@lantzn said:

I recently watched a 4.5 hour fan edit of The Hobbit films. He called it the Tolkien edit because it kept close to what was in the book. It was done very well and the entire film felt like Bilbo's story, which it should. Has anyone else seen any good fan edits?

Where did you watch that? I just recently watched the Extended Editions. And I must they - every film is improved!

You can download it here.
http://www.maple-films.com/downloads.html

The entire movie is only 4.5 so that's cutting out about half of the theater version, but it does include some extended version footage that was in the book. It is done so well.

I have to watch this cause ya I thought that it should have been just two films without the extra crap in it

Crazy that this is allowed and so easy to download ;) Really nice from Peter Jackson and the Film Studio to keep this online.

There are others also with many reviews given so yeah. When it does play, there's a message at the beginning saying you should have a copy of the original. So they must be getting his blessing this way. I bought the 9 disk LotR extended set when those were first released, but not The Hobbit. I'll probably look for it used on eBay. But this fan edit will be what I watch.

We just watched this yesterday and it was excellent. The midway Intermission was a nice touch.