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Started By
Message
The first fan edit of The Hobbit is out
Posted on 1/20/15 at 2:59 pm
Posted on 1/20/15 at 2:59 pm
Posted on 1/20/15 at 3:17 pm to PillageUrVillage
Sent the link to my email and watching it tonight.
Thanks!
Thanks!
Posted on 1/20/15 at 3:24 pm to PillageUrVillage
I'm digging the cuts he made
quote:
So, over the weekend, I decided to condense all three installments (An Unexpected Journey, The Desolation of Smaug and The Battle of the Five Armies) into a single 4-hour feature that more closely resembled Tolkien’s original novel. Well, okay, it’s closer to 4.5 hours, but those are some long-arse credits! This new version was achieved through a series of major and minor cuts, detailed below:
The investigation of Dol Guldor has been completely excised, including the appearances of Radagast, Saruman and Galadriel. This was the most obvious cut, and the easiest to carry out (a testament to its irrelevance to the main narrative). Like the novel, Gandalf abruptly disappears on the borders of Mirkwood, and then reappears at the siege of the Lonely Mountain with tidings of an orc army.
The Tauriel-Legolas-Kili love triangle has also been removed. Indeed, Tauriel is no longer a character in the film, and Legolas only gets a brief cameo during the Mirkwood arrest. This was the next clear candidate for elimination, given how little plot value and personality these two woodland sprites added to the story. Dwarves are way more fun to hang out with anyway. :P
The Pale Orc subplot is vastly trimmed down. Azog is obviously still leading the attack on the Lonely Mountain at the end, but he does not appear in the film until after the company escapes the goblin tunnels (suggesting that the slaying of the Great Goblin is a factor in their vendetta, as it was in the novel).
Several of the Laketown scenes have been cut, such as Bard’s imprisonment and the superfluous orc raid. However, I’ve still left quite a bit of this story-thread intact, since I felt it succeeded in getting the audience to care about the down-beaten fisherfolk and the struggles of Bard to protect them.
The prelude with old Bilbo is gone. As with the novel, I find the film works better if the scope starts out small (in a cosy hobbit hole), and then grows organically as Bilbo ventures out into the big, scary world. It is far more elegant to first learn about Smaug from the dwarves’ haunting ballad (rather than a bombastic CGI sequence). The prelude also undermines the real-and-present stakes of the story by framing it as one big flashback.
Several of the orc skirmishes have been cut. I felt that the Battle of the Five Armies provided more than enough orc mayhem. If you pack in too much before then, they just become monotonous, and it lessons their menace in the audience’s mind. I was tempted to leave in the very first Azog confrontation (since it resembles a chapter from the novel), but decided to cut it for a variety of reasons. Specifically, I found it tonally jarring to jump from the emotional crescendo of Thorin being saved by Bilbo (and the sense of safety the company feels after being rescued by the eagles), straight back into another chase sequence. Plus, I think the film works better if Bilbo is still trying to earn Thorin’s respect the entire journey, as he was in the novel. Not to mention the absurdity of Bilbo suddenly turning into John McClane with a sword!
Several of the action scenes have been tightened up, such as the barrel-ride, the fight between Smaug and the dwarves (no molten gold in this version), and the Battle of the Five Armies. Though, it should be noted that Bilbo’s key scenes—the encounter with Gollum, the battle against the Mirkwood spiders, and the conversation with Smaug—have not been tampered with, since they proved to be excellent adaptions (in no small part due to Freeman’s performance), and serve to refocus the film on Bilbo’s arc.
A lot of filler scenes have been cut as well. These are usually harder to spot (and I’ve probably missed a couple), but once they’re gone, you’ll completely forget that they ever existed. For example, the 4-minute scene where Bard buys some fish and the dwarves gather up his pay.
Posted on 1/20/15 at 3:36 pm to Dr RC
This is exactly how it should have been in the first place. The Hobbit may not be a large book, but a lot of stuff happens in it. It should have been 2 movies and end the first one when they escape from the Elves and start the second one in Laketown. Make the first one 2 hours and the second one 2 and a half hours for a grand total of 4 and a half hours. Really looking forward to watching this.
Posted on 1/20/15 at 4:03 pm to Dr RC
The hobbit trilogy sucked. What else is new.
Not that im against directors taking liberties with book franchises, im not interested in watching the same book ive read.
Not that im against directors taking liberties with book franchises, im not interested in watching the same book ive read.
Posted on 1/20/15 at 6:26 pm to SundayFunday
quote:
Sent the link to my email and watching it tonight. Thanks!
Let us know how you think it turned out. I probably won't be able to watch it till this weekend.
Posted on 1/20/15 at 6:42 pm to PillageUrVillage
I was excited by this but the link doesn't work anymore. I love the hobbit and enjoyed many elements of the movies but serious editing was needed. I haven't even had desire to see the last one because the second was so bad, much worse than the first. I hope he fixes it soon because this sounds promising.
Posted on 1/20/15 at 6:53 pm to lagallifrey
Just finished downloading it. Starting now!
Posted on 1/20/15 at 7:02 pm to lagallifrey
Link still works for me. you have to download the torrent.
Posted on 1/20/15 at 9:13 pm to PillageUrVillage
There was a direct download on the page, but it is now defunct. No idea how to do torrents - it just brought pop up ads and tried to get me to sign up for stuff - so I won't bother. Too bad Peter Jackson wouldn't ever release a "The Essential Hobbit" edition. It's odd how the extended editions of the lord of the rings are so superior (particularly fellowship), yet the hobbit needed drastic editing.
Posted on 1/20/15 at 11:22 pm to lagallifrey
Just finished watching it. Exhausting, but yeah, it's pretty fantastic. This is what should have been released in theaters as two movies. The only scenes I really missed that were cut out was Thorin giving Bilbo the Mithril vest (don't know why he removed that scene) and Kili and Fili's deaths weren't in it. Should have split up after they escape the elves, and the final film may have been nominated for Best Picture. Wouldn't have won, but there are certainly two competent films jumbled in this trilogy.
This post was edited on 1/20/15 at 11:23 pm
Posted on 1/29/15 at 8:19 am to OMLandshark
The direct download is up again so I got it and watched the first half. I knew there had to be a good hobbit movie buried in there. It is fantastic so far. The cuts to the cave and barrel sequences in particular really helped. I never saw the last movie so I'm excited to finish it.
Posted on 1/30/15 at 2:19 am to OMLandshark
I really think that expanding it into multiple movies could have served the story better. I was always for the expansion, as long as they focused on the right things. The right things to focus on would be the characters. You have 13 dwarves who were not fleshed out in the books (who PJ said we would get to know), and they end up having hardly any lines in the movie. So why care about them? In my opinion 3 3-hour films could have been great had they taken their time to really flesh things out with the people and let us care about who we were seeing. But in the end they focused on the wrong things and decided to expand it with a bunch of long action sequences and two Mirkwood sprites who had no business being in the film.
I can't wait to see this fan edit. I'm sure it will be good. However, I don't think there's anyway to fully correct the wrongs of this trilogy just by editing things out. But it certainly is a start!
I can't wait to see this fan edit. I'm sure it will be good. However, I don't think there's anyway to fully correct the wrongs of this trilogy just by editing things out. But it certainly is a start!
Posted on 1/30/15 at 6:56 am to red_giraffe
I agree the characters should have been explored more with more dialogue. But I finished the edited version last night and loved it. My only gripe was that they removed the song about what bilbo baggins hates. That was straight from the book and fun to watch on film.
Overall the picture quality was so so. I really wish Peter Jackson would do his own similar edit.
Overall the picture quality was so so. I really wish Peter Jackson would do his own similar edit.
Posted on 1/30/15 at 8:27 am to lagallifrey
Is there any way to stream this somewhere? Or better yet, would any of you want to burn it onto a DVD for me?
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