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Oy... Not another one...
I released my fanedit of The Desolation of Smaug called "Fire & Water", and after five years and endless amounts of Hobbit edits (even Kerr came back and finished his edits!) I'm returning to editing The Hobbit. Personally I like the Hobbit best as 3 movies, yes, I like my Hobbits greasy and bloated
. The Arkenstone Edition is still my go-to for An Unexpected Journey, and I have my own preferences different from others when it comes to DoS and BotFA. So just like how @"octoroxx" took the best ideas from the best SW Prequel edits into his own "ultimate" versions, I'm taking inspiration from many great Hobbit faneditors, especially @"kerr", @"TM2YC", and @"Belgarath" to make my personal "ultimate" version of the Hobbit.
My first plan is to revisit my old "Fire & Water" fan edit. This won't be a v.2 or anything but rather a separate edition a la seciors Return of the Sith. I'm wondering if I should keep the title as: The Hobbit: Fire & Water - Revisited Edition OR if I want to retain the original title and make it: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug - Fire & Water Revisited Edition OR Masirimso Revisited Edition. It'll probably depend on whether I want to retitle the third movie.,
So far I have done these changes using the Extended Edition as a base:
Special thanks to TM2YC for putting me in Hobbit-editing mood
I released my fanedit of The Desolation of Smaug called "Fire & Water", and after five years and endless amounts of Hobbit edits (even Kerr came back and finished his edits!) I'm returning to editing The Hobbit. Personally I like the Hobbit best as 3 movies, yes, I like my Hobbits greasy and bloated
. The Arkenstone Edition is still my go-to for An Unexpected Journey, and I have my own preferences different from others when it comes to DoS and BotFA. So just like how @"octoroxx" took the best ideas from the best SW Prequel edits into his own "ultimate" versions, I'm taking inspiration from many great Hobbit faneditors, especially @"kerr", @"TM2YC", and @"Belgarath" to make my personal "ultimate" version of the Hobbit.My first plan is to revisit my old "Fire & Water" fan edit. This won't be a v.2 or anything but rather a separate edition a la seciors Return of the Sith. I'm wondering if I should keep the title as: The Hobbit: Fire & Water - Revisited Edition OR if I want to retain the original title and make it: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug - Fire & Water Revisited Edition OR Masirimso Revisited Edition. It'll probably depend on whether I want to retitle the third movie.,
So far I have done these changes using the Extended Edition as a base:
- Regraded the film to look more colorful--the overly green tint has been corrected.
- Restored music throughout just like Kerr did.
- Trimmed the Moria flashback to remove the montage.
- Added exposition from Gandalf about the seven dwarf rings like Kerr did.
- Cut Azog's henchman telling him to "Kill the dwarf filth while they sleep."
- Trimmed Bolg's warg snarling at Azog.
- Moved Azog at Dol Guldur to after the dwarves enter Mirkwood.
- Changed music for Beorn changing back to human form, like Kerr did, from one of Sauron’s theme to one of Beorn’s themes, since this scene is no longer preceded by the Dol Guldur scene.
- Cut Bilbo being tempted by the Ring outside the forest and the implied connection with Sauron.
- Like in Kerr's edit, Gandalf discovering the Eye of Sauron painted on the Elven statue has been altered, using dialogue from Beorn instead of Galadriel, and Gandalf also identifies the Eye as the Eye of Sauron.
- This time I kept Bilbo almost telling Gandalf about the ring. I like how the ring plays like a Red Herring (with this scene and the scene in the forest) for Gandalf's search for the lost dwarf ring, and when he finds it with Thrain and eventually when it is revealed in BotFA that Gandalf & Galadriel also have magic rings the audience finds out there are so many other significant rings in Middle-Earth, which the audience learns more about in Lord of the Rings and, surprise, Bilbo's ring is worse than you could imagine!
- Cut Bofur suggesting they swim the enchanted river.
- Cut Bilbo saying "Oh, come on!" when his foot trips on a spider web and he falls from the tree.
- Cut the dwarves pulling the legs off of a spider which I think takes away from the tension (I kept Dwalin punching spiders though since it gives the dwarves more personality and adds to the desperation of the scene I think. How many of us have desperately bashed spiders in our lifetime?).
- Bilbo still loses his ring in the forest but doesn't kill a baby spider.
- Like Kerr I added the ring whispering "Baggins..." when Bilbo recovers it but to make it much clearer (I could never understand what the ring was whispering in Kerr's edit) I used the Ringwraith saying it from "Fellowship of the Ring" and pitched it down.
- Kept the Gimli reference as is (always loved that part).
- Cut Kili telling Tauriel to check his trousers, now they just glance at each other (Legolas asking Tauriel why Kili stares at her is kept though).
- Cut Bolg and his orc creeping up around the Woodland Realm to make their appearance in the barrels sequence more of a surprise.
- The barrels scene is kept mostly intact with only the terrible Go-Pro shots cut. BOMBUR & LEGOLAS ACROBATICS STAY! Unlike other editors I like the silliness of Bombur's barrel as again it gives the dwarves much needed personality (it's not THAT silly anyway) and Legolas' acrobatics are likewise super fun make complete sense in-universe as can be seen in LoTR.
- Cut bird's nest on Radagast's head
- Gandalf says "the Nine" instead of "the Ringwraiths" like in Kerr's cut
- Cut the master's first scene, but I kept his second scene. It's a great little scene that implies how people in power use the public's belief for their own advantage. I think it's a better introduction anyway.
- Added the Misty Mountains theme from the AUJ credits (before the Neil Finn song begins) to the dwarves approaching the mountain. Had to redo a lot of sound effects. This is the last time we hear this theme, which symbolizes how different things are going to be with Thorin and company, until Thorin's charge in the Battle of the Five Armies with my rescored version.
- Moved Gandalf's encounter with Thrain to after Bilbo first enters the mountain.
- Cut Eye of Sauron when Bilbo removes the ring but added a sound of Gollum screaming "Precious!" from The Two Towers to connect with the previous movie and add to the ring's mystery.
- Moved "That, my lad, was a dragon" scene right when Smaug breaks out of the mountain. From here on out I mostly mimiced how Kerr recut the third act because I thought he did it much better than I did. I did take some liberties though of course.
- Cut Bard's plan to go to the windlance as it's never seen again. When BotFA first came out I was confused why the windlance was never brought up again because I was under the impression that you need it to shoot a black arrow. Now that assumption is hopefully gone.
- Cut from the Master knocking Bard out back to Bilbo and Smaug with an establishing shot of Erebor in between. Moved Thorin & Balin's scene to later.
- Smaug's "A darkness is coming" leads back to Gandalf and Thrain in Dol Guldur
- Cut from Sauron to Orcs sneaking in laketown.
- Trimmed Tauriel's entrance like Kerr did.
- Cut from Tauriel's "I'm going to save him" to Thorin and Balin's scene which leads back to Bilbo and Smaug ("You are being used"). I think that's an even better transition.
- Cut from Smaug breathing fire to Bolg sending the orcs back. Moved Bard waking up in prison to later.
- Mimiced the visuals and borrowed the audio from Kerr intercutting Legolas fighting Bolg and Tauriel healing Kili. I have no idea how seamless this all sounds and it flows wonderfully. Genius!
- Cut the entire forges fight. This means that I had to regretfully remove the wonderful scene with dwarves seeing their kin trapped in the mountain, and deciding to fight Smaug, but it was worth it because of how stupid, overlong, and pointless the forges fight and molten gold was.
- Cut from Smaug deciding to destroy Laketown to "That, my lad, was a dragon.", and then to Bard waking up in prison, then to people in Laketown reacting, and then inside Bard's house before finally Smaug flying over ("I am fire! I am... death!"). Sound effects again borrowed from Kerr's edit.
- Cut from Smaug to Thorin inside the treasure room threatening Bilbo for the Arkenstone (Had to mute Bilbo's "Not for much longer" and "The dragon's coming!" So now he just says "The dragon--" before being cut off by Thorin.)
- Cut from that to Tauriel seeing Smaug's shadow, and then to Bard trying to leave his prison. I kept this whole sequence without music like the original to make it feel more tense, until Smaug descends to light up Laketown.
- Used Kerr's version of Bain's lowered voice which hid the fact that he is younger than in previous scenes.
- Cut from "The dragon is dead!" to Gandalf imprisoned in Dol Guldur and the orc army marching out. I rescored it with Sauron's theme in the unused extra track "Thrain" from the BotFA soundtrack. Smash to credits.
Special thanks to TM2YC for putting me in Hobbit-editing mood
