Just because your cataract ridden old eyes couldn't appreciate the beauty of HFR, doesn't mean they should completely abandon this for future releases.
I like the fact that they give people the option of choosing the format and I hope they continue doing so for the other releases.
Has anyone been put off by the HFR that was actually excited about it in advance? I know sometimes people will chide something in advance and then carry on as if it "sucks" just so they don't have to eat crow after the fact....
Has anyone been put off by the HFR that was actually excited about it in advance? I know sometimes people will chide something in advance and then carry on as if it "sucks" just so they don't have to eat crow after the fact....
Yeah, I know. I understood that different tone going in, just like the books. However, LOTR had it's fair share of silly choreographed fights as well, and I didn't like those, especially the nonsense in ROTK.
Deflecting arrows with swords is something that happens in a video game, as is the ridiculousness of climbing up an oliphant and sliding down it's trunk.
I liked that they didn't make Faramir refuse the ring the moment he saw it like he does in the book. They gave him a nice little character arc that I enjoyed. The theatrical version sort of kills his character, but the Extended Edition and Return of the King make up for it. He's definitely, 100% the same Faramir by the time he "shows his quality" and in Return of the King.
"I would not use the Ring. Not if Minas Tirith were falling in ruin and I alone could save her."
I've seen other people use that argument (including the film makers) that Faramir refusing the ring would have killed it's power in the film. They may be right for that point in the story, but they do have a man do just that:
Frodo all but offers the ring to Aragorn, and he clearly refuses it - which sets up a contrast with the weakness of Boromir. This never happens in the book, but I appreciate the scene because it shows that there is a man with the 'character' needed to resolutely refuse the ring.
I can't help but still lament to some extent that that is not given to Faramir, since he is my favorite character in the books (and the one that Tolkien himself most related to). But again, Faramir does EVENTUALLY come around in the EE, which is why I will never watch the theatrical edition of TTT again.
Also, the scene where he is having Gollum viciously beaten still really bothers me.
One question though: How did Bilbo know he was invisible? I mean he was in the "shadow world" that PJ and crew invented for the films where everything looks all wispy, but one wouldn't suddenly think, 'oh, I must be invisible!'
I liked Radagast, but NOT the bunny sled. I know The Hobbit is supposed to be lighter tonally but there were a few things like this that just went a bit far. I liked his journey to Dol Guldur though - was that the Witch-King he was fighting??
In the books, Sauron is never truly a Necromancer. The only thing close to Necromancy that he does is turn the Nazgul to wraiths. They never really die though. I've always thought "Necromancer" was something that people called him because that was the [incorrect] impression they had. The scene where Radagast encounters a "ghost" really through me at first until later when I thought: "I bet that was one of the Nazgul."
I thought I remember hearing something about the Nazgul's graves being seen on set. I really hope they don't play this out as the nine being men who dies and were literally raised by Sauron. That's something that would really piss Tolkien off IMO.
Has anyone been put off by the HFR that was actually excited about it in advance? I know sometimes people will chide something in advance and then carry on as if it "sucks" just so they don't have to eat crow after the fact....
I was excited. I knew it would be the worst thing ever made, but I had to see it. It's a new format. I'm a film fan, I like seeing evolution. So long as the good evolution stays, and the crap stays behind. Like HFR.
Has anyone been put off by the HFR that was actually excited about it in advance? I know sometimes people will chide something in advance and then carry on as if it "sucks" just so they don't have to eat crow after the fact....
I'm still kind of mystified how it could look so bad.
Video is 30 or 60fps and never looks unnatural. It may look "cheap", but it never looks artificial. Not even soap operas. Again, they look like a camcorder, but the people's motion looks natural.
Same for BBC at 50fps. Cheap, but not unnatural.
So why should something that's shot in 48fps look so ghastly. I expected it to look cheap like the above examples, but it was so much more than that. It honestly looked like artificial motion interpolation on a 240Hz LCD TV.
Also, the scene where the dwarves are sliding down a pipe/hole actually did make me feel a little sick.
One question though: How did Bilbo know he was invisible? I mean he was in the "shadow world" that PJ and crew invented for the films where everything looks all wispy, but one wouldn't suddenly think, 'oh, I must be invisible!'
Well Gollum was able to spot him pretty easily from quite far away earlier and then after the ring ended up on Bilbo's finger Gollum crawled right up to him and went past him several times.
I can see where PJ was coming from in that standpoint but as a fan of the books I felt that his character was less noble in the films. He was always suposed to have the old blood of Númenor in him.
Been meaning to bring that up!
