Review posted at IFDB:
TV-to-movie edits are tough. It's really easy to take a 10 hour TV season and make a 4 hour TV season. What's difficult is taking a 10 hour season and making a proper 2.5 hour movie. In that sense, this edit passes with flying colours. There's another edit of season one that didn't do a good job with the narrative but this is on another level. This is a gripping story with all the right elements. The opening is genius and it flows like a proper movie. The only bad thing I can say about the narrative is that it's not a self-contained story and relies on the fact that sequels are coming. But that's a minor quibble because you'll definitely want to watch the sequel right after this anyway.
The picture quality is great and the addition of the LOTR score is a great bonus. But there's a serious issue with this edit in that there about a dozen or so spots where the picture becomes very pixelated for a few seconds. It's bad enough that it takes you out of the movie and the editor really should have corrected this before releasing it. Were it not for that, this would easily be a 9 or 10 out of 10, but as it stands now, I can't recommend this edit. The editor should really take another shot at this because the narrative is so good that it deserves a release without technical issues.
Here are some examples of the technical issues with the edit.
Right in the space above the chopping block you can see a horizontal line of pixels. Not a big deal, but big enough to notice.
Here is a more serious issue. It lasts for about 5 seconds.
There are about a dozen or so more spots like this in the edit. I really should not have been released like this, and I'd encourage the editor to fix these issues.