I’m so thankful for this edit. It makes Jackson look much better, showing the good choices he did make and removing his poor attempts to punch up or elongate the story. What’s left comes out far better than the theatrical version, and counterintuitively, makes the Hobbit story track better with the LOTR trilogy. Yes, the story beats that link the two sets of movies are removed, but the overall quality of this Hobbit edit hews closer to the quality of LOTR and that makes all the difference.
Personally, I missed the giant rock dudes clashing as the company watches in fear. Really awe inspiring scene, even if it isn’t from the book. Same deal with Thorin making a stand when the wargs had the company treed.
Okay, wait. I just refreshed my memory by watching the Thorin heroics among the burning trees. Yup. Far better to dump all of that nonsense, if for no other reason than it’s full of Azog. Nice choice!
Thanks! That means a lot.
Also yeah in my current edit, there’s one part I miss too. The warg chase before Rivendell, it was actually pretty awesome - cool music, action, good acting, most Orcs were non-CGI, but it was just unnecessary for the plot, inaccurate to the book, and had the inclusion of Radagast. I’ve always considered including a “deleted scene reel” on the Blu-ray version. Maybe the Stone Giants might be something to throw on there, I dunno.
But I had cut that sequence because it was very excessive, the stone giants in the book were probably just a different kind of troll or other creature, but not skyscraper tall giant boxers. I felt like it was kind of out of place in the Middle Earth film atmosphere, like we’ve never seen anything like that, it raises too many questions IMO about what they are, why they exist, who’s side are they on, where are they in LOTR, how come no one talks about them