Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey - Arkenstone Edition, The

This is the movie I wanted to see at the cinema!

Faster pace, more focused, and best of all much more music from The Hobbit's score is used giving the film its own identity.

I watched this edit on Blu-Ray and it looks (to me anyway) identical to the official Blu-Ray I already owned and visual editing on a whole is fantastic. The only visual edit that isn't flawless is the footage of the picture in Rivendell that I think was taken from FOTR but it only lasts for a few seconds and I couldn't bring myself to knock a point off because of it.

Audio editing is perfect. Using the film's original score as much as possible really makes AUJ feel like its own thing and not just a LOTR cash-in. However, doing this means sometimes the score can overpower dialogue in certain scenes. It really didn't bother me much at all but I can see how it could annoy some people. Still I don't think it warrants knocking that 10 down to a 9.

Overall if you were disappointed with AUJ's original release I recommend watching this. My official Blu-Ray disc is now in a cupboard somewhere with this edit taking its place in the official case.

Thank you, Kerr!