Review Detail

Holy crap. This edit was beautiful, one of [if not] the best I've seen, alongside Scott Pilgrim vs. the Editor.

I was not a fan of The Hobbit when it came out. I'm 17 now, so I was 10 when then, and a fan of Lord of the Rings. Not a huge fan as I didn't really appreciate things that much back then, but I certainly was entertained by the series. Nothing particularly stood out to me as 'bad' in these films, they were just boring and a little stretched out for my liking. I saw the first one and didn't like it all too much. The second one was better, I really enjoyed Smaug hanging out in the gold, and the stuff with the elves. Never got around to seeing the third one, or rewatching the first two, even after buying the 6-film Middle Earth collection a few years ago (when I became more interested in film, and the Lord of the Rings series).

A little after getting into fanedits earlier this year, I decided that I'd like to try out The Hobbit again. I debated between this edit, and the Original Two-Film structure for my first endeavor, and this one was what I decided on, as there is more cut and the miniseries format lends itself to keeping my attention span.

Anyways, enough about myself. This edit was phenomenal! I can't give very good specifics as I'm not all too familiar with the source content, but I never got bored during the edit, and each episode wrapped up perfectly as it's own narrative. This edit turned me from a [presumed] Hobbit hater, to an actual fan of the series, and debating where I rank it amongst the rest of the Middle Earth set.

I noted a few small issues in editing, not with audio but with visual transitions, most likely just due to the source material available (there was one crossfade from a tracking shot on I think Thorin's head to a landscape, and just the speed/context of the fade was a little strange). Additionally, while, again, I'm not familiar with the source and it could be in there already, there was a few moments where dialogue was cut kind of awkwardly. Not so much that it took me out of the moment, but I felt that some stuff cut messed up the pacing - although I'm sure it successfully "Anti-Cringed" it. (For example, when Bard stands up to Smaug, Smaug doesn't see nor hear him, but somehow notices him immediately and starts speaking to him). However, editing still gets a 10/10 because the % I'd give it would round up anyways...

This edit was extremely well done, and I'm super interested in checking out The Last Jedi - Anti-Cringe Cut now.