Synopsis:

The 'Entirely Respectable Editions' seek to remove all material that is silly, overplayed, misjudged, overly comical, ridiculous and generally inconsistent with the more serious tone established in the earlier 'Lord of the Rings' Trilogy. It is not a radical restructure, or a two-film cut and does not set out to streamline narrative, quicken pacing, or remove characters and plot-threads. The more time we spend in Middle Earth the better, I just want Middle Earth to be a more sensible place while we're there.

Intentions:

I was kind of glad Guillermo del Toro didn't get to Direct because as much as I love his movies, he was never going to make films that were tonally and stylistically consistent with the LoTR series... unfortunately neither did Peter Jackson. The serious, grand and relatively realistic tone of LoTR, was mixed with a new more childish, silly, comic and overblown style. Thankfully there is enough good material that a Fanedit should be able to fix everything.

Change List:

- INTRO & BREE: 00.00.00 - TM2YC and FE.org titlecards added. 00.00.27 - Replaced tacky 3D studio titlecards with less elaborate ones from the LotR era (from LotR, OHMSS and THX 1138 blu-rays). 00.01.06 - Tinted the titles blue to match the look of the LotR titles. 00.01.20 - Used Hobbit title from AUJ for consistency. 00.01.38 - Reframed opening shot of Bree to remove unnecessary onscreen title "Bree - on the borders of the Shire". 00.01.43 - Removed 6-second Peter Jackson cameo. Sorry Peter but looking down the lens is too distracting. 00.05.23 - Removed Gandalf needlessly explaining what the Dwarf rings are to Thorin and recut Thorin's reaction. 00.07.05 - Removed 7-seconds of Gandalf over explaining Erebor to Thorin. BEORN: 00.07.40 - Regraded opening scene to remove strange pink tint and make it more of an early hours blue/grey. 00.09.09 - Removed overly comedic double-take from Bilbo. 00.10.07 - Removed 2-seconds of silliness involving Bombur's beard being pulled and reframed one shot. 00.10.20 - Removed 2-seconds of silliness involving Bombur running super fast. 00.10.27 - Removed 5-seconds of silliness involving Bombur running into a door and falling over. 00.11.30 - Removed 4-seconds of Ori and Dori being irritating as usual. 00.12.08 - Removed pointless and generic "Attack them Now!" comment/subtitle by an Orc. Reframed shot and remade subtitle. 00.12.35 - Removed 3-seconds of Warg snarling at Azog. 00.12.36 - Reframed shot of Bolg and remade subtitle. 00.12.40 - Replaced "The Master has summoned you!" subtitle with the more descriptive and accurate "The Master has called us back father.". It's odd to me that Bold and Azog's relationship is not established. 00.13.38 - Removed 2-minute scene of Azog bizarrely being already at Dol Goldur, less than 60-seconds after being at Beorn's house (Moved to a point later in the film). Added new soundfx. 00.14.34 - Removed a couple of lines of Gandalf mentioning they are being hunted, which we know they are not since Azog has just left for Dol Goldur. 00.15.13 - Removed 7-seconds of silly dialogue between Gandalf and Bombur about him counting "...as two". 00.17.05 - Removed 7-seconds silliness involving the Dwarves meeting Beorn. 00.17.49 - Removed another 6-seconds silliness involving the Dwarves meeting Beorn. 00.17.59 - Removed another 4-seconds silliness involving the Dwarves meeting Beorn. 00.19.58 - Removed 18-seconds of Beorn telling the Dwarves there are Orcs about, despite Azog having left the area. 00.20.42 - Removed 10-seconds of Beorn telling Gandalf there are Orcs about, despite Azog having left the area. 00.22.41 - Removed 13-seconds of Beorn saying there are Orcs about and Warg howls being heard, despite Azog having left the area. Rescored new transition in Azog at Dol Goldur scene, which was moved from earlier in the film. 00.24.18 - Replaced "I have a task for you." subtitle with "I have a task for you son." to further establish Azog and Bolg's relationship. Reframed shot of Bolg. MIRKWOOD & THE WOODLAND REALM: 00.24.28 - Regraded the two establishing shots going into Mirkwood because they didn't even remotely match. 00.24.56 - Removed Dwalin mentioning the Orcs, despite Azog having left the area. Remixed sound. 00.25.51 - Removed re-used shot of Galadriel from AUJ, I think it's obvious to anybody paying attention to these films who the voice is that Gandalf hears while looking at her statue. 00.29.39 - Removed Bifur suggesting they swim the enchanted river, even he isn't that dumb. 00.30.07 - Removed 3-seconds of Bilbo overdoing a double-take. 00.32.06 - Removed 4-seconds of Thorin sounding like an ass after he shoots at the stag. 00.34.04 - Removed the 2nd time Bilbo flicks the spider's web. 00.35.42 - Blended in reversed footage of Dwarves to make the visuals look as confused as they sound, just before Bilbo climbs up to the canopy. 00.37.54 - Removed Bilbo doing an OTT pratfall off the tree branch. 00.38.20 - Removed the aggressive minty green tint that was applied to the Spider sequence for god knows what reason. 00.40.39 - Again removed the green tint in this second scene after Bilbo uses the ring. 00.41.49 - Removed 11-seconds of extreme silliness where a spider is on top of Bombur and the other Dwarves pull it's legs off. Remixed and rescored. 00.41.52 - Used 2-seconds of Bombur fighting the spider in-between shots of Bilbo searching for the ring. 00.42.34 - Removed one instance of Bilbo punching the crab creature, it looked silly to me. 00.44.58 - Trimmed reaction shot of Legolas to the "That's my wee lad... Gimli" line to remove the comedic eyebrow being raised. Slowed down first part of Legolas shot and placed it over Gloin's line, so the moment feels more underplayed. It's a lovely moment for the audience to enjoy but it should look meaningless to the two characters. 00.45.19 - Replaced "This is an ancient Elvish blade." subtitle with "This is an ancient relic of Gondolin." and reframed shot of Legolas. You could obviously hear him.

Additional Notes:

- No silliness allowed... fun yes, humour yes, silliness no. - Lightly regraded the whole movie to make it more saturated in line with AUJ and to decrease the general blue/green tint. - Re-arranged some of Azog and Bolg's scenes to avoid them hopping all over Middle-Earth. - Removed any silly acrobatics involving the Dwarves (e.g. Bombur's twirling barrel attack) but Legolas and Tauriel's acrobatics are retained since they are Elves with "superhuman" abilities (as established in the previous 4-films). - Thorin is not shown arguing with Bilbo, or voicing the opinion that he doesn't care if Bilbo dies. One arc of the AUJ was supposed to be about Thorin coming to respect and like Bilbo, so it's good to have at least one whole movie when they are conceivably friends and comrades, before their relationship falls apart again in BotFA. It's also just nice to have Thorin not be a d*ck and act more like a hero for a couple of hours. - Gandalf does not appear in the second half of this edit after deciding to turn away from his friends at the high fells. His scenes at Dol Goldur are moved to the start of BotFA. - The scenes within Mirkwood are now uninterrupted, to subtly add to the claustrophobia. - The scene with the spiders has had the aggressive green tint removed. - Thorin and Co don't now petulantly walk off when they can't find the secret door. - The Dwarves do not enter the mountain in this version of DoS, that will happen in BotFA. - Bilbo's encounter with Smaug is now unbroken from when he enters the treasure chamber to when Smaug attacks him. - Removed the entire extremely silly and OTT forge battle sequence between the Dwarves and Smaug. - Bard's confrontation with Smaug from BotFA now forms the end of DoS. - What has not been removed: Legolas because he's great and it makes perfect sense for him to be in a story featuring his father. Tauriel (and her romance with Kili) because she's great too, her presence allows the Elf hierarchy to be explored and wow that 'Starlight' love theme is beautiful. The Master and Alfrid because they are good hissable antagonists for Bard but their sillier moments have been cut.

Other Sources:

- The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (Extended Edition Blu-Ray) - The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (Special Edition Soundtrack) - The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (Extended Edition Blu-Ray) - The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (Extended Edition Blu-Ray) - On Her Majesty's Secret Service (Blu-Ray) - THX 1138: Special Edition (Blu-Ray) - freesound.org (Various SoundFX).

Special Thanks:

Thanks to the people who gave feedback in the project thread including: revstevens, jrWHAG42, moviefan95, Masirimso17, DigModiFicaTion, douchebag, addiesin, Gaith, Nic, hbenthow, asterixsmeagol, Belgarath and ChainsawAsh.