-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
The Hobbits: Tolkien Edit is here. Fan edits 3 movies into 4 hour film.
- Thread starter massoluk
- Start date
- Status
civilstrife
Member
Ugh. I tried watching that "perfect" single film Star Wars Prequel fan edit. If this is anything like that, it'll be incredibly poorly paced, pandering and hamfisted.
Old Bilbo was movie fan-service. Old Bilbo kinda goes against a important point in the books.
This series is funny because unlike the Star Wars prequels, fans were already satisfied. They needed only create a small story with minimal CG about a Hobbit and his adventures, perhaps slightly alluding to the connection between the story in LOTR.
Reluctant hero travels off with dwarves, gets to know them along the way, danger from orcs, find some gold guarded by a dragon, escape, dragon attacks a town but is eventually slain, huge battle over the treasure in the now unguarded mountain, people die and cry, come home.
This could have been accomplished in under 3 hours.
Reluctant hero travels off with dwarves, gets to know them along the way, danger from orcs, find some gold guarded by a dragon, escape, dragon attacks a town but is eventually slain, huge battle over the treasure in the now unguarded mountain, people die and cry, come home.
This could have been accomplished in under 3 hours.
Freshmaker
I am Korean.
It didn't really need a framing device.
ZackieChan
Member
No, the whole thing is pretty much illegal. DMCA makes it a crime to circumvent copy protection, so just getting the source off the disc is illegal. Then there's the distribution of copyrighted material, which is also illegal. Downloading it (making a copy on your computer) is also illegal.
There are no grey areas here.
Edit: At least according to US law
peanutbutterlatte
Member
I'll wait until the final hour of the cut isn't a blurry, off-screen mess thanks. And obviously, pirating. Duh.
But I definitely think there's the ghost of a good film somewhere in the 9 hour mess that is the Hobbit trilogy.
But I definitely think there's the ghost of a good film somewhere in the 9 hour mess that is the Hobbit trilogy.
You can't make backups of your movies on your hard drive? This is news to me. I believe it, considering how overly and uselessly stringent the government is about this, but I thought you were allowed backups. Maybe that's just with software.
And yeah, I know distributing it online is illegal. I'm not trying to pretend it's not.
tattooed_dwarf
Member
I would love to have change to edit my version with all raw material and Weta digital at my disposal. That said, I can't take these fan edits seriously, most of the ground work have been already done for them, then they do some "editing" and claim it's superior version. Do what ever you want to do for yourself, but stop distributing it online.
Wait, did Jackson edit Tolkiens books also, in addition of making film adaptations?
tattooed_dwarf
Member
Double post.sorry
ZackieChan
Member
Not since 1998, AFAIK. DMCA forbids circumventing copy-protection. There have been exemptions (they vote on them every three years) but I'm not sure that consumer backups have ever been part of it.
Here's the info on the exemptions - they expire every 3 years.
For software, it depends on the type. But if it is breaking a copy protection schema to do it, it is illegal without an express exemption.
Sorry for the derail, everyone!
You are mossing the point.
tattooed_dwarf
Member
In what sense? Last line is sarcastic question, and in first paragraph I tell my opinion on fan edits. To me it is more matter of principles than legality of such action.
Freshmaker
I am Korean.
There is no reason to tack on a LINO in the name of "balance". It doesn't achieve the stated goal at all.
Also, there's nothing inherently wrong with a male dominated movie.
freethought
Member
Wasn't it really just the big Uruk who kills Boromir (who isn't named, doesn't have a line and dies two minutes later as far as I recall) and the guy who looks like Sloth from the Goonies at the Siege of Minas Tirith?
edit: And those were both just (successful imo) attempts to personalise a faceless enemy force as opposed to awkwardly inserting a romantic subplot into an adaptation already replete with awkward insertions.
The first two are already out, and they're great.
Vast improvement on the theatricals.
CadetMahoney
Member
Star Wars letting fan edits slide set a dangerous precedent. Like fanedit.org and such where the stuff they talk about can't be gained legally only torrented or something and Lucasfilm turns a blind eye or borderline condones it.
So ppl start getting other ideas with Hobbit and stuff.
Lurtz. He's named and he has a few lines. The "sloth from the goonies" has some lines too, I think.
Unless they can totally change the tone of the movie into a light-hearted romp.
I haven't seen Five Armies yet, but rented the first film on a plane ride last week, and because I hate myself watched smaug last night.
I actually think these are two of the worst films I have ever seen that had a budget. Like, at least Transformers 4 was good-bad.
I haven't seen Five Armies yet, but rented the first film on a plane ride last week, and because I hate myself watched smaug last night.
I actually think these are two of the worst films I have ever seen that had a budget. Like, at least Transformers 4 was good-bad.
freethought
Member
Either way, the rest of the orcs with speaking roles are straight from the book.
That's my issue. The first Hobbit film starts off bright enough but loses it's way very, very quickly. The scene with the Trolls should be a light hearted romp with some lovely comedic timing from Gandalf. Instead they butcher that scene in the film and it becomes a shitty battle scene with none of the pay off from the book.
After that point almost all the humour has left the trilogy. It's disgusting.
They cut out all of the references to Sauron and "evil returning," which lightened the tone of the movie considerably. They also cut out the weird Romeo and Juliet love triangle, which reduced the melodrama.
Most of the orc chase scenes were also removed, so the first two and a half hours are legitimately just Bilbo's journey through middle earth without any subplots or non-canon interruptions. Things only slow down once they reach Laketown, because most of the Bard scenes were kept in (because they foreshadow the battle at the end).
peanutbutterlatte
Member
More on the tonal mish-mash: I totally forgot you had Voldemort pale Orc vendetta guy and an obese Del Toro looking goblin king played by Dame goddamn Edna in the same flick...
NullPointer
Member
The Hobbit lost me with the wholly unnecessary and cringe-inducing love triangle. Didn't even bother to go see the third movie, and from what little I've heard about the final one it seems like I made the right call. I'm not a complete purist by any stretch, but the sum total of all the additions PJ made just made the whole damn thing fall apart - that and there didn't seem to be any substance to the first two films beyond echos to LOTR.
Still, I'm definitely curious about a fan edit.
Still, I'm definitely curious about a fan edit.
I can't even imagine how this is possible, and I love the original LOTR extended editions so damn much. The Hobbit needs a knife taken to it more than anything else. A very big knife.
How are the extended editions vast improvements, when the theatricals were bloated?
freethought
Member
Maybe it's like the Mr Show thimble sketch where eventually after dragging itself out far longer than it ever should have, it somehow rolls back round to entertaining.
I dunno, I think it is certainly possible with these films. They just have so much filler, bloat, and unneeded things that really have no bearing on the central plot, I think it might be possible. Hopefully someone tries this later on with full resolution versions.
tattooed_dwarf
Member
EE's help with pacing a lot, and include some fine charactering moments, ones that should be in movies in the first place.
Bobby Roberts
Banned
Here's the second attempt. Guy calling himself David Killstein. This guy got it down to 3 hours and 15 minutes.
List of changes:
curious as to how "created voice over transition" plays.
edit: Oh, this is how it plays:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fj3Ed3NrOtg
I think I actually like the other guy's transition better.
List of changes:
Removed all of Elf-Dwarf Love Triangle Plot
Removed all of Gandalf’s necromancer adventures
Removed most of orc scenes/battles/mentions in first 2/3’s of the film (including removing frames with orcs from the post-goblin escape scene at the end of “Unexpected Journey”
Removed Bilbo killing a wolf - the first thing he kills is the spider in Mirkwood forest, giving the sword the name “Sting”
Removed all of (elder) Bilbo’s introduction to the lore
Removed all of the heavy foreshadowing for LOTR and the evil of the ring - kept to the spirit of the book, it was a playful invisibility ring!
Added a deleted scene of the Shire villagers as an intro to the film
Reduced much of the Dwarves’ dinner at Bilbo’s
Created faster transition to Bilbo getting out of the house
Reduced Rivendell
Reduced Stone Giant scene
Reduced goblin scene, re-ordered dialogue to mirror book interactions between Thorin & Goblin King
Kept Gollum scene entirely intact - no cutting between that and the goblin lair, although shortened as well as removed Gollum beating the corpse in the beginning
Created voice-over transition into Beorn scene at the beginning of “Desolation of Smaug”
Reduced Mirkwood forest & Woodland Realm capture scenes
Heavily reduced Laketown capture (all of Laketown is about 10 minutes total now)
Removed Smaug battle scene with dwarves in the mines (kept Bilbo’s conversation with Smaug, the battle was outrageously cartoonish and long)
Removed Bard using his son as a bow, the shots dance around it and the scene is intact
Rearranged much of Battle of Five Armies for coherency of Bilbo concealing and giving away the Arkenstone without the need for so many silly slow-motion Thorin bits
Removed many elements of the Battle of Five Armies that contained too much CGI monsters or silly battle actions (like repeated head-butting)
Reduced and rearranged the battle to get to Thorin quicker
Removed elves from the final fight scene (Kili fights the orc in order to protect Bilbo instead of his elf love interest)
Removed final flash-forward scene, the film ends with Bilbo finally coming home
curious as to how "created voice over transition" plays.
edit: Oh, this is how it plays:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fj3Ed3NrOtg
I think I actually like the other guy's transition better.
I had to google the term to see what that was. Yeah, I wouldn't miss it if it were entirely excised.
Not going to watch this edit or the last film, though.
Elfforkusu
Member
SOLD!
Shining Sunshine
Banned
Someone should make a troll edit with only legolas in it.
radioactivez0r
Member
Any edit with less Evangeline seems like a bad idea, but I'm willing to give it a shot.
The Hobbit: Stone Troll edition
Actually, fucking Alfrid was Jar Jar.
Evangeline's character would have been more appreciated in another story.
Grinchy
Banned
I definitely like how much the insanely long tree scene was cut down but I do get the sense that things move almost too quickly after it. This is an edit I'm interested in, though.
Rodney McKay
Member
Are they better than the LOTR Extended Editions?
I think that most people like the LOTR EE's, but I recently bought them over the holidays and actually didn't like them nearly as much as the original cuts. I felt like most of the added scenes that were unnecessary and hurt the overall pace of the movies and at worse even hurt the tone (like the added Gimli comic relief scenes). I wouldn't have minded watching those scenes in a "deleted scenes" extra on the bluray, but having them stuck back into the movies felt mostly awkward.
Probably the only additions I thought were a big improvement were the added Boromir/Faramir/Denethor scenes that fleshed out that relationship. Those were really good, but to me not good enough to make up for a lot of the other ones.
If the Hobbit EE's add mostly good character scenes and actually IMPROVE the pacing, then I'd be willing to give them a shot. I don't have much fondness for the original cuts of these movies, so I doubt I'd mind some additions to them, haha.
DrForester
Kills Photobucket
Dol Guldur was one of the few things I enjoyed them adding, as it is a major part of Gandalf's plan.
That being said I didn't care much for them adding in the "Gandalf gets captured" bit, and would have preferred the assault by the White Council, rather than a rescue by the White Council.
- Status