Synopsis:

The belated follow-up to my “Arkenstone Edition” of AUJ, this edit aims to remove the bloat and improve the pacing of “The Desolation of Smaug”, while still retaining all the additional characters and storylines found in Peter Jackson’s retelling of the story.

Intentions:

As with my AUJ edit, this is not a purist edition, but an attempt to improve upon Peter Jackson’s story. I wanted to keep Legolas, Tauriel, Dol Guldur and other material that many previous edits have removed entirely, but reworking these elements to make them work in the larger story that Peter Jackson is telling, and not be the annoying digressions I found them to be in the original version of DoS. I’ve tried to keep the focus on Bilbo, Thorin and Gandalf as much as possible, while still making room for characters like Tauriel, Legolas, Bard and their stories (but making sure they never overshadow our main storylines). The last 45 minutes or so have also been reworked heavily to improve the pacing, and I’ve replaced the sequence in the forges with Smaug’s rampage in Laketown from the beginning of BotFA as the climax of the film. Like I did with AUJ, I’ve also restored a lot of Howard Shore’s fantastic music that Peter Jackson decided not to use. The music editing in DoS wasn’t as much of a mess as it was in AUJ, but there are a lot of weird starts and stops in the music that don’t really work, so I think my restored soundtrack is much more coherent and effective, and more in line with the musical landscape of the LotR films.

Change List:

- The entire film has been color corrected to make it less dark and gloomy. I actually liked the bright and vibrant colors of AUJ, so I’ve tried to give DoS a similar color palette. - Used the EE version of the meeting in Bree. - Restored music to Gandalf meeting Thorin. - Trimmed the Moria flashback and replaced some footage with shots from AUJ. - Added exposition about the seven dwarf rings from the council scene in AUJ. I didn’t think the ring exposition would be necessary, so I didn’t include it in AUJ, but I was able to use it here, where I think it fits better anyway. - Restored music to the company seeking refuge in Beorn’s house. - Trimmed Bolg’s warg snarling at Azog. - Slight change to subtitles for Bolg’s Black Speech to set up the Eye of Sauron. Sauron hasn’t really been properly set up in these films (and especially not in my AUJ edit, where I removed all the name-dropping completely), so I’ve tried to make the buildup to his appearance work a bit better. - Cut Bilbo looking at the Ring in Beorn’s house. - Azog’s arrival in Dol Guldur has been moved to a bit later. - Included the EE scene of the Dwarves meeting Beorn. - Changed music for Beorn changing back to human form from one of Sauron’s theme to one of Beorn’s themes, since this scene is no longer preceded by the Dol Guldur scene. - Included the EE scene of Gandalf and Beorn discussing the Necromancer. - Cut Bilbo being tempted by the ring outside Mirkwood. - Gandalf discovering the Eye of Sauron painted on the Elven statue has been altered , using dialogue from Beorn instead of Galadriel, and Gandalf also identifies the Eye as the Eye of Sauron. - As the Company enters Mirkwood, we cut to Azog meeting the Necromancer in Dol Guldur. - Restored music to Azog and the Necromancer. - Changed audio and subtitles of the Necromancer’s dialogue. I found the original dialogue to be quite vague and confusing, so I rewrote the dialogue to make everything a bit clearer, and then inserted some Black Speech lines by Benedict Cumberbatch from the Appendices to match the new dialogue (in sound, at least, if not in content). - Used the longer Mirkwood sequence from the EE. - Restored music to the spider encounter. - Bilbo still loses the ring in Mirkwood, but doesn’t encounter and kill a spider creature. - Added faint whispers of “Baggins…” from the Ring once Bilbo has recovered it. I wanted to keep some of the mystery and ominous aura surrounding the Ring, without going as overboard as the original version. - Restored music to Legolas’ intro. - Cut Gloin’s and Legolas’ banter about Gimli. - As the dwarves are locked up in the cells of the Woodland Realm, we cut straight to Thorin meeting Thranduil. - Added a bit of dialogue for Thranduil: “It has been a long time since Thorin Oakenshield traveled so far east… for what purpose?” - Cut Tauriel’s scene with Thranduil. - The nighttime scene between Tauriel and Kili has been recut to remove Legolas. I had to reorder the dialogue to make this work, but I think it works even better this way. - Several cuts and trims to the barrel scene, as well as added music. - Cut Tauriel and Legolas capturing an Orc and bringing him back to Thranduil. - After the barrel scene, we cut straight to the Dwarves getting out of the barrels and meeting Bard. - Restored music to the Dwarves negotiating with Bard. - After the scene with Bard, we cut to Gandalf exploring the tombs. - Replaced Gandalf’s mention of “the Ringwraiths” with “the Nine”. Calling them Ringwraiths at this point is just confusing. - After the Gandalf/Radagast scene, we cut to Bolg and the Orcs tracking the Dwarves, and then straight to the Dwarves hidden inside Bards’ fish barrels, skipping some unnecessary scenes. - Cut all of the Master’s scenes before the Dwarves are brought before him. - Cut the Master’s elaborate “spy network” – now it’s just the two fishermen outside Bard’s house. - Restored music to Bard reuniting with his daughters. - Recolored the flashbacks to Girion to match the style used for flashbacks elsewhere in the film. - Cut straight from Thorin’s “Where are the weapons?” to Bard laying said weapons on the table, skipping the scene where he leaves to find the weapons. - Cut the scene with Tauriel and Legolas outside Laketown, making their later appearance a surprise. - Slight trims to the scene outside the Master’s house. - Used the EE scene of Bilbo vouching for Thorin’s character. - Used the EE scene of the Dwarves begging the Master to help Kili. - Recut the Dol Guldur scene and changed Azog’s subtitles to remove the “Spell of concealment” element, and used some bits from the EE. - Changed subtitles for Azog’s dialogue with an Orc to set up the Eye of Sauron. - Gandalf’s encounter with Thrain from the EE is used, but has been moved to after the Dwarves enter Erebor. - Cut one of Thrain’s flashbacks to the Battle of Moria. - After Thrain’s “No one must enter that mountain”, we cut to Bilbo entering the treasure room in Erebor. - Cut Bilbo picking up various pieces of treasure in Erebor. - Restore music to Smaug searching for Bilbo. - Replaced Eye of Sauron when Bilbo removes the Ring with closeup of Smaug’s eye. - Restored music to Smaug chasing Bilbo. - The scene of the Dwarves outside Erebor (“That, my lad, was a dragon”) has been moved later in the film. - The music when Bard reveals the black arrow has been moved forward a bit to where it was originally meant to play. - Restored music to Smaug chasing Bilbo, with some trims to the footage in order to make the music work. - Cut Bard’s plan to head for the windlance, since the windlance is never used or seen again. - Cut from the Master knocking Bard out to Bilbo hiding from Smaug, with an establishing shot of Erebor in-between. The scene between Thorin and Balin outside Erebor has been moved to a later point. - Smaug’s “a darkness is coming” leads into Gandalf and Thrain in Dol Guldur, instead of Bolg and the Orcs in Laketown. - Cut Thrain’s line about Smaug and Sauron being in league. - Shortened Gandalf’s battle with Sauron. - Cut some of the psychedelic closeups of the Eye of Sauron. - After Gandalf is defeated by Sauron we cut to the Orcs sneaking through Laketown. - Restored music to the fight in Bard’s house. - Trimmed Tauriel’s appearance so she joins the fray a bit quicker. - Trimmed Legolas decapitating one of the chief Orcs. - Trimmed Tauriel contemplating whether or not to go with Legolas. - After Tauriel’s “I’m going to save him”, we cut to the scene between Thorin and Balin outside of Erebor, and then to Smaug telling Bilbo that he’s just being used by Thorin. - After Smaug starts spewing fire, we cut to Bolg sending the Orcs back to Dol Guldur and his fight with Legolas. - Legolas’ fight with Bolg has been intercut with Tauriel healing Kili (which has also been trimmed considerably). - The entire forges sequence has been cut. - Cut from Legolas chasing Bolg out of Laketown to Smaug an Bilbo in Erebor. - After Smaug declares his intention to destroy Laketown, we cut to the Dwarves’ scene outside the mountain (“That, my lad, was a dragon.”) - After that we cut to Bard waking up in prison, and then to the gang in Bard’s house, with added sound effects so they’re reacting to Smaug’s approach. - After “I am death”, we cut to the opening scenes of BotFA, with several trims to keep the pace going. - Restored music in several places of Smaug’s rampage in Laketown. - Lowered the pitch of Bain’s voice when he arrives with the Black Arrow to make it less obvious that the actor is much here younger than in previous scenes. - Trimmed Smaug taunting Bard. - Restored/replaced music for Bard readying the Black Arrow. - Restored music to Smaug’s death. - Cut from Balin’s “Word will spread. Soon every soul in Middle-Earth will know – the Dragon is dead” to Gandalf imprisoned in Dol Guldur and Azog’s army marching out – and then we smash cut to credits.

Additional Notes:

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Other Sources:

- The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey - The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies - The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey - The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Soundtrack - The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies Soundtrack

Special Thanks: