don't rule out the possibility of messed up projection. They're sloppily retro-setting these projectors to start running in 48fps via a firmware update, something they weren't ever really designed to do or tested for.

I would not be shocked if there's some really broken stuff going on, on top of the weirdness with the tech

It's been over 13 years since production started on Lord of the Rings. A decade between instalments is quite a long time. If there was no MGM legal hell, we could have seen all three Hobbit films by now and be greenlighting the Silmarillion or some other spin-off.

Last edited by avatar (2012-12-05 14:51:51)

I'll just point out, and I'm probably the only one, but watching anything on a TV with that higher refresh rate for too long does give me a headache. I can't stand it.

3D on the other hand, I can watch for hours on end without so much as a twitch (and I did this in fact, when they released Toy Story 1 and 2 in 3D in that marathon event thing...yep....4 hours straight of 3D... perfectly fine with it)

I don't know, maybe there's something I don't understand. We see the world at around 55 fps. I don't see how viewing at a frame rate closer to that would have a negative effect on your eyes (as long as the projection isn't screwed up). It would seem to me like slower frame rates would be more of an eye strain.

Of course I'll reserve judgment on the aesthetic of the frame rate until I see it, but I just don't get the headache complaints, unless bullet3's comments about projection issues are valid, which would have nothing to do with the frame rate itself. I've never had any issue with eye strain from a 60Hz TV.

Of course the hardware has the ability, I think he was just saying there could have been errors made by the IT guys in the setup, bugs in the firmware, etc. You never know. It doesn't seem to be outside the realm of possibility.

Ya, specialty hardware is a really different bag, it's not a matter of raw cpu or anything. I'm saying if it's the kind of thing that they're enabling with a firmware patch, it means the hardware wasn't really planned or tested around doing that kind of playback. I'm talking projector shutters, hardware internals, etc, not necessarily cpu.
A projection system is a rigid and fragile piece of equipment, and it's entirely possible that some theaters will have some issues with it, and even if one isn't obviously glitching out, I'd imagine it's actually pretty difficult to tell if one is displaying the image 100% as intended. What if it's just dropping a frame every now and again? All possibilities, this is why hardware goes through months of testing before it gets released in production. A theater projectionist or hardware expert would know more of course, maybe I'm entirely wrong.

I've been really skeptical of 48 fps up to this point, but then I read this interview with Jackson, and he said something that convinced me a little more:

That's an interesting perspective that I hadn't thought of. In the same interview, he also says that he's spent so much time with 48 fps that he can't watch 24 fps anymore. He says he can't stand that format.

I'm just gonna leave this here.

Namely cause we don't have an actual Hobbit thread yet. Someone should really get on that.

Sitting in the theater now, starts in 20 minutes. We'll see how it goes!

http://www.theonion.com/articles/the-ho … lbo,30727/

Firstly, Boromir kicks it in the first movie. Gandalf only makes it half way.

Secondly, the Dwarves in The Hobbit are entirely CG for many of the action set pieces. So they're being thrown around in a cartoonish way by Trolls, Orcs and Goblins a lot more. That wasn't the case for Fellowship were it was 99% live action shooting so the characters weren't doing as many unrealistic things from a physics point of view.

Some more comments... [Spoilers]:

Gandalf keeps disappearing and re-appearing to save the day. What's he doing? Scoring more pipeweed?

Gandalf has a bad case of dementia in respect to his powers. Sometimes he can clear out a cavern with his +10 Force Staff, and other times he's a feeble old man. Recharging the staff takes time.

The dwarves carry different weapons but I didn't get a sense of them specializing - perhaps that's still to come. One dwarf had a sling-shot, another had a bow, the rest had clubs and swords. There were no A-Team scenes i.e. this obstacle is a job for this character, and now we need this character's skills, etc.

Fortunately they resisted the temptation to have wall-to-wall belching & farting jokes.

Galadriel does a Batman - disappears when someone looks away. No log-out etiquette.

The 'Thorin disapproving of Bilbo' plot element was clumsily executed. As was the editing with Bilbo's decision to rejoin the dwarves after sparing Gollum's life.

The dwarves riding the wooden platform down the crevice was getting dangerously into Pixar/Disney territory. Whatever. Definitely a tone-shift compared with LOTR.

I know two people died in FOTR. Of course, it was in the book. And I agree with you about the cartoonish survival of the dwarves in The Hobbit. I was just pointing it out. I mean, Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas got through TTT and ROTK, including an orc ambush, Helms Deep, Pelennor, and Mordor. And they did a lot of ridiculous things too. Aragorn fell off a giant cliff. Gimli jumped into a giant horde of orcs twice, Aragorn once, all in the same battle. Legolas climbed a giant moving elephant and surfed down its trunk, and also surfed down a flight of stairs on the back of a shield, shooting arrows the whole way down.

In a sense I'm playing devil's advocate here, because I do agree with you about the absurd amount of crazy stunts all 15 of them got through. I mean they couldn't kill any of them off because the book didn't, but they didn't have to give them so many acrobatic near death experiences. The Hobbit took unrealistic survival to a whole new level, and it did bother me slightly. I was just saying LOTR was also guilty of that. Though the live action shooting did help it.

Yeah, kinda hard to avoid that because a lot of it was in the book. He was always off dealing with the whole necromancer issue, then showing up randomly.

Agreed.

Last edited by Sam F (2012-12-15 18:53:50)