Hobbit: The Spence Edit, The

This was the first Hobbit fan edit I've watched but I loved it. All of the decisions to cut things for the most part were on point. I hated the love triangle and I'm so glad it's gone now! Music was too loud at some points and dialogue couldn't be heard but that's a small point. The ponies probably could've been cut if you had used another scene of them traveling on foot or something. When they get to mirkwood just use only scenes with no ponies or something. Anyone that was the only plot hole. Also would've loved to have scene the scene with Thorin giving Bilbo the mithril since it is a nice moment. Also, would've liked to have seen Bilbo actually pick up the Arkenstone. Other than these points however I loved it and thought you did an excellent job. Nice work and this has officially taken the place of the hobbit trilogy for me!

Wow, I had been hoping someone would do this well and this version has knocked it out of the park. I hadn't read the changes in advance on purpose and as I was watching it I never felt like it had skipped anything of importance. Editing is amazing, quality is perfect, now I wish there was a way to see this edit in a cinema.

And with all the editing there are still plenty of scenes that are allowed to breath and take there time such as Bilbo's conversations with Gollom and Smaug, which could have been tempting to trim much more. Another key strengths of this edit is that it finally makes Thorin an interesting character for once because we can see his simple arc in a single sitting, rather than over 9 hours. My one small criticism is that I think Thorin fighting Azog could potentially have been trimmed a little more given that the film is over 3 hours at that point.

Brilliant job, my favourite fan edit of all time.

I'll be honest, I only made it through two of the Hobbit movies - and the second I didn't even bother to see in theaters. The third one is just sort of sitting gathering dust on a DVD shelf. The magic of the Lord of the Rings trilogy appeared to be lost in the process of making The Hobbit, well, another trilogy. But everyone's had these complaints - on with the review!

Spence's edit is phenomenal. What you get here is one solid movie that tells a compelling story from start to finish. I didn't even realize certain cuts of major scenes from the two movies I had seen had even happened until several minutes (or more) after they would have normally occurred. As for The Battle of the Five Armies... other than knowing Tauriel and Legolas were supposed to have bigger roles I honestly didn't notice that there could have been anything missing. It was a genuinely solid final act to the movie.

What I loved in particular about this edit is that it didn't feel like a mashup of three films. It had the right action beats and slower character moments that a single movie would traditionally have.

My only issue was that there were a few moments where dialogue was a little quiet and I had to lean forward a bit to keep up with what was going on. But that seemed to be fixed by the final hour and a half of the movie.

To wrap up, I can safely say that this is the version of The Hobbit I will watch in the future. The layer of dust on the original three films will just have to keep building up!

I don't think I've ever been as disappointed with a series of movies as I have been with the Hobbit. The official cuts are lifeless, characterless, shallow, and ultimately constipated in their ability to engage and entertain anyone who isn't looking for a fodder-fest. Thank you Spence for taking these, shacking them mercilessly and presenting something that actually feels like a hobbit movie, and a pretty decent one at that.

Audio/Video: 10
This is probably the best 7gb mp4 I've seen. Great video, great audio. Perfect 10

Visual Editing: 9
For the most part this is perfect editing. There are a few spots where cuts seem forced or fades occur that seem unnatural due to the fact that they never occur until the very end, but that's just being nit picky on my part.

Audio Editing: 9
Again near perfection. Just a few areas where the audio cuts seem rushed, but I would be hard pressed to approach the superb job done here.

Narrative: 7 (UJ 9/10, DoS 8/10, BotFA 6/10)
I love what is done with UJ. Wow! That was the movie I had hoped for in the first place. BUT, I do wish the warg chase/eagle rescue was still present in some form as it's one of my favorite moments from the story. I really enjoyed the almost complete omission of Legolas and what's her name from DoS and keeping the dwarfs out of the mountain. While Gandalf's special quest is intriguing and very insightful into the lead up to the Lord of The Rings, I felt it was a bit distracting albeit very neatly trimmed and well done. I'd love to see an edit with Azog completely removed as a major player. His character demands too much attention and steals the focus and attention on the true story at hand, in my opinion. Also, removing the intro of the arkenstone leaves the viewer scratching their head as to why everyone is so obsessed with something that we only first see (though we don't know what it is unless we've seen the movies before) an hour and a half or so into the edit. I wonder what the edit would feel like if we followed Bilbo predominantly during the battle and when he gets knocked out the next scenes we see are him seeing Thorin fall to the ground and rushing to his side. The fighting is just too over the top and ridiculous for me. That being said, the battle did seem like it was rushed, or rather, unexplained/resolved. The story inches along, then KA-POW! Orcs, Bats, Eagles and Mountain Goats. Perhaps a flipped scene of the dwarfs cresting the hill could be input to show the first coming of the orcs instead of the earth mover dune worms. The narrative is strong through the first two film cuts, but most likely due to terrible source content and not Spence's narrative abilities, the final film narrative is kind of flat. Would love to see what Spence can do with an extended source for BotFA for perhaps a version 2.0?

Enjoyment: 8
This edit has saved the hobbit films for me. And even though I may have some qualms with the narrative, this is my current go to version of what should have been a 3 hour adventure. Great job Spence!

Though I thought the originals were padded and had overly goofy elements, I was still on board for the idea of 3 movies. I still really enjoy Kerr's take on the first two movies (haven't seen an edit of the BOTFA). I approached this 3 into 1 edit mostly out of curiosity. I was very surprised with how well it worked. Honestly, it came out to be a great single movie that's just as enjoyable as watching 3 edits. Since it's one movie and a lot of fluff is removed, it feels much more focused on Bilbo.

GOOD THINGS
- Got rid of Azog pursuing the dwarves. It works great and cuts out a ton of unnecessary filler for a 3 to 1 edit. Having Azog behind the scenes with Sauron, kind of like the shark in the water waiting to attack, was very cool and made him still a worthwhile character without having to see him constantly chasing the dwarves.
- Got rid of Tauriel. In the case of 3 separate edits, I wouldn't mind having a trimmed version of her. That is until her character didn't really pay off in BOTFA. I kinda feel bad for Evangeline Lilly because I think the character had potential. However, you really don't miss her at all in this edit.
- Removal of Bard's family. They are okay in 3 separate edits, but in this edit it worked really good to remove them. Bard's story in this edit is simpler but it works well.
- Removal of Orcs at Lake Town. Honestly this wasn't even missed in the DoS edit, so it's definitely not missed in this 3 into 1 edit.
- Removal of Dwarves taking on Smaug. I do like the idea of the Dwarves trying to kill Smaug using ingenuity (maybe just trying to drown him in gold instead of tricking him with a statue) but this edit works really well with Smaug getting pissed and immediately heading to Lake Town before the Dwarves interfere.
- Spence just generally knew what to keep and what to let go. Sure, there are a few cool things that ended up being cut. However, it's done skillfully enough that you don't miss it while you're watching it and the narrative still flows perfectly well without it. It'll just be an excuse to watch the individual movies/edits every once in a while. Kind of like the extended version vs the theatrical versions of the LotR trilogy.

NITPICKS

- there really are no major problems so these are just some minor nitpicks

- I kind of missed the flashback to Smaug taking Erebor before the events of the movie. Also, I'm familiar with the movie so it's not a huge deal for me, but newcomers might especially appreciate the flashbacks. I think over the course of the movies you can pick up all the details, but having them all in one place, with memorable imagery, is kind of nice.
- Gandalf leaving before the trolls came was kind of abrupt. They do mention that they don't know where he went. It's hard to say. It could have thrown me because I was expecting him to tell Thorin he was leaving like in the original. It may or may not confuse a newcomer though.
- Getting horses right before Mirkwood felt kind of sudden, but I don't know if there's really an alternative way to show a few second montage of them acquiring horses from Beorn.
- Though Radagast's entrance isn't bad, it would have been cool if you were able to salvage Gandalf talking about the other wizards on the way to Rivendell. (It was raining in that part so it's understandable if it's not possible to tease out the dialogue). Then the name Radagast would be a tiny bit more familiar. Plus we'd know he's a wizard. I can't remember that he does any magic in this edit. Not that it's a bad thing, but it might make more sense if we know that Gandalf sought the help of a wizard and not some random hobo. :)
- Kili's leg injury doesn't seem necessary and without a fight it's weird that he gets injured. Personally, I feel like Kili could have just accidentally tripped down the stairs in the Lake Town armory.
- There were a few parts where it felt a little too fast paced, like escaping the Mirkwood Elves in barrels straight to immediately meeting Bard. I wouldn't add the battle back in, but it did help to mentally separate the Mirkwood Elves event from meeting Bard. It's just a small downside of only being able to work with what was in the original movie.

OVERALL, this is a fantastic edit. I was really impressed with how seamlessly Spence made it into one movie, despite making some big changes (removing Azog pursuit/Tauriel/Legolas bits, etc). I would recommend it to anyone who wanted a *single* Hobbit movie or was curious what it might have looked like. I can't stress enough, this is NOT a compromised version for the sake of pursuing an ambitious concept. This is a legitimately excellent version of the Hobbit movies in its own right.