I'm One Of Those Who Loved LOTR But Hated The Hobbit Films

I tried editing the films down to basically only the stuff that was in the book, and it ended up being way over four hours. I tried cutting lots of other bits and pieces, and it ruined the pacing, so I ended up editing it into a duology instead. (the edit I did is private, just for me and my friends) I guess if the filmmakers had set out to do one film from the start, it could have worked with just one film, but the way it is now, it's impossible to make just one three hour film that has good pacing, since there is some stuff in it that just can't be fixed (like Azog. I would have rather seen Bolg as the main villain, since he's actually alive in the book's continuity).

Both the Maple Films version and the Bilbo Edition are 4.5 hours long (although the Maple Films version has an intermission right after the barrel escape), and they both have similar creative choices. The editors of them wanted to focus on Bilbo's story, since he's the title character, as well as tell a story with better pacing.