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Is the Special Extended Hobbit AUJ worth buying?
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Author:  Bilbo [ Thu Nov 14, 2013 3:55 pm ]
Post subject:  Is the Special Extended Hobbit AUJ worth buying?
Hi guys,

There has been a bit of banter on this already but, I wonder if what the reactions have been from those of you who have actually bought the film?
Author:  starthehobbit [ Thu Nov 14, 2013 5:57 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Is the Special Extended Hobbit AUJ worth buying?
I bought mine the other and love it, I am a huge fan of Tolkien and I think it is worth
every cent. I absolutely love the behind the scenes extras.
Author:  Dr Grant [ Thu Nov 14, 2013 8:06 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Is the Special Extended Hobbit AUJ worth buying?
I would say absolutely yes.

Firstly the film:

Only being extended by 13 minutes means that the overall shape of the film doesn't really change, it's certainly not as pronounced as in any of the LOTR extendeds. Most of the scenes are small snippets of under a minute here and there. The two biggest changes are 1) The introduction of the Goblin King who gets, IMO, a very cool song based on the goblins song from the book and a longer interrogation of the dwarves 2) Rivendell, there is easily the most extended material in Rivendell and a lot of it is very good, there's some great scenes that foreshadow the movies to come and there's some lovely character stuff for both Bilbo and the dwarves. I'd guess that there's easily 6 minutes of new stuff in Rivendell.

I don't really think the new cut will change people's opinion of the film, if you liked it, you'll think it's a bit better, if you disliked it, you'll think it's a bit longer.

Secondly the extras:

I've yet to watch the commentary so I can't comment on that but I was slightly disappointed to learn there was only one as I've listened to the 4 from the LOTR cuts many, many times.

Beyond that the other extras are absolutely superb. There's around 9 hours of extras covering the whole production process with very little overlap with the production diaries, really interesting and really high quality interviews and very much in the style of the LOTR ones. Very impressed there. My only complaint was that there wasn't a 'book to script' documentary, most of the docs are about casting, designing and filming rather than the writing which I was really interested in. There's also no mention of the fact that 2 films became three which I found surprising, although it might be that they're saving this for a doc on the DOS extended edition called 'the film that was never meant to be' or similar.

Finally the price:

Amazon list the Blu-Ray, Blu-Ray 3D and Ultraviolet copy as £17 which is really good value (The LOTR ones were £30 each for just DVD when they were released). It's a shame they've moved to Ultraviolet rather than iTunes, sure you can stream it anywhere (that you have internet connection) but you can only download it on one device at a time. Personally I like knowing I can watch/play my films at any time rather than having to depend on streaming and I find Ultraviolet a hideously complicated service but that just personal opinion.

Ultimately it's a fantastic package at a fantastic price that has a damn good go at being as good as the LOTR ones (even if it doesn'ty wuite get there), hope this helps!
Author:  Dorthonion [ Thu Nov 14, 2013 8:13 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Is the Special Extended Hobbit AUJ worth buying?
I shall be picking it up shortly - I always like to get the 'FULL' version, maybe because every minute in Middle-earth is worth it.
Author:  ChrisC [ Fri Nov 15, 2013 1:26 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Is the Special Extended Hobbit AUJ worth buying?
I thought it was excellent.

Grant has the right of things.

If you liked the theatrical version, this is better.
If you disliked the theatrical version, this is longer and not significantly improved.
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