out.

The showdown finale is still a rather clumsily inserted artificial conclusion, but that really can't be helped.

This was a masterfully done fan edit. It was a bit conservative; I could imagine another 15 or 20 minutes could have been cut fairly painlessly, and maybe even another 40 minutes if you were willing to suffer from less even transitions and continuity errors, but that's neither here or there. The film is still no masterpiece - the dwarves are still largely bland, the dialogue oddly wooden in places, the general "mock epic" atmosphere still present, but these are issues beyond the saving of editing. To address this, you would need to retroactively rewrite the screenplay, recast some of the dwarves, change the atmosphere, the pacing, or best of all, make only one film, not three. I would give the original version a 5/10, while I would give this a 7/10. Still not great, not even close to the LOTR trilogy, but much more bearable. The worst part of An Unexpected Journey was the film choking on its own excess, crawling through the entire running time, desperate to keep itself from getting very far in the story. When you remove 40 minutes of meandering, of awful songs, of B-rate action, you still end up in the same spot, but at least you were walking to the end instead of crawling.

I hope that this editor tries making a new fan edit once DOS is out on blu-ray, making one film of 3 hours from these two. With the extra material, and the quantum leap in plot progression we get in DOS, he would be able to very easily reduce the events of AUJ in the supercut to only an hour and a half, without making it seem so empty.