Some of you may know that I had an Attack of the Clones edit in the works for quite a few years. Unfortunately, because that film proved to be ultimately unfixable, I decided to abandon the project. It was in as complete a state as any edit out there, but I just didn’t consider it good enough to release. The Hobbit movies on the other hand, show a lot more potential for improvements. With the release of the Blu-Ray of The Battle of the Five Armies, several complete edits have emerged, one or two of them quite ambitious. I still have a lot of work left to do on mine, but I figured it was time for this thread to be born.
From the outset, I’ve got to say that I have the greatest respect for Peter Jackson. He’s a competent filmmaker who tells compelling stories, however I do feel that he’s become a victim of ‘George Lucas syndrome’; a lack of restraint when making his films which I can only attribute to all the praise lavished upon him since LOTR, along with the studio no longer curtailing him. You can see this happening to a degree during the course of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. More gags were introduced and the action set pieces got a bit sillier and over the top as they went along. I firmly believe that Fellowship of the Ring is the strongest of the three, but don’t get me wrong, I still love those movies and they are among my all time favourites.
And then we get to The Hobbit, and the gratuitous excess has had the volume turned up to 11, despite originally being a smaller story with less at stake. Some scenes from the book have been altered to accommodate more action (which is fine in certain instances - this is an adaptation not a straight up faithful translation after all) however sometimes it impacts on continuity with Lord of the Rings; maintaining which ought to have been the main goal here from the outset.
Other times, sections of the book I felt ought to have been omitted, were left in and expanded despite being throwaway mentions e.g. the stone giants scene. Many things in Lord of the Rings were left out of the movies, necessitated by the limitations of the medium and its runtime. This ought to have been the case here rather than cramming in absolutely everything they could.
And then we have the length. As Bilbo told Gandalf in Fellowship of the Ring, he felt “thin… stretched. Like butter scraped over too much bread”. In the same way, these films feel as though they’ve been stretched out far beyond what the source material should have allowed. They’ve expanded the story to incorporate a Dwarf/Orc grudge with several resulting battles and chases, Gandalf investigating Dol Guldur along with his sidekick, Birdshit-Head, premature introductions of Sauron, Saruman & Galadriel, conspiratorial arrests in Laketown, Orc hunting/investigation with Legolas and Tauriel and that damn love triangle! All of these additions steal focus away from our titular Hobbit. It’s the title of the film, so that’s who it should have been about. Jackson can’t seem to resist inserting fan service and Lord of the Rings references everywhere along with contrived and forced foreshadowing. It comes across as a self-aware prequel that relies too much on prior knowledge of the subsequent instalments. This is very much the same problem we had with the Star Wars Prequels, however unlike the Star Wars Prequels, I believe these movies can be fixed.
My Goals:
- Correct tonal inconsistencies as well as issues of continuity with LOTR.
- Address issues with pacing and remove the superfluous, gratuitous, cartoony or unrealistic.
- Make Bilbo more consistent within the film (he no longer goes from cowering wuss to John McClane with a sword, and then back to cowering wuss again) and also shift the focus to him to make him a true protagonist.
I’m working with a very talented VFX artist, and hope to show off some really great new/altered shots soon.
First of all, while waiting for the 3rd movie to release, I had a play around with a fanedit.org banner. No idea if this aligns with any guidelines that exist. If not, I’ll have to change it.
I’ve also been working on a cover/case for it. Here’s what I have so far. The idea was to make it a foldable digipak template. Still some faces to add to it, but I’d of course be creating a cover with the correct dimensions for a standard case as well.
As far as the VFX goes, there’s only really one shot where I can showcase the change with a still, and that’s the following shot. With the help of someone extremely talented, I’ve restored the scene to its original intent in the book (along with matching what Bilbo tells the Hobbiton children in FOTR). No more Gandalf splitting the rock to let the sunshine through. It’s now a straightforward sunrise.
I’m aiming to cut them all down to between 3 & 3.5 hours in length. One release will be a 1080p mkv, another of 2 separate Blu Ray disc images. The split will exist to keep the bitrate high, as well as serving as a sort of homage to the LOTR releases where a title appeared saying 'The Story Continues on Disk Two…
Good audio is of utmost importance to me, and is frequently neglected in most other edits. I’ll be doing my best to ensure that all audio transitions are smooth and occur at the most suitable points possible. I’m working with 6 channel 5.1 surround.
Cutlist:
-
The first words uttered are “In a hole in the ground, there lived a Hobbit”, I’ve completely reworked the voiceover that follows the title.
-
Ian Holm is kept, but he is a faceless narrator/storyteller which I think fits with it being a children’s book. Also, this works for me from a continuity perspective. Ian Holm has aged since FOTR, and this is meant to be him on the same day. Sad but true.
-
Unlike some edits, I keep the prologue about the fall of Erebor. I think it’s needed and helps get the Dwarf history out of the way so the remainder of the story can be devoted to Bilbo. The prologue is drastically shortened to remove some of the more silly bits about the Dwarves’ skills. It also contains nothing about Thror losing his mind, or the elves. I may even cut more than that. I have a few test versions I’m working on.
-
Frodo is gone, as is the entire post-prologue scene of old Bilbo. After the prologue we carry on with the voiceover and go straight to Martin Freeman’s Bilbo and skip over Old Bilbo smoking outside entirely. VFX was needed to excise the smoke butterfly. As of right now, it takes around 6:20 to get to Bilbo saying “Good Morning” to Gandalf.
-
Minor tweaks to good morning scene dialogue.
-
The Dwarves invading Bagend has been trimmed to remove a lot of silliness, notably the plate throwing singsong. Here’s one part that was way too faithful to the book for me.
-
The conversation about the quest has been reordered. Still working on perfecting that.
-
We transition straight to the old farmhouse near where the trolls are. Gandalf leaves without explanation. No argument about elves.
-
The battle with the Trolls is cut, as is them throwing down their weapons. I’ve got 2 possible options of transitioning to the Dwarves already captured.
-
The troll sequence is trimmed to excise some silliness.
-
The trolls are turned to stone by a normal sunrise. Gandalf isn’t involved, the rock stays intact, and the sun creeps up behind the rock as it should have all along.
-
Thorin isn’t damning of Bilbo after he just saved their asses.
-
Troll cave trimmed.
-
Bilbo being given Sting trimmed.
-
No Radagast. At all. EVER.
-
No orcs either. We don’t see orcs until the battle of the five armies. Though i guess it should be noted that Tolkien himself never drew a distinction between Orcs and Goblins. They were interchangeable.
-
Rivendell is trimmed for Dwarf silliness and superfluous scenes.
-
No Galadriel, No Saruman, no white council. In fact, there is no Dol Guldur subplot at all and there never will be.
-
Stone giants removed.
-
Fall into the goblin tunnels trimmed.
-
Toying with a VFX-heavy solution to getting rid of Bilbo’s ridiculous fall to Gollum’s cave. Not sure yet if it can be accomplished
-
Goblin King scene heavily trimmed and reordered.
-
Fight with the goblins is cut down significantly. I think most editors really overthink this scene when they chop it up. The fix to cut it down is very simple.
-
Riddles in the dark is unchanged, though all the intercutting back to the Goblin battle is removed as most of the battle is gone now.
-
I’m attempting to preserve the scene with them hiding in the trees from the Wargs and being rescued by Eagles.
-
I’m attempting to reinstate Beorn, whilst removing any mention of Orcs or the now excised Dol Guldur subplot.
-
I liked the Mirkwood scenes as they are presented in the extended edition. I may utilise some or all of it as it sells the illusionary and disorientating forest really well.
-
VFX tweaks to the Spider scene in the works
-
Bilbo never loses his ring or murders a baby insect. In fact, the corrupting influence of the ring is non-existent in this edit. Too soon, PJ.
-
Legolas is reduced to glimpses. He’s a cameo now. No spider-riding nonsense.
-
Tauriel is no longer a character. She’s a nameless elf with no dialogue.
-
Scenes inside the woodland realm are heavily trimmed.
-
The barrel scene is edited down to within an inch of its life. No Orcs, No Elves thwarting their escape. The barrels just drift down the river as in the book.
-
The Dwarves come ashore and Kili is no longer injured.
-
Trims to Bard’s introduction and them being smuggled into Laketown. Those two Pugs are staying though as I have two just like them.
-
Alfrid is no longer an annoyance. He’s there, but he’s just the Master’s (silent) assistant.
-
All the conspiratorial bullshit with the Master of Laketown having a grudge against Bard is gone.
-
None of the Dwarves stay behind in Laketown. Will utilise some minor VFX to sell that fact. There is no celebration of them leaving.
-
The Dwarves getting through the hidden door is trimmed. They no longer give up or try to break through
-
Smaug’s conversation with Bilbo is trimmed, but it’s mostly awesome.
-
There is no Smaug fight in the mountain at all. This is another scene that most editors overthink. Getting around the silliness is actually very simple.
-
Bard’s family, Dwarves and Tauriel cut from Laketown when Smaug attacks.
-
Bard shoots Smaug with a normal arrow. His son is not involved.
The majority of my cuts to The Battle of the Five Armies are all over the place. Once it’s less chaotic and my choices are set in stone, I’ll update this cutlist.
