Re: The Hobbit
 

I think tomorrow is "this" Friday, "next" Friday is the 14th. :p

Re: The Hobbit
 

Ok ok. ;) I'm glad to hear I'll still be the first one to watch it.

Just 33.5 hours away! :D

Re: The Hobbit
 

It's 4:30 AM and I just got back from The Hobo: An Unexpected Journey. :D

Spoiler free impressions:
It's pretty much what I expected. It takes its time, which isn't as bad as some reviewers make it sound like. It adds some action here and there, but let's be honest... the book didn't have much action in the first part.
The world feels great. It gives this familiar feeling but is new enough to surprise and amaze.
It's not LotR, but I felt like it wasn't trying to compete with that. It has a lot more... cute fantasy in it, like talking animals and Goblins in all forms and sizes.

Spoiler impressions:
The movie starts off with a totally unexpected history of the Lonely Mountain. It's great to see the culture the Dwarves had there! And there's a sneak peak of Smaug, which looks like will be an awesome Dragon.

The Hobbiton scenes put me in a dilemma. On one hand it's great to see the lovely and quiet life of Bilbo and how he meets the Dwarves... on the other hand it gets a bit slow and you just wish them to start already. Not too sure about that one.

The addition of Radagast the Brown is bold. I feel they're really walking a thin line here, making him such a weirdo. The same with the singing Goblins.

I understand the addition of an Orc 'arch enemy'. That they took Azog (who is referenced in the book, but died decennia ago) makes sense. But we all know how it's going to end... He'll die in movie 3, after doing some damage. A bit cliché and I wonder if the movie really needed it.

Why all the fighting all the time? I know they're trying to please a big public here, but in the end it was just annoying. "We haven't fought anything in 20 minutes, quickly charge into those Orcs that we previously thought were too many to fight!" Also, when did Bilbo become such a good swordsman?

The White Council vs Necromancer stuff doesn't bother me yet. As expected it distracts a bit from the main story, but that's about it.

That's all I can think of right now. :) I appreciate all the extra story elements they added, like the rivalry between Dwarves and Elves. I'm looking forward to Part 2. ;)

I'll watch the high framerate version early next week.

Re: The Hobbit
 

From what I've seen most reviewers objections are based on the fact that The Hobbit isn't LotR... and it isn't. That's why it's called The Hobbit. Middle Earth is a much safer place during the time of The Hobbit. To be honest, I think the reviews of this movie have been some of the worst I've seen to date. Reviewers seem completely unable to review this movie on it's own terms.

Hell, the one I read from Slate starts out with how much the reviewer dislikes the fantasy genre...

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I'm glad to hear you enjoyed it. I'm not really expecting it to be much like LotR...I just want another romp through Middle Earth.

Only about 26 hours left for me. :)

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A friend saw the HFR version yesterday. He thinks something was wrong... because the action scenes were way too fast. People were moving faster than possible, things fell too fast, etc.

Technical problem (it was the premiere...) or side effect of a higher framerate?

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I've heard that as a common complaint.

Here's the trailer post converted to 48 fps.

http://www.fxphd.com/wp-content/uplo..._48fps_web.mp4

It's noticeable there.

Re: The Hobbit
 

Ok, I saw it in HFR....... and I loved it!!!

Like others have said, it was a bit weird in the first 5 minutes. I thought "wait, isn't Bilbo walking through his house unnaturallly fast?" and "those hands go through that chest way too fast." But as I analyzed it in my mind, I realized it wasn't actually too fast... it just looked way more detailed.
Normally you'd see a blur when somebody moved his hands/feet/whatever really fast. Now you see more detail... and I think your mind has to get used to that.

The difference in framerate was directly noticable by the way. The trailers were in old, low framerate. As soon as the first company logo of The Hobbit started, my friend and I said to eachother "this is it!" It gave a very light headache for just 1 minute or so.

I understand what people mean when they complain. Movies look quite different without the motion blur all the time. You see more detail. Action looks different, less artistic.
I compare it to color movies in the time of black and white movies. The first movies with sound when the rest was still dumb. People said "if I want to see something in color and with sound, I'll look outside the window. Why do we need this in a movie?"
Same thing is happening with HFR. It adds realism, makes it look more like the real world. Some might not like it, but they'll get used to it.

Edit: I asked tickets for "Lord of the Rings 4: The Hobo." ;)

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I think the only thing fucking people up is that they're used to movies looking like movies - and having blur - rather than looking like life and being smooth and not choppy - so it's probably just fucking with the "This isnt real, but it looks so real!" part of peoples brains.
Like the first time you get a first-person birds-eye view of something, your brain says "This doesn't look right", and your eyes say "Believe me, motherfucker", and your brain is all "Fuck that shit, this can't be real", and your eyes are all "You don't trust me, bitch?" so they fight for a bit, then the headache goes away when your brain realizes that your eyes are telling the truth.

Anyways, I saw this movie yesterday, thought it was goofy, yet epic. I enjoyed it, considering I never read the book.
I didn't like the ending though; I get it - there's going to be more movies - it just didn't feel like an ending...but I still liked the movie.

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Re: The Hobbit
 

Now, I may be on drugs right now - but a thought just popped into my head...

...If Gollum is Smeagol, and Smeagol's a Hobbit, why does he ask Bilbo what a Hobbit is.

Re: The Hobbit
 

He has lost any idea of who he was. The ring robbed him of his identity. Notice that even in the end there was no revelation or remorse. Gollum succeeded in destroying the ring only because his obsession was so intense it caused him to destroy himself for the chance of holding it one more time.

Re: The Hobbit
 

Smeagol wasn't a real Hobbit, only related to them. They even lived in a totally different area.

You have to remember that Smeagol has lived for over 500 years. Things changed in the world.

Edit: The Strangler has the movie's explanation. :p

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I was reading the books at the time the movies came out. I was in the middle of the Two Towers when my idiot boss spoiled the entire story for me at work. I was so angry I never picked up the books again... so yes, my interpretation of the second half of the novel is totally movie driven.

Re: The Hobbit
 

In the movies, Smeagol has forgotten his own name. Frodo reminds him of it. Frodo got the name from Gandalf. Gandalf got the name from ???

In the books, Gandalf got Smeagol's name from... Smeagol. (I think that happened when the Elves of Lothlorien captured and lost Smeagol.) He never forgot it in the books. :)

Re: The Hobbit
 

Finally saw it yesterday, in HFR 3D. LOVED it. I don't understand at all the complaints about HFR making it less immersive. The Middle Earth that Tolkien created is all about filling out every detail. I want to see every detail put into the Hobbit.

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Spoilers!! :p

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Re: The Hobbit
 

I don't think I want to watch it. Or do I? Argh!! I love Tolkien's world, but I'm thinking about staying spoiler-free for this one!

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I gotta say, after watching the first movie I much prefer the production blogs to the actual film.

Re: The Hobbit
 

Just to notify you: there is a 1080p HFR version downloadable. So that's 48fps. I'm not too sure where they got it from... some say it's a rip of the cinema version, others think it's just an interpolated (is that what it's called?) version of the 24fps one.

Either way it looks lots better than the normal version. If you can stand HFR.

Re: The Hobbit
 

Found. Wow, that's a huge file. Tempted to see what it looks like though. Although...last time I tried to run a video that large my computer crashed. Decisions decisions.