>>41734 I watched the "There and Back Again" edit, and having only seen the first two Hobbit movies, the edit definitely improved upon them. I do have some minor complaints, some that could have been better (the Goblin King's introduction is kind of too sudden, the camera basically zooms into his face abruptly), and some that couldn't be fixed by virtue of taking out terrible scenes (taking out the dumb barrel chase ride scene meant that one dwarf was injured and then sick for no real reason... the audience has to assume he was injured and infected off screen during the barrel ride at some point).
The edit seems to fall apart during the battle of the five armies, there's no real coherence or consistency on what's happening. Example: at the end when Thorin's running after Azog, Bilbo draws his sword, looks dumbfounded, then it cuts to Thorin mowing down orc grunts and taking on Azog, then it suddenly cuts to Bilbo getting knocked out by an orc without establishing he had entered battle first. It's a little jarring.
Having not seen the third movie, I can't tell if this is because a lot of bad scenes had to be cut that tied the good scenes together.
Watched OP's version. It's pretty much perfect, just needs more polish. Some of the cuts are noticeable. There is nothing missing story-wise, but transitions should be more seamless.
