Review Detail

I have always thought The Hobbit should have been a single standalone film. Although it was cool seeing Christopher Lee and Sylvester McCoy back on the big screen I really didn't think it needed to be a "three parter" and wasn't sure why they were needed since they don't feature in the story.

Of course there are a lot of things that have disappeared to make this standalone film possible. Both Christopher Lee and Sylvester McCoy have gone. The Eagles are pulled back till the end of the film, which I think is a good move, as they simply were made as a tool to always get Bilbo and the dwarfs out of trouble, which makes Gandalf look rather weak and also the viewer must question why they simply didn't drop them off at their destination in the first place. Beorn is gone. A character I don't really miss (as let's face it...he's no Tom Bombadil) and the film moves fine without him anyway. At the end of the day, this is an edit on a mission and if you miss any of those characters or plots then this isn't the edit for you.

I agree with a previous reviewer that the whole Azog fight probably could have been left out since we have little mention of the character here. A lot of the humour is gone, but that's okay with me because it seems more in line with the LOTR films. I think the only place I seem to remember it being slightly rushed was from the spiders, but otherwise the edit seemed to flow nicely throughout.

Overall a superb effort on trying to pick the best from a bloated trilogy. I personally liked it and will probably watch The Hobbit like this from now on.