Hobbit: Into the Fire, The

"Bilbo...his name is Bilbo."
Peter Jackson seems to have had the same problem as Thorin - forgot who the main character is. Into the Fire takes us back to Bilbo Baggins and his story, it's that simple.

RangerKris, I thank you again for your undertaking. It has given me a Hobbit movie that satisfies my need for a true to Tolkien experience. I appreciate how open you were to suggestions on the discussion board during the editing process, allowing everyone to chime in on what a purist version would be. The visual and audio editing was excellent as usual. I will be watching the final Hobbit installment with much more ease, knowing that however packed full of over the top, extraneous material, I will have hope for a purely Tolkien ending.

P.S. Maia Sauron was pulled off masterfully!

Another brilliant edit by RangerKris.
I was waiting for this one since I saw ranger's first edit (Fire of the Dragon) which I thought was excellent, but this is even better.
Technically the Audio / Video quality is excellent, the encoding is very good, color rendering and motion estimation and detection is very good, no blurring, no jerkiness or pixelation of any sort
Visual editing, you just would not know that this was an edit, seamless transitions that flow naturally. Same goes for for the audio.
I deducted one point from the audio editing and audio quality because I wish ranger would do a 5.1 surround sound. It makes watching on a big screen with a sound system a bit more enjoyable.

The narrative is excellent. fast and focused with no distraction or side tracks. If you showed this film to some one who has not seen the original theatrical cut, they would never now there was something missing, the only negative thing that can be said is the missing dwarves that were left in lake town; but this is not Ranger's fault, the material to fix that is simply not there; even that little drawback is mostly not noticeable, you have to be really pedantic and nitpicking and do a head count to notice it.
For diehard Tolkien fans this edit is god sent to save us from the excesses of PJ.
When it came to Enjoyment, I decide to watch all three versions back to back, the original, Fire of the Dragon and Into The Fire; I can tell you right now, the original fell down immediately, I just could not finish it, it was a 2 horse race and Into the Fire came ahead just by a nose ;)
I would recommend this edit to any Tolkien fan, and to any one who has even never heard of Tolkien or the Hobbit, it is just a very good and entertaining movie.
I hope that Ranger would tackle unexpected journey and produce a purist edit out of it, and when Battle of the Five Armies comes out, that he would take all three parts and produce one coherent smooth movie out of them.

An outstanding edit which reveals some brilliant film-making by Jackson et al.

I think this edit can be summed up by wife, who has not seen the original DOS "But this film is really excellent! Why the criticism?"

The editing is seamless. The characters such as Beorn, Bilbo, Thorin, Gandalf, and Bard are given razor sharp focus, with great character moments. The editing of Smaug is just superb. And the pace of the film. Wow. This is a rollicking 90 minute adventure.
What is cut? Mostly orc battles (extras fighting), video game sequences (bouncing river raft and the Smaug Boss Battle vs. dwarves), and focus on secondary characters (Legolas, Kili?, and lady elf). Hurra!

Sound is disappointingly stereo AAC, which I had to fiddle with to sound decent through my surround sound system. (I docked 2 points from A/V quality for that)
Visual fidelity a-ok.

There was one music cue which sounded off to me - as they leave lake town, there's a brief view on the boat with an off musical cue before the shot of Thorin. I would recommend cutting straight to Thorin and the music there.
(And a little repeat on Bilbo's running sound when the great flag falls on him? I noticed it second time round).

An amazing 63 minutes has been cut from this - and it isn't noticeable at all. Class editing (and shows how much filler was in the original release!)
Oh, and great little flash of Sauron in his "Angel of Light" form. Loved it!

I watched this edit two nights back to back and thoroughly enjoyed it both times. Kudos ranger, this is masterful editing.

(PS: For a first time viewer the silver Smaug works fine - my wife thought it was dragon scales glittering in the moonlight.)

This was pretty damn fantastic! To me, it proves that action/adventure spectacles can still be great, even if it's "just a 90-minute movie". The story moves at a fast pace and we don't get slogged down with people we don't care about. The Smaug finale is excellent, I loved it as a single flowing scene, and great visual editing there!

Highly recommended for anybody let down by The Hobbit Part B.

Watched this a few weeks ago and forgot to drop a review!

Into the Fire is everything Desolation of Smaug should have been. Everything ridiculous and/or egregious has been excised, and while there were some parts left in that I personally don't love (mostly just one: Dol Guldur) Ranger has structured and trimmed this edit so well, that I found them surprisingly tolerable!

If you want to watch what The Desolation of Smaug SHOULD and COULD have been, look no further!

My only complaint, is that I do think the re-color of Smaug breaking out could use some TLC.