Hobbit: There and Back Again, Part I

Valar be praised, my favorite franchise has been saved! A month ago I had no idea what a fanedit was, now I'm thinking my fantasy/sci-fi collection may eventually be completely replaced with burned material!

Most importantly, it seems like the faneditors on this site are dialed into the most basic need for most movies - a version that does not cater to the silliness and inane action so popular with children (and many adults!). I watched this edit a second time with my kids and found they mentioned how they missed the scenes that I disliked the most. There you go.

OK, so specifically to the work of Menbailee here are the points I liked best about this edit: the focus on Bilbo (huge), shuffling and editing of scenes to create more mystery and suspense (dwarf flashback, etc), keeping most all the gollum material (it was pretty well done in the original), goblin king just disappears off the edge (that's enough, he's dead), short goblin escape (I hated the original), and wow the video/audio was outstanding (I saw the background details like never before), and much more I won't try to list it all.

Here are some things that in my humble opinion could be changed: Gandalf lops the head off a goblin with almost enjoyment (then lectures Bilbo about not being hasty to deal death - I can't see Gandalf ever taking a death lightly, even a goblin), how does the goblin king know Thorin so readily, Thorin mysteriously injured when no one else is (as explained in other reviews this might be unavoidable), still too much CGI (particularly pale orc, so sad they went away from real actors. I watched the FOTR again and found the costumed orcs so much more engaging and frightening. How I wish this orc could be removed entirely!).

Uncertain (not really sure if these should stay or go): plate tossing - it's over the top and really too bad, because it's a fun scene in the book. Troll dialogue - really pulls you out of serious mode with the movie and it's hard to believe they are any relation to the LOTR trolls. But I'm on the fence because the Hobbit is meant to be a bit lighter than LOTR, and the actor for Bilbo (Freeman) does an excellent job in the troll scene. I suppose I would need to see an edit without these scenes (or seriously cropped) to decide whether a change works.

Wish list: I wish for fanediting to advance to the point that beards can be put on the freaking dwarves! Durin would roll in his grave to see the 5 O'clock shadow on Thorin and his nephews (and some of the others with weak beards). I can't get over it honestly, and ultimately can't give a 10 to enjoyment unless that is rectified some day. I get trying to give the dwarves some individuality, but it could have been done with suitable beards. Please someone figure out how! Until then I can never enjoy the movie as a "10".

Ultimately though, Menbailee, you made my day. I was depressed coming out of the theater, I wanted to like the movie so badly but could not. Now I can, and so hope you will tackle Desolation of Smaug, though that be a much more challenging task!

This edit turned my hatred of the original release around. The choice of cuts were well thought out and it shows. Although a couple of the cuts were very abrupt and somewhat jarring I can forgive them since the narrative was kept intact. The only scene I would have cut would be the "dirty dishes song." Oh how I detest that scene......ugh. Peter Jackson could have cut so much out and given the eagles more scenes....I cheer anytime they appear. Anyway I really enjoyed this edit and I would recommend it to anyone.

Wowza. I had certainly felt that The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey was bloated when I saw it in theaters and again on Blu-ray when it came out, but I never really noticed just how much could be cut until I saw this edit. I really enjoyed the pace at which the story was carried out and often times I didn't really notice stuff was cut until after the fact. Also, great edit with the dwarfs charging the trolls. That's the sort of comedic cut that feels at home in this sort of film. The integration of the Erebor flashbacks in the dinner scene and the fire song were excellent. Sometimes shifting things around like that can make the bits seem out of place, but it was damn near perfect here.

There are a few things that could have been neatened up, however. By cutting down the Pale Orc arc, there are a few hanging references that are somewhat curious. There are two that come to mind: in Rivendell Gandalf mentions that it is because of his company that the orcs are traveling far south. Why are they the reason? They're after Smaug, not any orc settlement. The same thing with the Goblin King: who would pay a price for Thorin's head? Couldn't be Smaug...how would he know what's going on? Or why would he care? He's a big freaking dragon!

My thought would be to maybe have the Pale Orc not explicitly set up, and instead use small bits from the scene establishing him during the final conflict. By doing this, you set up for the inevitable confrontation in the next film, and you can keep the scene of Bilbo being accepted by the dwarf company at the end. It's a big moment for him, one that shouldn't be underestimated. All the same, this is a minor quibble in an otherwise great edit.

The video quality was impressive for a DVD-5, and I'll owe that not only to the BD source used for the edit, but the skill that Menbailee used in exporting it. What source you use counts for a lot, but it's all for naught if it's buggered on export. The extra resolution of the source goes a long way here. The audio was great as well. I don't have a surround set up, but nothing sounded especially glaringly wrong, so I'm gonna say it's good!

All in all, a great edit and a worthy addition to any fan's collection. Menabailee, I would suggest having another look through some of the bits you cut surrounding the Pale Orc and Bilbo's acceptance into the group, but when all is said and done, this is a fantastic edit. You might get some new ideas when the extended version comes out in November!

Keep up the good work mate. :)

This was a good edit. I quite liked The Hobbit AUJ when I first saw it but the second time was really bored and saw a lot of flaws. This didn’t “fix” everything for me but it was much more enjoyable.

A/V Quality - 9
Editing - 10 visual, 9 audio
Narrative - 8
Enjoyment - 8 (original 7)

Recommended drink: A little beer and some cake – seed-cake if you have any.

Incase you cannot read or are in a rush the answer is YES it is far better than the original and nearly perfect.

OK, sooooo I just watched the fan edit so firstly thank you to those who helped me find it and secondly thank you to all involved in the edit and lastly thank you to all that made it possible and that includes mr jackson.

What did I think?
Well I had not seen it since the cinema which I thought was an excellent film disguised as a bloated continuous action scene for small and rather dumb children but the good news is some how it has become an excellent film again lol

We all know The Hobbit is a children's book but we fans of the lotr, even those of us who were children when it came out are all now adults so we don't care about children and fart jokes and jar jar, we want something mature and intelligent for the most part and There and Back again achieves this result admirably whilst retaining that child like quality of wonder and adventure and exploration which all good fantasy should contain.

I cannot quite remember the original but I know it was too long, too action based, too much cgi, too much silliness, too much departure from the book, to much lower common denominator humour so basically Phantom menace syndrome strikes again lol
though as previously stated there was excellence, a diamond in the rough as it were and the editor has kindly polished this precious gem though I will point out the few flaws I found later.

I loved the LOTR trilogy as it is the pinnacle of its type and such a staggering achievement for all involved but Jackson has fallen to the CGI god which enslaved Lucas and we saw it in 'From Hell' and then 'the lovely bones' and ofcourse to a new low in 'the hobbit' but that evil smelling ugly spirit too has been vanquished from this film via the edit.

What I think you did (what I noticed):

The loss of that ridiculous opening action cgi scene with the dragon = thank god it was shifted to its rightful place!
The removal of frodo =wtf was he in it for lol he has 3 of his own films totalling 9 hrs, get the hell out of dodge!
The dinner scene seemed less 'bad' (more later) and now a very clever combo of the opening scene to perfectly compliment the setting up of an adventure,/ road movie/ heist film(people forget the hobbit is a bank robbery). Your reworking really was genius and nearly perfect in execution and surely a masterclass in story telling which Jackson should take note of (high praise indeed).
All the warg and white orc nonsense removed, as it was an ugly confusing pointless addition to flesh out the film with yet more bad cgi and endless action. Though white orc appears briefly at the end (and seemingly out of context though there was the elf lord mention of orks).
The removal of the meeting of the minds lol what a load of tosh to connect the trilogy by placing all those ageing stars together again to the delight of fans but the detriment of the film. Good riddance to extended exposition I say! The link to the next 3 films is gandalf and that is what was intended and to a lesser extent bilbo but certainly not all the rest. Though the evil of Sauron returning was fine to a point and explained all the increased evil activity.
The removal of the yet another pointless action scene based on a few lines about storm giants fighting, which dragged on and on till my head was screaming for the misuse of cgi = best left as an extra.
The cutting short of the goblin chase scene and the removal of the goblin king demise. This action scene also went on and on and was really the burden which broke the camels back and just far too self indulgent and padded and basically another one of those scenes only enjoyed by children under ten... on ritalin.
The end battle scene and possibly the death of the white orc? (cannot remember).

The fact that my usually excellent cinefile memory cannot remember much of this film is because it was ultimately forgettable.
Im sure there was more but off the top of my head that is what was missing or done.
Nearly all of your choices worked and made sense and were nec. to a degree to retain the flow of the book and the feel of the LOTR film trilogy. Your edit has made a far tighter and more enjoyable film closer to the (far closer) original intention of the author so well done again.

What I did not like / further cuts / inclusions:

Add real smoke and loose cgi smoke (WHY !!!) though I know you cannot do this it stands out a mile and is on par with cgi blood.
There were some sync issues with audio in the first few dinner scenes which never came back.
The cuts to make the flashbacks work were not perfect (but this all may be due to the limited material). The less is more with any of the extended cgi material.
The dinner song was never to my liking but very in keeping with the lighter tone though it could be shorted further.
Bilbo joining the party seemed a little too upbeat (maybe extended cut will help).
The troll scene is so 'very' basic to begin with but I would cut out the voice of the jar jar character making stupid remarks and infantile noises and toilet humour gags and omg why do we have to make our children into morons too!!!
They seem to just end up in elf town after saying they did not want to go which seems weird but possibly that is an issue with the original material (and like much of the actual story telling and plot holes the extended may fill it).
I love and hate all the hedgehog and spider rabbit sledge dr who madness but certainly the entire visit to the old castle could be shortened and YOU must remove that god awful cgi spirit moaning zoom rush shot, of presumably Sauron returning.
There is nothing worse than when things r near the camera for 3d effect or monsters have unrealistic abilities or we have zooms to gnashing mouths. I think we get a bat doing the same cheesy cgi 3d nonsense a few secs later so loose one keep the other.
I would have like to have seen the goblin scene extended as that is a flesh and bones climax (if the orc end is also shortened).
Cut the weird bit with the goblin whose head falls off (far too much head lopping in films without geysers of blood; how has this become standard, ok or even funny??).
I think you need that goblin king showdown to give the film a villain who is defeated and I know that in the book this was not even an issue unless u consider the wolves but the cgi wargs r so bad it is not the same feeling as seeing a giant goblin get its head cut off.
I would loose the wargs all together but u cant and u have a done a great job as it is but the dwarf boss being hurt out of the blue is plausible but a little out of place and maybe could be lost altogether if we r not to see bilbo SAVE HIM etc.

Sooo it makes perfect sense to end the film with the goblin king show down as that is a good death scene and then have your brief warg battle but with no damaged heroes and then cut to them on the cliff followed by smaug waking up = ePIC!!!
Currently your version as previously alluded to , is a perfect opening segment but as a result seems now slightly too short and incomplete as a stand alone film, due to the removal of a real ending which involves some character dev and a baddie death (or 2 or 3) and though we get bilbo's brief but lovely speech, it is not quite enough to bring it full circle.
What we have now is a rather short but perfect first part to the three and if the same wonders r worked will end up with 2 films in total as was the original plan but the quality will be on par with the first trilogy. Actually what you have done is similar to the fellowship before the extended and has that same open ended theme.

I am sure there is more and you have many of your own ideas but keep at it as you have literally saved this film and I dread to think what the extended will be like and how you will tackle it if at all.

The funny thing is the LOTR extended was awesome as you had a great film made better but when you have an average film with lots of junk and you extend that , well you get more junk or junk with more to it but its a polished turd and not the diamond you have given us.

I firmly believe that fanedits r now the future as film makers (perfectly good ones!) have lost the plot and sabotage their own efforts due to greed, studio pressure, interference and age and that is when the able fans step in and assist these vets. to realize their dreams. The hobbit had a very trouble dev. so im not surprised it isnt perfect but it is that one step closer due to this and future edits.