The Official "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" movie thread *SPOILERS*

[Fritz]

Re: The Official "The Hobbit" movie thread

I just realized the IMAX showing I'm going to is regular 3D. I thought it was HFR 3D just because I don't know any better. Oh well, I care not.

I still say the Mouth should have fought Aragorn instead of that random troll which replaced Sauron in PJ's first idea for that scene..... give Aragorn a reason to kill the mouth, not just lop his head off as he's defenceless and still talking

I'm ok with the way it was handled in the EE, but given the choice, I like your idea better.

 

[Fritz]

Re: The Official "The Hobbit" movie thread

SOURCE- IGN

Should You See The Hobbit in 48 FPS?
Opinion: Is Peter Jackson's controversial new format worth shelling out for?
by Lucy O'Brien DECEMBER 9, 2012

When The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey releases in cinemas this week (or later in the month if you live in Australia), you’ll have the option to see it in a number of different ways. But whether you want to see the film in 2D, 3D, or at an IMAX theatre really comes down to your own judgement. As modern cinema-goers used to seeing movies released in a number of different formats, most of us tend to make a call on a case-by-case basis.

Of course, The Hobbit is being released in one format your eyes won’t be familiar with. HFR, commonly referred to as‘48 frames per second’, divided critics like a Terrence Malick movie when it was shown at CinemaCon earlier this year. According to many critics who saw the footage, the film’s higher frame rate put its inherent artifice into stark relief, evocative of a soap opera. IGN’s own Jim Vejvoda compared the footage to an old Doctor Who episode. There were harsher comparisons.

I was fortunate enough to see The Hobbit in HFR 3D at the premiere in Wellington, New Zealand a couple of weeks ago. By all accounts, the format looked better than it had in April, and the clarity was as staggering as reported. It was definitively new. But that newness demands a colossal adjustment from the viewer, one I couldn’t get used to over its 2 hour and 40 minute running time. Although I didn’t quite expect Tom Baker to crash the Dwarves’ party (Sylvester McCoy, of course, is another matter), I found the high frame rate all-too-often removed me from The Hobbit’s fantasy world, particularly in interiors and scenes featuring heavy use of CGI.




A Question of Reality

For the uninitiated, 48 FPS is twice the frame rate films have been shot in since 1927. We’ve been used to seeing our movies in 24 frames-per-second for over 80 years. And while other technology has aspired to increase frame rates – video games and HDTV, for example – film hasn’t evolved in the same way. Even the analog standard for television was faster - over 50 years ago.

“It was the speed back then that was right for the silent movie viewer. The soundtrack required that the cameras run at a constant, exact speed,” said Jackson at the recent Hobbit press conference held in Wellington. Filmmakers didn’t want to use any extraneous film stock as it was expensive, so 24 fps was the slowest possible speed at which they could run the camera and maintain the fidelity of the soundtrack.

“It’s become the way which we imagine movies to be.”

Essentially, what 48 FPS does is remove a ‘judder’ effect from our cinematic experience – that is, when the image blurs as a result of the camera moving around quickly – so that everything looks smoother and sharper, as if we were watching the action unfold through a window rather than a lens. It is particularly effective when filming in 3D, where the judder effect is more pronounced. Jackson frequently compares it to listening to a CD for the first time, after we’d grown so used to needle scratching on vinyl.


But when you’re listening to a CD, you’re only listening to the music, as multifaceted as that may be. When you’re watching a film, you’re watching the landscape, the cinematography, the make-up, the costumes, the sets, and in The Hobbit’s case, the many CGI creatures.The problem with doubling the frame-rate in The Hobbit is a problem of scrutiny; you can see all its tricks.

When The Hobbit looks bad, it looks really bad, chiefly during action sequences where CG creatures are featured against non-CG backdrops. One scene stands out in particular, where a group of CG wargs (giant wolf-like creatures) chase our group of non-CG heroes across a grassy plain. The wargs look like CG wargs, while the dwarves look like Richard Armitage et al running around a....well, a grassy plain. Our heroes look so real and present in that field, that the creatures look impossibly artificial in comparison. There’s irony that such technical sophistication (and indeed, state-of-the-art-CG-effects) have wound up looking like a film student’s first stab at combining practical effects with digital.

To make matters worse, Jackson has chosen to use a lot more CG in his latest Tolkien trilogy. Orcs, once Kiwi extras dressed in costume in The Lord of the Rings, are now glossy baddies from The God of War video game series. During the final battle – where the stakes were meant to be at their highest - I was distracted by how smoothly everyone moved. Other critics have talked of the film looking sped up; to me it looked slower, as if the action was taking place in butter. Most damning of all, of course, is that all urgency is removed from Jackson and Phillipa Boyens’ well-wrought screenplay.


In The Hobbit’s downtime, when there isn’t quite so much motion, the frame rate occasionally makes the film sing. Aerial shots of the Middle Earth landscape are the best advertisement for visiting New Zealand the tourism board could ask for, and when the CG characters aren’t moving so fast, the exceptional Weta Digital work looks sharper without motion blur. One of the more brilliant scenes in the film, the theatrical chamber piece between Gollum and Bilbo, works so well thanks to Gollum’s CG realization.

Yet issues are but a breath away. Constructed interiors look much like they do in any of The Hobbit production diaries - like sets. Bilbo’s home has gone from a comfortable and homely Hobbit hole to something quite plasticky, and Rivendell suffers the same fate. In a quest to make his world more real, Jackson has inadvertently drawn our attention to its artifice.


The Technological Journey

Despite my (admittedly major) qualms, I still recommend you see The Hobbit in 48 FPS if a theatre near you supports it; just not on your first viewing. It is, undeniably, a fascinating experiment to behold, and the technology needs to be seen to be believed. For Jackson, it’s a bold move; he’s risked an enormously high-profile film on the technology, putting his reputation – and the film’s critical reception – on the line. While Jackson might not have got it 100% right this time round, it is inevitable that the technology will continue to evolve, and we with it. As James Cameron told us on the day of The Hobbit premiere, a low frame rate is “the one thing left to fix” in the medium.

Jackson himself makes a more impassioned argument for the evolution into HFR.

“The theory that I have as a filmmaker is to look at the technology that’s available to us now and look at ways to use that technology to enhance the cinema-going experience. We live in an age where a lot of young people especially are very happy to look at movies online, and I don’t want you looking at The Hobbit for the first time online. I’d much rather you came to the cinema.

"We just have to keep making the cinema-going experience more magical and more spectacular to get people coming back to the movies again.”

Lucy O'Brien is Assistant Editor at IGN AU, and she's all Kiwi, all the time. Follow her at IGN at Luce_IGN_AU,or follow her @Luceobrien on Twitter. If you like what you're readin', meet the rest of the Australian team by joining the IGN Australia Facebook community.

 

[tomandshell]

Re: The Official "The Hobbit" movie thread

Other critics have talked of the film looking sped up; to me it looked slower, as if the action was taking place in butter.

I've heard so many different reactions--I can't wait to see for myself tomorrow night.

 

[FrodoEyes]

Re: The Official "The Hobbit" movie thread

Nah, even with him taking off his head I prefer it as is. I even like Aragorn taking his head as I'd probably do the same if someone was talking crap like that about a friend.

That's a bit shocking! And very worrying! You're basically admitting you'll decapitate someone who isn't nice to your friends! I think i should alert the cops!

You don't just murder an ambassador, despite how nasty they might be talking about your ikkle friends Especially not when you're a king.

 

[FrodoEyes]

Re: The Official "The Hobbit" movie thread

I just realized the IMAX showing I'm going to is regular 3D. I thought it was HFR 3D just because I don't know any better. Oh well, I care not.



I'm ok with the way it was handled in the EE, but given the choice, I like your idea better.

Thanks, and rest assured you'll see my version of Lord of the Rings as a long TV series once i become a famous writer

 

[pixletwin]

Re: The Official "The Hobbit" movie thread

You don't just murder an ambassador, despite how nasty they might be talking about your ikkle friends Especially not when you're a king.

Technically he hadn't been coronated King yet.

 

[crows]

Re: The Official "The Hobbit" movie thread

That's a bit shocking! And very worrying! You're basically admitting you'll decapitate someone who isn't nice to your friends! I think i should alert the cops!

You don't just murder an ambassador, despite how nasty they might be talking about your ikkle friends Especially not when you're a king.

he was not the king at that moment yet. He was made king after.

 

[pixletwin]

Re: The Official "The Hobbit" movie thread

he was not the king at that moment yet. He was made king after.

If only I were not on ignore, you would have known that I already posted that.

 

[FrodoEyes]

Re: The Official "The Hobbit" movie thread

lol i KNEW i should have mentioned that but i didn't think anyone would actually bother mention it!

Ok then -

You don't just murder an ambassador, despite how nasty they might be talking about your ikkle friends Especially not when you're an aspiring future king

 

[pixletwin]

Re: The Official "The Hobbit" movie thread

Much better.

 

[crows]

Re: The Official "The Hobbit" movie thread

Why did they replace Sauron with the Troll? is there a reason? I never really found out why they did that.

this would have been sooooo amazing to watch
[ame]https://youtu.be/d5x2qan5SVg[/ame]

 

[EnShinNoi]

Re: The Official "The Hobbit" movie thread

Why did they replace Sauron with the Troll? is there a reason? I never really found out why they did that.

this would have been sooooo amazing to watch
https://youtu.be/d5x2qan5SVg

During the final battle? He had no body, how could they?

 

[crows]

Re: The Official "The Hobbit" movie thread

During the final battle? He had no body, how could they?

well they did film some of it and they were going to have Sauron fight Aragorn. Then they replaced him with the troll at the end.

I don't know how it is in the book but I would have liked to see Sauron at the end, I'm just wondering either Why did they film Sauron at the end being there or why they decided to not use him and replace him later.

I think at least the Mouth of Sauron should have been left in the movie and used in that battle scene.

 

[teemu]

Re: The Official "The Hobbit" movie thread

reading the reviews on this...calling it REAL slow (sounds like a borefest )

The film is also captured in TV Soaps Live style action? What? sigh

I guess there is no hurry to see it

 

[tomandshell]

Re: The Official "The Hobbit" movie thread

They filmed it with Sauron fighting Aragorn, but that was too much of a departure from Tolkien. Sauron can't maintain a physical form without the Ring.

 

[The Ween]

Re: The Official "The Hobbit" movie thread

LOL...I know...But I gotta feeling it'll be #1 till sometime in January...you dont have to worry about that IMHO

I'm not so sure with Les Mis coming out at Christamas.

 

[crows]

Re: The Official "The Hobbit" movie thread

They filmed it with Sauron fighting Aragorn, but that was too much of a departure from Tolkien. Sauron can't maintain a physical form without the Ring.

yeah I guess that' the reason. I would have liked to see it but I guess it couldn't work.

 

[The Ween]

Re: The Official "The Hobbit" movie thread

I've heard so many different reactions--I can't wait to see for myself tomorrow night.

I have to wonder if it's different at each theater since it's so new.

 

[OSCORP]

Re: The Official "The Hobbit" movie thread

Man the reviews for this are all over the place, Can't wait to judge for myself Friday.

 

[The Ween]

Re: The Official "The Hobbit" movie thread

Man the reviews for this are all over the place, Can't wait to judge for myself Friday.

This really doesn't surprise me. There are critics that are going to hate it simply because of all the attention it's getting.