J.R.R Tolkien's The Hobbit (fan edit) - Review

I just watched a fan edit this afternoon, called J.R.R Tolkien’s The Hobbit. Dustin Lee (aka Goldeneye), the editor, cut everything he considered to be “unucessary plots and characters” from the three movies. Now there’s a single four hour movie!

Yeah, the fan edit is good, I confess, good work Dustin! But it, as every fan edit, still full of problems. Although there are some good stuff here. 

The color grading of AUJ’s scenes is now changed to match the others two movies. This is something I really enjoyed about Dustin Lee’s edit. I was looking forward for someone who could did it.

Azog did not kill Thror or Thrain in J.R.R Tolkien’s The Hobbit. The first time we see him is just before the coming of the eagles. Now he wants to kill Thorin because… well, no reason for it. 

Legolas in here. We do see him in Mirkwood’s arrest, the barrel chase and we do see him warning Gandalf about Bolg’s army. Tauriel is gone, and there’s no romance. Her only line is “where is the keeper of the keys.”

Most of Alfrid is gone, but we still seing the politics of Lake-town, for some reason. No antics, nothing, Ryan Gage will avenge! And Dol Guldor subplot does not exist in this edit. Gandalf just leave the dwarves and come back warning the guys about a orc army. That also means no Radagast (sad), no Galadriel and no Saruman.

Dustin Lee included some scenes from the extended edition, which is pretty good, but unfortunaly he did not include some of them that could have give more personality to the dwarves, such as Bofur’s song at Ravenhill, Goblin-town’s antics and the introduction Beorn.

List of scenes from the EEs included in J.R.R Tolkien’s The Hobbit:

• ·         Gandalf and Bilbo: “Can you feel it” at their way to Rivendell.
• ·         Elrond and Gandalf’s conversation about dragon sickness.
• ·         Bard at the rooftops: no idea why he kept this one…
• ·         Bilbo and Bofur’s conversation at Erebor’s gate.
• ·         Some “hero moments” of the dwarves.
• ·         New scenes from Beorn killing orcs.
• ·         The funeral is in! And Gandalf’s eulogy was inserted.

Probably the most awful change in J.R.R’s Tolkien The Hobbit is how Kili, Fili, Oin and Bofur are no longer left in Lake-town. Now they go with the others to Erebor. But we just do not see them there, and that is just awful!

The “Sons of Durin” scenes was ruined, because the epic music was replaced by Misty Mountains Cold, which does not make sense. But okay.

Another thing that was ruined in this edit is Bard’s family role. We barely see the girls, we do not hear their names (only Bain’s) and there’s no emotion.

Another list of changes for the curious:

• ·         No Radagast and warg chase. We just skip from Sting’s scene to the dwarves going down the cave.
• ·         Bilbo no longer kill a warg.
• ·         No stone giants.
• ·         Thorin no longer confronts Azog at the pinewood.
• ·         The chase to Beorn’s house is gone. During the fly to carrock, we do hear Gandalf’s voice over saying “there’s a house blahblahblah” and we cut to Beorn outside his place. Terrible edit.
• ·         Most of the barrel chase was cut.
• ·         Intermission at 2h10m.
• ·         The company entering Bard’s house was cut.
• ·         No prophecy here.
• ·         No dwarves leaving Lake-town.
• ·         The battle of the forges was cut from this movie.
• ·         Dustin Lee did a good job removing the gold from Smaug when he leaves Erebor.
• ·         Most of Smaug’s attack is gone.
• ·         Bard and Legolas cut.
• ·         Lakemen entering Dale was removed.
• ·         “I will not part a single coin” removed.
• ·         No were-worms…
• ·         Most of the battle is gone.
• ·         “I am gonna kill that piece of shit” removed.
• ·         Bard killing an ogre and saving his kids removed. Don’t know why.
• ·         Golden floor removed.
• ·         Legolas vs Bolg removed.

Yeah, that is it. For some reason, Dustin Lee, aka Goldeneye, just hate CGI. He removed several scenes that “overused CGI”. He also removed “silly scenes.”

Although there are some thing I did not like, I think this is a very good fan edit, the better I ever watched. The quality is awesome, and the editor included some unused Howard’s shore musics in J.R.R Tolkien’s The Hobbit. Good job Dustin Lee, and where’s Tauriel?

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies - Extended Edition review!

The Extended Edition of The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies was officially released a couple of weeks ago, and I will review it today. You know why? Because I did watch it!

                                                                         

What can I say about this extended version? Hmmm, it is not the best of the three already launched. I was hoping to see more character moments, but unfortunaly we almost only got some battle scenes.

Review

There are some disappointments about this extended edition. I remember back, in 2014, when The Desolation of Smaug's Extended Edition came out, and I was very happy by what I had. But now, this one seems to be very incomplete.

We don't see the windlance being destroyed by Smaug, instead, we have an unncessary moment of Bard jumping through the clifftops of the houses. In my opinion, the prologue was perfect and did not need of any alteration or addition. Anyway, is a good scene.

And, there's Dol Guldor. In my opinion, this was also a good and complete scene, did not need of any addition. But Peter Jackson has not the same vision! We do see an orc interrogating Gandalf about the Ring of Fire, and where is it. Then the orc, which is the original design of Bolg, realize it is on Gandalf's hand, and try to cut out it, but then Galadriel come and kill him, in a very violent way!

This extended edition was rated R. And it really deserved! There are a lot of gore moments during the Battle of the Five Armies, and also a lot of blood. It is weird to look at BOTFA:EE and then to AUJ and compare the two films, because there is no violence in the first movie (quite childish, actually).

Some new shots of Elrond and Saruman fighting the Nazgul, but nothing else. Yeah, it was okay to me, I did not miss more of Sauron. Bleh.

But after that, there's a very cool scene of Radagast giving his staff to Gandalf - yes, he does that, and it is very funny!

There's a new between Bofur and Bilbo, just before the hobbit leaves Erebor. Actually, he was preparing to leave the moutain to deliver the Arkenstone to Thranduil and Bain, and then Bofur apperead. It is a nice scene, remind me of Bofur and Bilbo scene at the cave in An Unexpected Journey.

And the battle beggins! Now, Thorin is more violent, and even yells "I will kill you all" to Thranduil and Bard. Unfortunaly, we did not get to see Gandalf telling about Thrain, Thorin's father. Such a pity, I was hoping to see that. But now, we finnally see Balin saying "We can not win this fight" line.

Dain's arrival was redone. Now, there are chariots, also known as war machines, and there are battle goats. The dwarven army even shot the elves using some ballistas. The elves also shot, but dwarven arrows stops the attack. It is very cool to watch! And Dain sends the goats to fight the elves, and there's a real fight between the two armies before the arrival of the were wormies.

Some new moments in the battle. Do you guys remember of the ogres? Bard even killed one of them to save his children. Yeah, there are a lot of them in this edition. We see them at the battle field, Azog command them to destroy the chariots (war machines).

After the dwarven charge, there are the dwarven hero moments promised by Peter Jackson. Oh, this was my greatest disappointment! The dwarven hero moments are basicly about Bofur, Bifur and Bombur. Bofur even rides a troll! I really missed Dori, Oin and Gloin in the battle field, a shame!

Now, in this version, Balin, Dwalin, Fili and Kili commands a great chariot to get to Ravenhill and kill Azog. It is a very cool scene, although desnecessary and too gore. The original version is perfect to me.

Alfrid Lickspittle dies at this version. Yeah, that's true. He was hidden in a catapult, but a gold fell from his bra and activated the machine and launched him to a troll's mounth, killing Alfrid. Also, Hilda Bianco leads the women and injuried to the battle, just after the Alfrid drag antic (before his death, of course). Beorn gained some new moments destroying Gundabad's army, and we did see a more violent confront between Legolas and Bolg.

But we saw the funeral, yes, we did! It is great and very sad. It is the funeral of Fili, Kili and Thorin. All the dwarves are there, and their faces are very breathtaking. Beorn and Radagast are also there. At the final, we see Gandalf saying "The King is dead!" and then the dwarves rise their weapongs says "Long live the king!" and we see a crowned Dain Ironfoot. It was the best new scene to me.

Unfortunaly, there are no new scenes after this.

This extended edition, to me, should have been the theatrical movie. Anyway, I liked it, because I like anything in relation to The Hobbit!

Robert Kazinsky as Fili in An Unexpected Journey

Hello friends, how are you all? DainPig is back.

Watching An Unexpected Journey, first movie of The Hobbit Trilogy and my favorite one, I noticed a interesting thing. During some scenes, we can see a different actor playing Fili. Searching web, I discovered this guy is Robert Kazinsky.

 

Robert Kazinsky is a british actor who was going to play the dwarf Fili in the movies, but for some reason he left the trilogy. Dean O'Gorman, who made an audition for Bilbo, got a role as the blonde dwarf, Thorin's nephew Fili.

As I said before, there are some moments only during An Unexpected Journey, that we can see Robert playing Fili. Only AUJ, because he left The Hobbit before they shot The Desolation of Smaug.

The screenshot above is from the clip of Misty Moutains Cold, main theme of AUJ. Robert is there, sitted down at the shadows.... hmm, why at the shadows, it is like someone had put that there.

Now we see, again, Robert Kazinsky as Fili. But now he is fighting the trolls. This is one of the best screenshots of his face.

After captured by the trolls, we still seeing Robert's face.

A great shot of Kazinsky's Fili is above. He is clearly another person here.

Now, these two I don't understand. It is not Robert, because is a very old man, but is not Dean too! A great mistery, who's that? Looks like a 50 years old man.