MiddleEarthBlog: Bad Reviews For " The Hobbit "

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Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Bad Reviews For " The Hobbit "

 In Las Vegas today at ComicCom a 10 minute clip of " The Hobbit " was shown and garnered some pretty negative reviews, not concerning the Storyline or acting but about Sir Peter Jacksons decision to use 48 Frames Per Second (FPS) instead of the industry standard 24 FPS. Here I will present an excerpt of a review given by a reviewer at IGN.com ( It looked like an old Doctor Who episode, or a videotaped BBC TV production. It was as shocking as when The Twilight Zone made the boneheaded decision to switch from film to tape one season, and where perfectly good stories were ruined by that aesthetic. Here, there were incredibly sharp, realistic images where colors seem more vivid and brighter than on film, but the darker scenes were especially murky (and the 3D only dims that image even more). Frankly, it was jarring to see Gandalf, Bilbo or the dwarves in action against CG-created characters or even to move quickly down a rocky passage. The whipping of a camera pan or the blur of movement was unsettling.

While 48fps may create a more realistic, "you are there" picture quality, it actually works against The Hobbit from the 10 minutes of footage we saw. This undeniable "reality" kept pulling me out of the movie rather than immersing me fully into its world as the Lord of the Rings films did; the very fantasy element, the artifice of it all (whether it's the wigs, fake beards or CG monsters) was plainly, at times painfully, evident. There was none of the painterly gentleness that film offers a fantasy film, as was so beautifully the case with the original (shot on film) LOTR trilogy. I fully expect the 48fps issue to become the much-talked about "mumbling Bane" flap to come out of CinemaCon. ). As you can plainly see not exactly a glowing review and I have read several more in the same vein. What is to be drawn from this criticism? Not much really. These 10 minutes were from unfinished excerpts of a movie still in process and the final product has yet to be delivered to our local cinema screen. Be of good cheer fellow Tolkien and Sir Peter fans all will be well come December 14th, rest assured that you have an amazing journey in front of you and to tell you the truth I have never really set much stock in professional reviewers anyways. God! the times I got screwed over by Siskel and Heberts reviews I don't care to count..

                                                                    AH HA

Not 10 minutes after posting this I ran across this review: 

  
We won't reveal any spoilers about the unfinished footage that was shown (green screens appeared in shots as this was just rough footage), Jackson and Warner Bros did show off fight scenes (including a couple of shots of Orlando Bloom as Legolas in action), more intimate conversations between lead characters, and grand sweeping shots of the scenery. It was, simply put, mind-blowing to see in 48 frames per second. It's literally like being on the set next to the actors as they're performing.
As Jackson also explained, he chose to show 10 minutes of footage because it does take a moment for your eyes to adjust to the higher rate, something I noticed extremely briefly before becoming totally immersed in the footage. You can not get a more genuine, realistic viewing experience than this unless you are watching a performance live.
Said Jackson, "As a filmmaker, I always want to create a strong sense of reality, to allow the audience to lose themselves in whatever the cinematic story is that I'm presenting. Shooting and projecting at 48 fps gives you the illusion that a hole has been cut in the wall of the cinema, and you're watching the story unfold with a heightened sense of reality. It's terrific for 3D; I've looked at the 48 fps dailies for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey in 3D for over a year now, and with the reduction in strobing and flicker, it is a much more gentle experience on your eyes. 48 fps is not just limited to 3D. A film shot in 48 fps looks fantastic when projected in 2D, and converts well to 24 fps as well."
Once audiences get to see The Hobbit screened at the 48 frames per second rate when it's released in theaters on December 14, 2012, I can guarantee moviegoers are going to demand all films be presented at 48 fps.

      I guess the moral to this story is, wait and judge for yourself  fellow Tolkenites or Tolkonians. Please pick your own Descriptive.

1 comment:

  1. I made a analysis of these two articles for school, Thanks! I like that you added another article, instead of just stating your own point.

    ReplyDelete

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