Hobbit: The Spence Edit, The

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.

I like Hobbit 2, but Hobbit 1 (with the exception of the dwarfes entering Bilbo's home and the whole sequence with Gollum) and 3 I find to be completely uninteresting and nowhere nearly as good as the Lord of the rings movies.

So I was interested how Spence could improve the Hobbit-movies by forming them into a single movie. First and most important, does it work as a single movie? Yes! Sure it's a bit long with nearly 3,5 hours, but it works really well and just shows that it should have been a single movie from the get-go.

Is it now as good as the lord of the ring movies? Imho, no, they are still way better, but it's an improvement over the theatrical versions.

----------SPOILER-WARNING---------

What Spence did was to remove Azog as an instrument to create tension, imho that is a good decision. Sure it reduces a bit the tension now, but Azog and his orcs are so uninteresting that it hurts.

And he removed the love-triangle between Legolas, that elve-woman and one of the better looking dwarfes. In Hobbit 2 it added some sort of romanticism, and it created a story-strand where the elve woman leaves her kin to fulfill her true love, how she heals that dwarfe and how the dwarf gets killed in front of her in the end. That was actually something that enriched Hobbit 2 and 3. I like a little bit of romantic feelings in movies, the things about sacrificing things for love... but it should be credible and natural.
The problem was that it was unbelievable from the start and it involved only secondary characters, so I think overall it was a good decision to cut it all out. Sure some feeling is missing then, but either these things are done in the right and credible way or not at all.

The other big removement was the "prophecy"-story strand, the lake people believed in the prophecy that one day a dwarfe king would come to reclaim the mountain and its riches. This is removed (although Thorin actually uses the word prophecy in his speech, but that was probably not easy to remove), and many would probably welcome it. But for me, this was one of the things that actually worked well in Hobbit 2, namely that the Lake people living in poor conditions develop some hope that things could change for the better, because of the prophecy. In Hobbit 2 that was the main motivation that they would help the dwarfes, give them weapons and set them free again.

Here the main-motivation is only the hope for the gold in the mountain, but without the prophecy-belief, why would they believe that 13 dwarfes would succeed where whole armies failed before? Imho the prophecy-element was crucial to explain the hope of the Laketownpeople and imho it added that nice consequence that the belief in the prophecy brought them complete ruin by waking up the dragon who then destroyed their town. This is one change/removal that I felt was hurtful.

The other problem was Bard shooting down the dragon. This problem has nothing to do with Spence's edit, but with the theatrical shooting of the scene and lazy writing. All people from Lake-town know from experience that the dragons skin can't be hurt by mere arrows, and yet what does Bard do? He goes up with merely his normal bow and normal arrows and thinks he can do the impossible!

It would have been different if he went up with the clear thought and memory that the dragon lost some of his skin in the encounter with his ancestor, and so goes up with the clear will to try to shoot an arrow into that wound, and then tries, misses, tries, misses, but then succeeds.

But thank goodness, that the scene with the molten gold and the golden dragon was removed and the dwarfes triyng to fight the dragon...

The big battle at the end was nicely shortened, which for me was most welcome. The only problem was the appearance of the eagles and Bilbo saying "The eagles are coming"..., but he hasn't met any eagles in this edit, so why does he associate anything with them or knows anything about them?

The other, but forgiveable problem was in the first third of the movie, where the dwarfes have horses in one scene and then not, and then they have horses again...

---SPOILER-warning-END---
Verdict:
It works as a single movie, it's overall better than the theatrical version (though still not nearly as good as the lord-of-the rings movies, but that is the source's problem), and proves that the Hobbit-story should have been told in a single movie from the get-go.

Editing is mostly great and smooth. Great work, Spence!

This is how The Hobbit should have been! In terms of narrative structure, this is 100% spot-on in terms of an epic Hollywood Hobbit flick. I personally didn't shake my fists in anger that anything was removed, and if anything I felt it could have been cut down more.

There were a few edits that stood out to me, as others have pointed out, but overall this was a smooth ride through Middle Earth. Hats off to Spence for this!

Wow! Wow! Wow! Wow! And did I mention, Wow!

As someone who's enjoyed The Hobbit movies while still acknowledging the flaws, I'll admit, I've been skeptical as to how a single film would've worked. Well, that skepticism has been put to rest. This edit streamlines all three films beautifully. In fact, I can honestly say that I felt like I was watching a film adaptation of The Hobbit as opposed to a prequel trilogy to The Lord of the Rings.

I have a few nitpicks such as I would have liked to have seen the Necromancer excised entirely but what *is* still there makes for a nice little taste of what's to come in The Lord of the Rings. Also there are some moments that come out of nowhere that the other reviewers have brought up but overall, if you wanted to see The Hobbit but balked at the idea of it being three movies, this is the edit for you.

This works very well and really shows that it should have been a single film. I didn't notice any technical issues though I'm probably not the best reviewer for that. I marked down one point in A/V Quality for not providing 5.1.

My positives are too numerous to detail here. Suffice it to say this removes almost all the major issues I had with the films. Some highlights:

- The abridged opening. Initially (before seeing the theatrical DoS or BotFA) I was concerned that cutting the opening too much might not allow us to adequately get to know all the various characters we're going to have to keep straight. But in the end, most of the dwarves are just glorified extras that we really don't need to get to know. Introducing Bilbo, Thorin, Balin and Dwalin is enough.

- Though the Stone Giants scene never bothered me as much as some, its absence helps the movie get moving.

- The more ridiculous elements of Goblin Town are mercifully removed, keeping the focus more on the Riddle in the Dark where it should be.

- The seams between films are very well done. Only one minor issue there and it is mentioned below.

- Very much abridged barrel ride!

- No more molten gold!

- The majority of the elves physics-defying athleticism is gone.

- The end battle is feels much more focused, and for me at least, the focus on character helps to make it MORE epic.



Some minor narrative issues I had as I watched:

- Gandalf 's rather unexplained absence from the troll scene is a bit weird.

-While the transition between AUJ and DoS works very well overall, it's a bit strange to suddenly have the company on horses only to send them off moments later.

- The barrel sequence is well done but ends rather abruptly. And the cut from the first encounter with Bard to Gandalf is weird. It feels like it skipped ahead. It needs one more beat if possible before the transition.

- Radaghast is out of place as he is never really introduced.

- I would have liked to have seen no trace of Dune-esque worms, but it's extremely brief.

- There's still some elvish athletic magic, which apparently extends to the reindeer they ride. But again minor gripe.

- I'm much happier with this version's take, but Thorin sort of magically comes to his senses. I'd rather have that than how the theatrical version presented it, but if there's anything in the EE that might help, it would be beneficial imo.

- Another personal gripe is those damned eagles. I would have liked to see them removed completely.

- I'd also have liked to have seen the auction gone. I think cutting from Bilbo seeing Bag End again right to Ian Holm would work. Although I would miss the "he was my friend" line.

Overall, I thought this was great work and it certainly works as a single movie. If some of my gripes could be addressed when the BotFA EE comes out, a v2 would be most welcome! My gripes are all minor, however, and this will be the version I most likely watch in the future.