Hobbit: There and Back Again, Part I

Great work on this edit! While I did enjoy the theatrical version, and am looking forward to the seeing the extended edition - a two hour runtime is much easier on my backside. Like at the theater, I viewed this with my 10 year old, who said she preferred your edit. While scenes with Frodo, Azog, the White Council & the stone giants certainly were fun to see on the big screen, they aren't necessarily missed when viewing this film as a complete (or 1/3 complete) story.

The Great: Moving & dividing the prologue was EXCELLENT! We already have the intro with old Bilbo, so its nice to just get the story of the unexpected party started.
The troll fight cut was a necessity as it seemed like a waste of time where the dwarves looked like warriors only to be too easily defeated with no damage to the trolls.
While the warg chase was a throwback to the beautiful scenery used in The Two Towers; its elimination really keeps the journey moving, a major criticism of the LOTR films.
Thank you for trimming the Goblin king and subsequent chase scenes, these appeared to be too long & busy in the theatrical version, and the added "humor" of falling and smashing was not missed by me. Even the Erebor shots were done nice & proper, a change that might not have been considered by many.

Video quality was excellent, no artifacting at all. Only issue was my blu-ray player and TV couldn't figure out the letterboxing which left the picture cropped. Audio work was perfect with surround sound left intact. It seemed like a slight jump cut after the troll fight, but not sure what else be done visually (audio was spot on).

The Good: The showdown with orcs looked like it could have actually gone down that way, until we see the leader of the group unconscious during flight & requiring revival by Gandalf. Its too bad there weren't enough useful shots during these scenes that this part of the narrative couldn't be skipped. Omitting the acceptance speech played well into these changes, but even my kid found it hard to believe Thorin was knocked out without explanation. While I thought the addition of Azog was a fun way to create a more important villian for the film in the same vane as Lurtz in FotR, I'm sure we'll see over the next 5-6 hours of this trilogy that there are much bigger stories to tell.

Overall, a great addition to the world of LOTR edits which I can happily put up next to the official releases.

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. :)