I finally went to see the Hobbit An Unexpected Journey. For the most part I liked it a lot. We went to a Regal theatre that played it in HFR, 3D Imax. As for 3D it was the best I have seen, and I didn’t get dizzy at all. None of us did. I didn’t see anyone barfing in their popcorn as I have heard. The Real 3D glasses are much better than other ones I have used in the past. I’m not a big 3D fan so I probably see one or two 3D pictures a year. I remember when I saw Avatar those glasses squeezed my head and gave me a headache. 3D is fun with the right film. Just as long as stuff isn’t constantly flying at me. That gets old fast.
As for 48fps? I had a hard time getting into it or getting used to it. looks like video to me and I’m not used to seeing a fantasy escape type film that was so real looking. The detail was insanely sharp. Almost too much, and the makeup looked unrealistic to me. Don’t get me wrong they did a great job with it but the HFR makes it stand out more. Making it look fake. Sure a Hobbit isn’t real but it helps if I’m not reminded of that for 2 hrs. and 49 min. Tight shots that were well lit just took me out of it. A couple of scenes looked like some blur could have been added to the faces. Maybe they didn’t look real enough to Peter Jackson as well. That’s the bad but what a about the good?
Costumes and sets were incredible. With so much detail in the IMAX resolution along side the high frame rate everything was very sharp.I dont think I’ve seen a film with so much clarity before. The camera movement was incredibly fluid when panning and gliding over the scene. No 24fps jidder and the detail is so well preserved with hardly any motion blur. The flying shots over New Zealand’s landscape were beautiful. The CGI character also looked incredible. They did look real! and the battle scenes were impressive. This is were 48fps really shines.
I’m not totally down on 48fps. I think I need to get used to it. I didn’t when I watched the Hobbit but maybe over time I will. My son loved it and he didn’t think it looked like video or was taken out of the film. He said after the movie that he felt the opposite of my opinion. He felt it was so real, but in a good way that didn’t take him out of the film. I found that interesting. He’s 15 years old and plays HFR video games more than he watches TV.
The next generation will be fine with HFR cinema. Maybe us old timers will just have to get used to it, and when we watch these 48fps films we will always say “When I was younger movies looked like movies. Now we have to watch these soap opera type pictures.”
If you like behind the scenes footage do check out The Hobbit’s Blog and Peter Jackson’s Facebook Fan Page. Great stuff for fans.
I took the wife and daughter to see it yesterday and also saw the 3D HFR version. The movies was great and they did a great job of carrying a 3 hour film. It really didn’t feel that long unlike the last Lord f the Rings movie. As for the 48 frames a second I too thought it was too much. Everything was so crisp and sharp that it looked fake. The best analogy I can give is that I felt like I was watching a movie through one of those View Master 3D toys I had as a kid. I thought my wife had the best comment though, she said it looked like she was watching a Soap Opera on TV. My daughter on the other hand thought it looked amazing!! So there’s some more fuel for the “Old Guy” argument.
To be honest though I don’t think this movies is a great test bed for 48fps. It’s a fantasy film in a fantasy world with a lot of CGI. So i think for now I will hold off on my final judgment of it until someone does a regular movie, whatever that is, in 48fps.