Unlike the LOTR trilogy, the HOBBIT movies have sadly ended up on my 'edits-I'd-like-to-do-one-day' list, and it's been interesting to see some of the views here and elsewhere about the various ways to edit them.
I'm actually only getting round to catching the final instalment on the big screen tomorrow, as I wasn't able to fit it in over the Christmas/New Year period as I originally intended...so will be interested to see how Jackson wraps things up.
Since I happened to be a 'philistine' that had never actually read any of the Tolkien books (!), I was able to watch Jackson's 'cinematic' LOTR trilogy as something fresh at the time, without any knowledge of how things would pan out...and without any pre-conceptions about how they *should* have turned out compared to the original source material. I had a great time with each of them at the time, and liked the 'extended' versions even more - although I *still* think that ROTK should have ended where everyone kneeled for Frodo and the hobbits, as the camera looked up at them... :)
However...as much as I was pleased that Jackson was going to direct the HOBBIT movies too, in the end...I'd also read the concerns that many Tolkien fans had about the fact that he was turning this smaller scale 'prequel' to LOTR into a full-blown trilogy of movies once again. And since I've ended up having to drastically alter many, many moments of Jackson's self-indulgent 'King Kong' for myself into a much shorter version I prefer (a mix of the 'Theatrical' and 'Extended' versions), I too wondered just how much of the same excessive 'bloat' he'd introduce over these 3 movies when he got around to them...
Quite a bit it turns out, judging by the first 2 instalments alone...and it'll no doubt take a *lot* of my time to work out the various bits and pieces that I'd rather see altered throughout the 3 movies eventually. However, at some point I'll look forward to watching the 4-hour-plus 'The Hobbit:The Tolkien Edit' by TolkienEditor that's linked to above...as I already caught some of the things he wrote across at Fanedit.org recently, and some of his ideas seem to chime with some of my own. Yes, it's long...but there's always the 'pause' button if anyone wants a 'break'/'intermission'.
Since I never read the books, I can pick and choose my favourite footage/dialogue out of Jackson's versions without feeling the urge to follow the way Tolkien laid things out originally, seeing as I was never invested in the books as my first introduction to the characters etc, only the movies themselves. And of course, I'll be waiting to see what additional scenes the 'extended' version of 'The Battle Of The Five Armies' brings. But I have a feeling my own eventual version for myself will be split over 2 edited movies, no matter what. :)