Fan Cuts The Hobbit Trilogy Into a Single, Four-Hour Movie

[Kingjackl]

My brother went and watched this thing. From what he's told me, the takeaway is that trying to create a more faithful adaptation of a book does not necessarily create a good film. Who knew?

For instance, there are continuity problems with a few scenes. It omits the prologue and starts with Gandalf greeting Bilbo at Bag End, but still has the '60 years later' caption, which now makes no sense. In omitting everything to do with Tauriel for example, it doesn't explain how Kili got cured of his stab wound, and Kili's death itself was cut because she was obviously a big part of it. I think it also cut Fili's death as well because of reasons. The thing is, you can't get away with killing off two major characters in a movie like you could in a book. That needs to be shown, not told.

It also downplays Legolas, which sounds fine in theory, but it leads to an issue in the final battle where Thorin is suddenly using Orcrist for no apparent reason. It also doesn't show what Gandalf was up to when he left the party, which again is something that you really ought to show in a movie.

Apparently, it did remove a lot of the filler involving the Wormtongue-like comic relief dude in Battle of Five Armies, which is something I can 100% get behind. I liked the Hobbit movies in general, and the first two were comparatively restrained, but I think the third one stretched the friendship a bit too far.

 

[Sutter Cane]

So I'd actually recently finished doing something similar for the first two films (as they are the only ones legally available to purchase at the moment), and I'm astounded at how he apparently managed to cut all three down to a total of 4 hours, and I still have the entire third movie to go (I'm looking at a total runtime of about 6 hours). I can't imagine his cut atually plays all that well as a film, as the hole thing is pretty much assured to feel incredibly rushed. I'm working from the theatrical cut of An Unexpected Journey, and the Extended cut of The Desolation of Smaug

for anyone that's interested here's a list of the changes I've made (and plan to make) for my cut:

*The entire prologue is gone. The film now opens with "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit..." The audience out about the dwarves' history with the mountain at the same time Bilbo does

*The entirety of Gandalf's subplot about the necromancer is cut as well, and any conversations that tie too heavily into it are shortened.

*radagast's intro is cut, but his conversation with gandalf remains, albeit in a truncated form

*The meeting of the white Council at rivendel remains in the film (though again is shortened) so gandalf doesn't just randomly disappear for about an hour of the film with no mention of his absence.

* The love triangle subplot is completely cut from the film. Legolas still has feelings for Tauriel, but Tauriel's involvement with Kili is cut entirely

* Accordingly, the subplot of Kili slowly dying from being shot by the orcish arrow is also completely removed from the film
* Tauriel and Legolas no longer show up in Lake Town prior to the death of smaug ( this ones' going to be a bit tricky to edit for the third film, but it can be done)

* Kili's Death sequence is also going to be edited so I can remove Tauriel standing around, looking worried, and calling out for Kili given that she no longer has any reason to do so.

* the epilogue will also be cut from the film as well

like I said, I'm looking at a total run time of about 6 hours

 

[katsabas]

I like how everyone forgets the Lord of the Rings was a single book cut into 3 by the editor for easier publishing.

There is a slight difference between splitting a material of 1200 pages into 3 movies and doing the same thing to a 300 page book. A lot of the scenes in the Hobbit were stretched beyond belief. I cannot say how grateful I am for something like this to have happened because it sounds like a great version of all three films. Since BOTFA is not out yet, I am gonna wait to see how this turns out.

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

Just thought of something interesting, isnt it weird that people moan movies or games get censored yet seem happy with chunks being cut out of The Hobbit? Yes that trilogy was to long and full of pointless filler (would have cut out most of those dwarves) but then people applaud when there are cuts in one movie yet condemn when it happens in another.

 

[RubyT]

I thought the Hobbit movies were too long. I nearly fell asleep during the last one. I thought they should have renamed it the battle of the select few. I watched it thinking ?Hey look it?s the armies.? a minute latter ?Were did the armies go.?

I think the last movie is most succinctly summarised by one line of mono-/dialog:

"Hey, there's about a hundred orcs coming our way. The two of use will take care of them, you go on ahead!"

Yeah, I was biting my nails...

 

[Sutter Cane]

I'd just be happy if everything with Tauriel was cut out. Her scenes were terrible and the actress wasn't good enough to make them passable. (And she's like the first named character that appears in BoFA, for fuck's sake!) Also, made up Mary Sue character had more scenetime devoted to her than like 9 of the dwarves, including the movie she wasn't even in. Fucking hell, if they needed to pad out the running time that much, they could have given each dwarf a scene with Bilbo where they share their stories or reasons for being there. Just so that we had something to care about, I mean the last scene with the dwarves had them standing side by side looking at Bilbo and I remembered the names of like, 3. After. 10. hours. of. that. shit.

Sadly it's impossible to cut Tauriel from the film entirely. She plays too big of a role in Kili's death scene.

 

[RaikuFA]

I thought the Hobbit movies were too long. I nearly fell asleep during the last one. I thought they should have renamed it the battle of the select few. I watched it thinking ?Hey look it?s the armies.? a minute latter ?Were did the armies go.?

That's how I felt with the original trilogy. When Kevin Smith can summarize your trilogy in a minute, you done goofed.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

Since when is a single movie four hours long?

What they really did was cut them into two two-hour-long movies and play them back to back.

Umm, Lawrence of Arabia. 4 hours long and theaters ran an intermission.

 

[Salad Is Murder]

I thought the Hobbit movies were too long. I nearly fell asleep during the last one. I thought they should have renamed it the battle of the select few. I watched it thinking ?Hey look it?s the armies.? a minute latter ?Were did the armies go.?

That's how I felt with the original trilogy. When Kevin Smith can summarize your trilogy in a minute, you done goofed.

Ironic, as most Kevin Smith's movies can be summarized in a sentence.

 

[RaikuFA]

I thought the Hobbit movies were too long. I nearly fell asleep during the last one. I thought they should have renamed it the battle of the select few. I watched it thinking ?Hey look it?s the armies.? a minute latter ?Were did the armies go.?

That's how I felt with the original trilogy. When Kevin Smith can summarize your trilogy in a minute, you done goofed.

Ironic, as most Kevin Smith's movies can be summarized in a sentence.

True, but I got more entertainment from them than LotR. But that's just me.