Re: The Official "The Hobbit" movie thread
Saw it at midnight last night but haven't had time to write up a review until now.
The Good:
- Gandalf. Enough said.
- Martin Freeman as Bilbo. He was the best choice possible for the role.
- CGI Gollum was 100% photorealistic. He looked as though you could reach out and touch him.
- Galadriel. I think there may be an addition to the story in a later film where she comes to help Gandalf, as they certainly allude to that in her dialogue.
- Seeing the Witch-King of Angmar.
- Eagles.
The Bad:
- Azog the Defiler was rendered awfully in CGI. There was no need for that mess.
- Wargs. Sometimes they looked okay, and sometimes they looked terribly fake.
- Radagast's rabbit sleigh and the subsequent chase scene was too over-the-top and the CGI wasn't great. I'd like to see that removed from the film.
- Christopher Lee as Saruman seemed...off. His acting wasn't very good, or something.
- Ian Holm as old Bilbo had pretty bad makeup. His hairline looked amateurish.
The "Whatever:"
- Radagast. I could take him or leave him.
- The dwarves. Some didn't even have dialogue. Bombur, for example, was just a mindless eating machine. A few were prominent, but I never had any reason to care about them. Though I suppose I didn't really care about most of them in the book, either.
Now, film aside, let's talk about the technology. To those who claim the HFR was fantastic and people who disagree need their eyes checked, bug off. The fact of the matter is, we humans are so accustomed to seeing 24fps that the majority of people will, in fact, have issues adjusting. That said, I got used to it after 20-30 minutes, but anything with fast-paced action still looked like I was watching in fast forward. I'm not sure that I want 48fps to catch on. It does not look cinematic at all.
The 3D was top notch. I really enjoyed that aspect, and as I previously stated, characters like Gollum looked so real in 3D that I felt as though I could reach out and touch them. I love 3D when done properly, and this was certainly one of those cases.