The Hobbit

Don't be so pessimistic, there's always 9/11, and North Korea has just launched a missile. So there's still plenty to look forward to.

It'd be very very depressing to see North Korea try to land on the moon with their alleged space program. Still, that space program though might be a funny black comedy won't have the great special effects of The Hobbit.

I wonder what their midnight screening box office last night was. I bet it broke records.

I don't know about depressing, I think it would be a relief to find out they were serious about moon exploration after all, and all this stuff about nuclear weapons was just our paranoid fantasies.

You might be interested in this thread I started about how the film has impacted on a small business in my neck of the woods.

http://able2know.org/topic/186280-1

I think the 48 FPS versions will be the best option overall, but if anyone finds they don't like it, or if (like me) the nearest 48 FPS theater is 200 miles away, note that the movie was filmed in 5K (5120 x 2700 pixels).

http://www.flatpanelshd.com/news.php?subaction=showfull&id=1321352807

That will make the film look real good on an IMAX screen.

Plus the IMAX showings of The Hobbit will get to see the first 9 minutes of the IMAX version of this spring's new Star Trek movie.

On the other hand, there's always the Chinese curse: May you live in interesting times.

3 minutes to the end of my work shift. 183 minutes? The time I will take for my journey to the shire.

I don't believe any of the stills in the video are spoilers... but if you must, I suggest you open the video on one tab, place it in the background and browse while The Hobbit score plays in the background.

I caved, and bought an IMAX 3D ticket for tonight's 7:00 p.m. showing....

squinney and I are going tonight to see it in 3d Imax...can't wait

I saw the 3:30pm showing this afternoon. The only High Frame Rate showing I could find was also in 3D so I took that one.

The movie was very good. I found it a bit slow in the beginning but detailed in its telling of the tale. It picked up nicely from the middle to the end and left me looking forward to the next installment.

As before with my other 3D experiences, I find the 3D effect more annoying than beneficial in any way, and an overall detriment to the film.

In addition, I also found the HFR aspect uncomplimentary to the overall experience. The HFR is very nice in action scenes or sweeping vistas or CGI, but it's very annoying in all the small intimate scenes. Many scenes of the movie felt like I was watching a soap opera on TV, it had that weird "cheap" look to it (even though I'm sure it wasn't cheap at all). Also, the added clarity just serves to expose the imperfections in the set and the makeup and background. The human eye is very discerning to subtle things and with such high clarity I found a lot of the scenes to look strangely artificial. There were several instances where it felt like I was watching a play on stage rather than a movie on a screen, and I didn't like that. Plays are one type of experience, but films, especially modern graphic laden, visual films are supposed to be an entirely different experience.

I'm looking forward to seeing the Hobbit again sometime (before it leaves theaters) in good old high quality digital and 2D.

Overall I was underwhelmed. I found 3D to be distracting. There's weird glare on the glasses... reflections off of the ceiling are filtered out of one eye, so that you get artifacts above the screen. I also see artifacts around point light sources.

The cinematography was good, but I found the story to be tedious. And ridiculous elements, like the rabbit-powered sleigh, prevented me from immersing in the story.

Jackson also tried too hard to draw parallels between this and the LOTR movies. The ring flying into the air and then slipping onto a finger has been done, dammit, and I don't want to see exactly the same scene again. Smaug is not Sauron, either, even if you show his big goddamned eye.

I have a prism correction in my stigmatism. SO , that tripled with my near-sightedness, makes me a non customer for anythiong 3-d(even stereo air photos). If I spend a whole movie in 3D (like we did with "Life of Pi", Im ready to puke when I come out in the sunlight. It takes me a good hour to resume normal sight

INMHO, the Hobbit was THE BEST of the stories in the series. SOunds like fame got to Mr Jackson

How can you not like a film where Radagast the Brown is doing too many mushrooms and hitting the pipe? Saw it in 24fps 3D. the theater was so crowded we had to sit down front in the second row. No good for the Imax experience. Will see it again before it finishes it's run in a regular theater, either 2d or regular 3d at maybe a matinee where I can get a seat in the middle of the the theater. Squinney was so bored she fell asleep, but she's never read the books as I have a million times. Waiting to meet Tom Bombadil.

I agree completely on the 3D. And the better the film is, the more I dislike 3D because it's distracting.

In the book, didn't Tom Bombadil occur before the Three Trolls? I can't remember. It's been decades since I've read the book. And I don't remember Radagast at all (but I seem to remember something about rabbits and a sleigh).

Tom Bombadil isn't in The Hobbit, he's in the Fellowship Of The Ring.

"Toke-a-lid! Smoke a lid! Pop the mescalino!
Stash the hash! Gonna crash! make mine methedrino!
Hop a hill! Pop a pill! For old Tim Benzedrino!"

Ahhh yes, you're right. I remember now. I'm getting the beginning of the two stories mixed up. Been a long long time since I've read these things.

And they're going along the same road, as far as Elrond's gaff at least.