Synopsis:

No barrel gymnastics. No molten gold. The Desolation of Smaug is Peter Jackson's adaptation of the middle third of JRR Tolkien's The Hobbit. Despite some incredible visuals and fine performances, it was too long and encumbered by many scenes that not only slowed the film, but also were completely invented for the film and deviated from the novel significantly. "Fire of the Dragon" is an earlier edit of this film, where I cut out all the extra made-up-for-the movie padding that stretched a perfectly good 2 hour movie into almost three. 'Dragon' was a version that didn't drag and had good pacing, and is what I feel the Theatrical cut should have been--I emphasize that because a lot of the material I liked from the actual movie and I felt made it entertaining (namely, the barrel fight and the dragon showdown in the end) are left intact in Dragon-- I just felt those made the movie more fun and gave it the feel of adventure it needed. However, I strongly agree with a lot of the criticism of both the original film and my first cut, in that these things (1) were a little over-the-top at times, and (2) still never happened in the book. So I decided to go ahead and make further changes to produce a "purist cut" of the movie. Instead of just being a watered down version of "Dragon", I trimmed more, reordered certain scenes, and made a new opening for it, as well as a new title. This is as close as Desolation comes to being a 'book' cut of Tolkien's the Hobbit.

Intentions:

This cut has none of the zany dwarven antics of previous cuts and is strongly faithful to the novel (if you overlook Legolas, and Bard being a bargeman). It is different enough from previous versions that I felt comfortable giving it its own release-- 'Dragon' is 120 min (41 min cut) , Into the Fire is 98 min (63 min cut). This is a version I hope fans of the novel will enjoy, and is in many ways a better movie than "Dragon", narrative-wise.

Change List:

Changes from 'Fire of the Dragon': 1. The prologue with Gandalf and Thorin in Bree is deleted. 2. Other than a brief scene of him chasing them, all the scenes of Azog and Bolg (the orcs) stalking the dwarves as well of the scene of them at Dol Guldur is deleted 3. Bilbo being tempted by the ring outside Mirkwood forest is cut (this isn't LOTR) 4. Legolas' Gimli reference is cut 5. Entire scene of Tauriel and Kili, and Tauriel with Thranduil is deleted. There is no love triangle. 6. Shots of orcs ceeping up on Mirkwood are cut, making the orc attack more of a surprise. 7. Gandalf at the Nazgul tombs trimmed-- cut the lines "You're asking me to abandon my friends, etc." 8. Kili's arrow to knee is bound and never spoken of again. He's all better in this version. 9. Cut scene of Legolas & co interrogating an orc, as well as Bolg tracking dwarves. 10. Trimmed Laketown scenes for pacing. 11. Cut all scenes of the four dwarves being left behind. Cut all scenes of Tauriel/Legolas (after the Mirkwood battle.) 12. Cut all scenes of Orcs attacking Laketown. 13. Gandalf vs Sauron, is kept in, but moved to before Bilbo enters Smaugs lair. 14. Entire Smaug sequence intact in one flow, except a brief cutaway for about 30 seconds where Bard tells his kids he'll kill the dragon and grabs the black arrow. 15. Cut scenes of Bard running around Lake town and getting arrested. 16. Cut Bilbo's last lines "What have we done". Last lines now Smaug's. Additional Changes from 'Into The Fire': 1. New intro involving the eagle rescue from An Unexpected Journey 2. All Kili's interaction with tauriel outside of the spider battle is cut 3. Barrel sequence recut to exclude dwarf antics/ over-the-top legolas action 4. Secret Doorway sequence recut to delete sequence of dwarves giving up and abandoning Bilbo 5. Smaug sequence recut to exclude dwarves ever entering Erebor, and NO MOLTEN GOLD 6. Color correction and grading applied at various places to match up spliced shots of Smaug exiting Erebor without gold 7. I see fire reinstated as end credit song, and disclaimer slide added. 8. During the Gandalf-Sauron showdown, a brief glimpse of Sauron in his Maiar or "angel" form can be seen when the eye explodes.

Additional Notes:

Adobe Premiere Pro, and the Hobbit Blu-ray.

Other Sources:

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey for the new introduction.

Special Thanks:

kellenpure, moe_syzlak, ssj, Aztek463, Solid11, njvc, hasmak -- thank you for the support all along the way guys. This one's for you, as always.