I've just finished watching your version of The Hobbit, and the first thing that comes to me is a very big thank you ! Indeed, it kind of felt like I was watching the version I wanted to watch at the movies in the first place.
The cuts you operated were quite seamless, but what I enjoyed the most is that you managed to make film 1 more respectful towards the book (the main advantages I saw are that the dwarves are far less goofy, and most importantly Azog is gone, among numeral other changes you operated) while keeping it faithful to P. Jackson's aesthetics. While I was not frustrated with the original beginning of the film, I also really enjoyed what you did with the introduction.
Here are some details I've noted (that does not change my feelings on your cut, that I still find enjoyable and relevant) :
- I wonder if the presence of Radagast is, after all, really needed. As much as I appreciate seeing an old Doctor on screen, and seeing that you removed a lot of the scenes involving him, I felt, when watching, that we had either too much or too few of him, if you know what I mean. I understand it is to introduce the necromancer plot, but maybe that could be dealt with a film 2 cut (at which point scenes from film 1 could be moved to film 2?) ? I don't know, since my remark is relatively minor. In fact, as I write it, I think that it's the second apparition of Radagast, when he shows the morgul blade to Gandalf, that did bother me (a little, again, it's no big deal).
- I don't recall in the theatrical version why Gandalf was not in the cave when Bilbo tries to leave the company, but Thorin and another dwarf I can't remember the name exchange a line about Gandalf being missing at that moment, and as we did not see the reason why he left the company, it is sort of confusing. Maybe your keeping of Radagast was to justify that ?
- Concerning the fact that Thorin is knocked out with the eagles⦠I've watched several times this specific part, but all I could think was to plainly remove the part where they land, i.e. having only the arrival of the eagles, their departure, followed by the shot where Thorin looks at a distance and where Biblo says something like "Is that what I think it is"⦠Maybe you already gave it a try, I don't know.
Maybe it's specific to my computer or codecs, but I had a green line at the right of the image. No big deal, but just in case.
I don't know how you feel about it, but despite being a great scene, the riddle scene (and subsequent scenes between Gollum and Bilbo) always felt too luminous to me (especially if you look into the book, where the scene takes place in a nearly pitch-black atmosphere).Therefore, I tested a few (rough) tweaks in my video player by adjusting exposure, and I found it more convincing that way. I guess that it could be more convincing still with finer tuning of picture parameters (I did not look into other parameters). Maybe it's a matter of taste, and maybe you either do not agree on this, or do not want to go the trouble of meddling with picture adjustment, but anyway I thought I would tell you my view on this.
So despite these (minor) remarks, I want to emphasise that I really enjoyed your work. I find it makes the film more mature, closer to the source, and respectful towards P. Jackson's work. Nice job !
