Synopsis:

The edit is made entirely from the idea of making it a good movie. Book accuracy is thrown out of the window if a cut is simply more clean without it. We have a plethora of incredible book accurate cuts, but I miss some of the added drama Peter Jackson sometimes correctly added.

Intentions:

To challenge myself, and to complete the circle. There are now 6 Precious Editions.

Change List:

Added a nice film grain layer, which does not affect highlights as proper film grain should. New opening, with narration. This cuts to the title screen in dramatic fashion. This new opening helps the audience buy Thorin's turn to madness. Thorin is already in the mountain for days the moment the movie starts. Cut a lot here, easily the most cringe in the entire trilogy is in this film Cut Tauriel and Legolas from the opening, obviously. We now see the dwarfs sail away with guilt in their eyes when they leave the humans in their agony. Removed Alfrid being a coward. He now slowly becomes more heroic and is not seen again. With some dialogue manipulation we now see Legolas investigate Gundabad after the orcs attacked the elves in the last film. This sets up Bolg as a nameless Orc captain. Heavily cut around the war to make more sense, and remove the overly comical and overly gruesome parts of it. I don't believe there is a single scene that hasn't been cut here. Removed a lot shots of Azog shouting commands, and instead we let the visuals do the talking for the most part. Horn blows, flags wave, orcs attack. That's all we need to know. Again: tons of micro-cuts. Completely re-edited the ravenhill sequence. Legolas goes against his father's will and goes to Thorin anyway, Tauriel is not involved here. No dialogue, I let their gaze do the talking. The whole sequence of Bilbo and Legolas following the dwarfs is moved around, to make it more believeable that they can reach the dwarfs as fast as they do. The sequence of Kili getting killed is unalterered. The fight that ensues is utterly different from the original film. It's not quite perfect in the sense that Fili getting killed by Bolg ( Now nameless orc captain ) is a bit unceremoniously, but it's still a clean cut. Nameless orc captain kills Fili, Legolas kills orc captain wit Thorin's help and throws Orcrest to Thorin. Bilbo get's knocked out and we get a dream sequence that (hopefully) adds to the emotional impact of Thorin's death. Yes. We completely cut the actual fight between Azog and Thorin on ice, instead we hear their fight in the distance during the dream sequence. We already have seen them duke it out quite a bit, and the previous fight is simply far more engaging. Captain obvious: Tauriel does not mourn the dwarf. Some micro cuts I cannot all name here were made to keep the film as properly paced, and engaging as I could make it.

Additional Notes:

What I aim to do is: Cut humor that's excessive. Cut action that's excessive. Keep humor that's cute. If there is a scene with cringe and good quality (and there are a ton of those), remove the cringe, but keep the quality. This helps pacing and storytelling.

Other Sources:

Poster created by reddit user Max Beech Creative

Special Thanks:

Special thanks to all the other Hobbit faneditors for inspiring me. Special thanks to chipbayless for his feedback, and pushing me to make this as good as can be. The edit would have not been as creative without the input! Went really in depth in feedback and previews and came up with extremely good ideas which were a pain in the ass to realise, but completely worth the trouble. Special thanks to GarStazi for being my personal quality control manager for this edit.