There's no better way to state my eventual disappointment for The Hobbit movies than by saying I didn't even bother seeing the final one in theaters.
Having said that, I finally watched all 3 Extended Hobbit movies over the last few days. It was the first time I'd watched AUJ since its theatrical release in Dec 12, and the first time rewatched DoS since it's release in Dec 13. For BOTFA as mentioned, its the first time.
Unlike the LoTR extended editions where you can argue the theatrical edits are definitive and the extended editions more of an extra helping for the fans, I feel these extended cuts for The Hobbit are easily the definitive cuts of these films by a significant margin.
By virtue of splitting this story into 3 films, the theatrical features felt stretched...like butter over too much bread (harhar), but the additions in the extended cuts flesh out pretty much all plot branches in each film by giving them more substance and thus (mostly) justifying the amount of time given to all of them. It's weird but as much as I'd call the length of this trilogy it's main criticism...making the movies longer actually helped them. Huh.
The addition of the various songs help maintain a sense of whimsy giving this first film an overall much more coherent and consistent tone, it's the lightest and closest to the book and feels that way for pretty much the entire run time. The added scenes also focus mostly on Bilbo, weighing the film more heavily towards him, and the scene of Elrond talking about Thorin's bloodline makes him much more sympathetic, we also get some more time in Hobbiton which is always nice. This film had the least added to it, run-time wise, but it feels more substantial and satisfying as a stand alone film than it did before thanks to the additions, and is better paced to boot.
The theatrical cut felt lacking in focus as it seemed like a series of little side treks all leading to a cliffhanger, all of it was starved of substance, now essentially every act of the film is filled with content that again justifies the time spent on it. The film's intro actually has a reason to exist now and links to later events. We actually get to enjoy Beorn's character, the trek through Mirkwood is made more dizzying and tense, Laketown is more fleshed out and alive, and the side story at Dol Guldur actually feels relevant to the plot now with the addition of Thrain, this was a huge improvement. This film had the most footage added, but again, it's all substantial, and the film feels much more like a complete film than it does something that was concocted in the editing room in the rush to stretch the series to 3 films as it did in theaters. The 186 run-time of the EE feels vastly better paced then the 160 minutes of the theatrical cut.
Having only watched the extended, I looked into what was added. Same story as before. Dol Guldur is much more substantial, to the point that when you look at all that was cut from this movie and DoS from this subplot, one wonders why even include it at all in the theatrical cuts? And the battle, after watching the film I was shocked at how much of it was missing in the theatrical cut. I can't even imagine what a clusterfuck of editing it must have been, the extended cut is pretty much all the meat and best parts of the battle. The R rating was definitely earned, so I suppose that explains why so much was cut...but then why push the violence so much...? A pretty bizarre set of circumstances. Besides that, there's some more Bilbo stuff that again help to center his character more, and the funeral scene...insane to think this was cut. Again, overall looking at what was added (though probably a few things should have stayed gone. That Legolas Bat scene...yikes), a more complete film, with acceptable pacing, though without a doubt the weakest even in it's extended form. This was always going to be the toughest part to adapt though, given how briefly it is covered in the book and Bilbo's being knocked out.
These movies are so weird. The theatrical edits are stretched so thin with some diversions so useless (theatrical cut of Dol Guldur for one), that there's no arguement to be made, the original plan to edit them into two movies would have made for much stronger movies with far better pacing while allowing for a lot of the side stuff to be cut entirely. But then watching these extended cuts, seeing the amount of material filmed , one can see the reasoning for PJ to decide that they needed more than two films, it's just that a lot of the material justifying this trilogy format didn't become clear until the EEs. Impossible to reconcile both ends of the spectrum as I doubt they would have released 2 movies in theaters and then gone and made 3 extended cuts. In the end, it would have served Jackson to have been involved in pre-production far earlier rather than come in after Del Toro bailed and to maybe have been a bit less in love with the world. Oh well.
Aside from all that, yeah while a lot of the action is very well shot and staged, so much of it is so over the top (mostly in BOTFA), that Gold CG is still...and some of the character choices are...well I don't want to get into the criticism side too much as it's been said ad nauseum, and a lot of it is valid, but for someone like me who is really into the way Jackson staged his Middle Earth films, with the stunning production design, incredible world building and detail by Weta Workshop, these extended cuts made for a much satisfying watch even if they don't absolve the movies of all of their flaws, for sure they will never meet the bar established by the original LoTR trilogy. But I suppose that's okay.
Anyone watched these and felt similarly, or differently?
Having said that, I finally watched all 3 Extended Hobbit movies over the last few days. It was the first time I'd watched AUJ since its theatrical release in Dec 12, and the first time rewatched DoS since it's release in Dec 13. For BOTFA as mentioned, its the first time.
Unlike the LoTR extended editions where you can argue the theatrical edits are definitive and the extended editions more of an extra helping for the fans, I feel these extended cuts for The Hobbit are easily the definitive cuts of these films by a significant margin.
By virtue of splitting this story into 3 films, the theatrical features felt stretched...like butter over too much bread (harhar), but the additions in the extended cuts flesh out pretty much all plot branches in each film by giving them more substance and thus (mostly) justifying the amount of time given to all of them. It's weird but as much as I'd call the length of this trilogy it's main criticism...making the movies longer actually helped them. Huh.
The addition of the various songs help maintain a sense of whimsy giving this first film an overall much more coherent and consistent tone, it's the lightest and closest to the book and feels that way for pretty much the entire run time. The added scenes also focus mostly on Bilbo, weighing the film more heavily towards him, and the scene of Elrond talking about Thorin's bloodline makes him much more sympathetic, we also get some more time in Hobbiton which is always nice. This film had the least added to it, run-time wise, but it feels more substantial and satisfying as a stand alone film than it did before thanks to the additions, and is better paced to boot.
The theatrical cut felt lacking in focus as it seemed like a series of little side treks all leading to a cliffhanger, all of it was starved of substance, now essentially every act of the film is filled with content that again justifies the time spent on it. The film's intro actually has a reason to exist now and links to later events. We actually get to enjoy Beorn's character, the trek through Mirkwood is made more dizzying and tense, Laketown is more fleshed out and alive, and the side story at Dol Guldur actually feels relevant to the plot now with the addition of Thrain, this was a huge improvement. This film had the most footage added, but again, it's all substantial, and the film feels much more like a complete film than it does something that was concocted in the editing room in the rush to stretch the series to 3 films as it did in theaters. The 186 run-time of the EE feels vastly better paced then the 160 minutes of the theatrical cut.
Having only watched the extended, I looked into what was added. Same story as before. Dol Guldur is much more substantial, to the point that when you look at all that was cut from this movie and DoS from this subplot, one wonders why even include it at all in the theatrical cuts? And the battle, after watching the film I was shocked at how much of it was missing in the theatrical cut. I can't even imagine what a clusterfuck of editing it must have been, the extended cut is pretty much all the meat and best parts of the battle. The R rating was definitely earned, so I suppose that explains why so much was cut...but then why push the violence so much...? A pretty bizarre set of circumstances. Besides that, there's some more Bilbo stuff that again help to center his character more, and the funeral scene...insane to think this was cut. Again, overall looking at what was added (though probably a few things should have stayed gone. That Legolas Bat scene...yikes), a more complete film, with acceptable pacing, though without a doubt the weakest even in it's extended form. This was always going to be the toughest part to adapt though, given how briefly it is covered in the book and Bilbo's being knocked out.
These movies are so weird. The theatrical edits are stretched so thin with some diversions so useless (theatrical cut of Dol Guldur for one), that there's no arguement to be made, the original plan to edit them into two movies would have made for much stronger movies with far better pacing while allowing for a lot of the side stuff to be cut entirely. But then watching these extended cuts, seeing the amount of material filmed , one can see the reasoning for PJ to decide that they needed more than two films, it's just that a lot of the material justifying this trilogy format didn't become clear until the EEs. Impossible to reconcile both ends of the spectrum as I doubt they would have released 2 movies in theaters and then gone and made 3 extended cuts. In the end, it would have served Jackson to have been involved in pre-production far earlier rather than come in after Del Toro bailed and to maybe have been a bit less in love with the world. Oh well.
Aside from all that, yeah while a lot of the action is very well shot and staged, so much of it is so over the top (mostly in BOTFA), that Gold CG is still...and some of the character choices are...well I don't want to get into the criticism side too much as it's been said ad nauseum, and a lot of it is valid, but for someone like me who is really into the way Jackson staged his Middle Earth films, with the stunning production design, incredible world building and detail by Weta Workshop, these extended cuts made for a much satisfying watch even if they don't absolve the movies of all of their flaws, for sure they will never meet the bar established by the original LoTR trilogy. But I suppose that's okay.
Anyone watched these and felt similarly, or differently?
