So my final assessment after watching The Hobbit Trilogy “Bilbo” fan edit. I believe this edit had a focus on following the story only from Bilbo’s POV and to be closer to the events of the book. There were some interesting plusses and minuses in this attempt.

AUJ: As the least flawed of the Hobbit movies, more was lost in this film than gained with the edits. By leaving out the “Erebor” prologue, later emotional beats lack context. While focusing on Bilbo’s POV does have the effect of making the world broaden along with his perspective, it leaves a somewhat bland tale behind as we’re given little incentive without the original opening scenes to care about the drama unfolding. Leaving out the White Council and Radagast removed some sense of the greater threat beyond Bilbo’s little world, though it does streamline the film. The best removals were no doubt the cut warg chase scene between the troll incident and Rivendell, and the cut of the early Azog reveal right after the Azanulbizar flashback. Not seeing Azog in that moment actually heightened the tension, but that was lost when Azog was also removed from the burning pines scene at the end. The ending is also choppy as the burning pines segues straight to Beorn’s without the Carrock Hug scene, and from there until Lake-town the pacing is wonky with ups and downs. 

Conclusion: If you want a short version of AUJ, just watch the theatrical cut. 

DoS: By segueing straight from the burning pines to Beorn, we get a more book-true version of events, but this also reveals the flaws in Tolkien’s somewhat plodding plotline on the big screen. Events just seem to fall randomly one after the other when the threat of Azog is removed. That said, the DOS edit is fantastic for removing some of the more cringey moments of Endless Legolas, Tauriel being introduced then swiftly de-fanged as a character with her love story, Alfrid & the Master, and some of PJ’s more ridiculous flights of comedic action sequences, but some good character moments are lost along the way too and the film doesn’t really feel like it comes towards any conclusion until the Hidden Door. 

Conclusion: If your goal is to avoid the cringey moments of DoS, and boy did it have a lot of them, this may be the edit for you. I’m 50/50, since some of my favorite character moments were lost too. 

BotFA: This is where the edit gets interesting. With a final time of 90 minutes, this is an extremely trimmed down version of BotFA but I must admit with very few exceptions I approved of the choices. Things get shaken up immediately when the editor removes the entire fight within the Mountain between Thorin & Co. vs. Smaug. While good character moments are lost, it cleans up the narrative immensely. Thorin’s fall intro dragon sickness is swift and sickening, without the backtracking we see when he fights Smaug, which changes the tone of the character admittedly. We also lose some of the more bewildering back-and-forth costume changes at the beginning of BotFA when Fili and Kili now don’t rejoin the party. With that removed, we jump immediately into the drama of the missing Arkenstone and Thorin’s fall to the dragon sickness without any speed bumps to slow it down. Smaug’s defeat is also immensely streamlined, Bard killing him within minutes of Smaug leaving the Mountain after his argument with Bilbo in the tapestry room. Bain, Tauriel, Kili and the dwarves never enter into the scene, so it’s over very quickly, almost too abruptly but honestly given how agonizingly long that sequence was it leaves only the best stuff behind and removes all the weird cringey elf stuff cluttering the story. With Legolas, Tauriel, and Alfrid removed almost entirely except for absolutely key plot points and cameos, it’s almost a different film, one I could watch without cringing of fast-forwarding. It would almost be perfect, except that we lose Bofur and Bilbo’s discussion before he goes to give the Arkenstone away, and we lose Thorin’s fight with Azog, as the editor makes a bold choice of removing Fili and Kili’s deaths, Thorin’s duel (which also had plenty of “scream at the camera because of the Stupid” moments), and pretty much the entire battle after Ravenhill, by moving forward Bilbo getting knocked out and cutting out everything between that and when he wakes up, so we cut straight to Thorin dying on the ice. It’s a jarring shift, and I think a little too much is removed there, but given how cringey much of the final battle was it also leaves a more stark and clear narrative, and makes for an emotional gut punch with the suddenness of the loss and the realization only at the funeral (like in the book) that Fili and Kili are gone too. 

Conclusion: The fan edit shines with BotFA, and while there are niggling plot threads that I miss, the removal of the extraneous dross very nearly makes up for it and makes for a less time consuming and burdensome version of the movie to watch, basically the speed run with all the highlights. 9/10 very likely to watch the edit again just for BotFA, with quick digressions to the main film to watch the couple missing scenes it leaves out.

The Hobbit – The Bilbo Edition (4 Hour Fan Cut of the Peter Jackson Hobbit Films)