Hobbit review

hobbit.txt

I went to see the Hobbit in HFR 3D IMAX OMGWTF today.  Movie verdict: 3 hours is too long to sit in
the theater.  It's not necessarily too long for home viewing where you can get up and move around,
or pause the movie and take a break, but it's too long for the theater.  That said, it's a well-made
film and PJ keeps the story moving along, so you'll be entertained, even if your eyes and butt are
sore as hell by the end of it!

Stereo 3D verdict: yep, I still hate it.  Kill it with fire.  Especially the parts where they flick
stuff at your face - it's such a stupid, cheap trick.

HFR verdict: really interesting experience.  The picture is great - very clear and smooth and BRIGHT
(often a problem with 3D, since it cuts the brightness by more than half).  You notice the difference
instantly - even during the opening studio logos / titles, there's no question in your mind that
what you're watching is HFR.  For the first half an hour or so, the motion looked really weird.  I
had the impression I was watching a cheaply made telenovela.  The acting looked awkward and forced,
and some of the set decorations and props looked like hollow facades without weight.  I honestly
don't know if I had these impressions because of mental association of high framerate with low
production values, or if it's because things actually were that way.

But after a while I started acclimatizing, and things started looking less weird.  Interestingly,
this didn't happen at the same rate for all kinds of scenes.  First, I got used to conversation
scenes - close shots of people with little camera movement.  But when it would cut to one of those
helicopter shots panning over the mountains, it looked weird again.  And the high-action fight
scenes continued to look weird for a long time.

But by the end of the three-hour movie, I was no longer noticing the "weirdness" of the HFR except
for occasional moments, but it took most of that time to grow accustomed to it.

Some people have said that the CG effects didn't look as good in HFR.  I didn't find this to be the
case; the CG looks as good in this film as in any other.  I spotted a few animation glitches here
and there, but it was not a big problem.  The CG characters (Gollum and the Goblin King) looked
great, both the rendering and the animation.

However, what I did find newly distracting in HFR was discontinuities in camera movement.  When
executing a complicated camera move on a real (not virtual) camera, sometimes the view would jerk a
bit or change direction too sharply, which was noticeable and annoying.  It may be that image
stabilization is more necessary in HFR than before.

Ultimately, I'd be happy to watch more movies in HFR.  The main issue is audience acclimatization;
the technical problems are minor and quite solvable.  HFR seems like a much surer bet than stereo 3D
for "the future of film".