17th January 2013, 6:52 AM
I watched it in the high frame rate 3D. 3D's charm is wearing off for me at this point though. Perhaps it should be consigned to the 80s where it belongs until the fad returns again in a few decades. I know I've had no interest in getting a 3D TV.
The high frame rate thing looked nice. I think the people complaining just haven't been playing games in high frame rate or it wouldn't be an issue for them either. Radagast moving around on his sled looked like "fast forward" at times, but other than that it only improved the movie.
As for the slow pace... Yeah... The movie isn't perfect by any stretch. They spent something like 15 minutes in LOTR era shire. That was WAY too long! I mean they started off the movie with background setup for the movie, which is necessary and understandable. That's a good chunk of time but then you think you'll be seeing young Bilbo. Nope, suddenly it skips ahead to LOTR times. Okay fine, THIS is the setup for going into the past then. I kept expecting the next line to be the one where he goes back, but no, Frodo shows up and delays everything for an eternity. That whole scene was just a cheap tie in and an excuse to get Frodo on screen. It also kinda throws things off if in a few years I decide to sit down and watch the whole 6 movie set. If I were an editor, I'd cut that whole part out and go straight from setup to Hobbit era Bilbo.
One thing I was really prepared for was the criticism about it being "too childish". Well, that's the Hobbit for ya. It's supposed to be a less serious story, it was originally written for kids! That said, the CG plates bouncing around (very obviously CG, they couldn't just actually DO that?) made the song about what Bilbo Baggins hates come off like "Be Our Guest". I loved the other song though, and yes, the lack of those songs in LOTR was a sticking point (especially the one they sung after Gandalf's fall). Still, meant for kids or no, having a troll use Bilbo as a sneeze rag was going a bit far.
I didn't mind having Bilbo be the one to delay the trolls though. As much as they slowed down the thing, having Bilbo do something to make himself useful earlier was important. The constant fighting and running and fighting and running with the orcs they added wore me down though. Too much of that, finally mercifully ended with them finding the house of Elrond. I will say this, it's rather odd to have this kid's story forcibly inflated to LOTR tone in epicness. I mean it's a story about dwarves getting their home back, not saving the entire world, and yet there's this forced "seriousness" added all over the place where it isn't really deserved. I mean there's some of that in the original book, but not to the extent Jackson attempted here.
This movie wasn't bad, it was pretty fun actually in many parts, but it's got issues, and most of those issues stem from attempting to make it more like LOTR instead of letting it be it's own thing.
The high frame rate thing looked nice. I think the people complaining just haven't been playing games in high frame rate or it wouldn't be an issue for them either. Radagast moving around on his sled looked like "fast forward" at times, but other than that it only improved the movie.
As for the slow pace... Yeah... The movie isn't perfect by any stretch. They spent something like 15 minutes in LOTR era shire. That was WAY too long! I mean they started off the movie with background setup for the movie, which is necessary and understandable. That's a good chunk of time but then you think you'll be seeing young Bilbo. Nope, suddenly it skips ahead to LOTR times. Okay fine, THIS is the setup for going into the past then. I kept expecting the next line to be the one where he goes back, but no, Frodo shows up and delays everything for an eternity. That whole scene was just a cheap tie in and an excuse to get Frodo on screen. It also kinda throws things off if in a few years I decide to sit down and watch the whole 6 movie set. If I were an editor, I'd cut that whole part out and go straight from setup to Hobbit era Bilbo.
One thing I was really prepared for was the criticism about it being "too childish". Well, that's the Hobbit for ya. It's supposed to be a less serious story, it was originally written for kids! That said, the CG plates bouncing around (very obviously CG, they couldn't just actually DO that?) made the song about what Bilbo Baggins hates come off like "Be Our Guest". I loved the other song though, and yes, the lack of those songs in LOTR was a sticking point (especially the one they sung after Gandalf's fall). Still, meant for kids or no, having a troll use Bilbo as a sneeze rag was going a bit far.
I didn't mind having Bilbo be the one to delay the trolls though. As much as they slowed down the thing, having Bilbo do something to make himself useful earlier was important. The constant fighting and running and fighting and running with the orcs they added wore me down though. Too much of that, finally mercifully ended with them finding the house of Elrond. I will say this, it's rather odd to have this kid's story forcibly inflated to LOTR tone in epicness. I mean it's a story about dwarves getting their home back, not saving the entire world, and yet there's this forced "seriousness" added all over the place where it isn't really deserved. I mean there's some of that in the original book, but not to the extent Jackson attempted here.
This movie wasn't bad, it was pretty fun actually in many parts, but it's got issues, and most of those issues stem from attempting to make it more like LOTR instead of letting it be it's own thing.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)