The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug

[Greg_phpbb3_import1]

Go see it. Plenty of sword fights and fights in general. Could use a little editing. Did not see it in 3-D, so did not get the full effect.

[Drunk Monk]

I guess you didn't see it in HFR either then.

[Greg_phpbb3_import1]

We saw the Australian version. (No, that doesn't make any sense, either)

I didn't hear any word this time about the HFR. I was wondering if they even released those versions.

[Drunk Monk]

Peter Jackson promises improved high frame rate showing for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

BY Richard Lawler 2 days ago

The first Hobbit movie served as a debut for 48fps "high frame rate" movies, and found a cool reception from critics and many fans. This time around, as The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug hits theaters, director Peter Jackson is doubling down on the rhetoric, claiming that an improved HFR is the best way to see the movie. Quoted by Variety, Jackson repeated claims that this new process improves the quality of 3D, and says he experimented with a different approach to color grading that takes away from the HD-ish look many disliked the first time around. The second Hobbit movie has HFR screenings at 812 screens, nearly double the last year's number. This time around press and critics saw the film in 24fps, instead of 48fps, but the various premieres did feature HFR showings. By now some of you have either seen the movie or are going to a screening this weekend, let us know if you picked the super-smooth 48fps showing or stuck with old school 24fps projection.

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.engadget.com/2013/12/13/peter-jackson-better-hfr-desolation-of-smaug/">http://www.engadget.com/2013/12/13/pete ... -of-smaug/</a><!-- m -->

[Drunk Monk]

I was with Jackson until this installment. I can tolerate mild deviations from the source, but this whole installment had almost nothing to do with the book. And for no good reason. The animalistic nobility of Beorn, the hopelessness of Mirkwood, the darkness of the Elf dungeon, the harshness of the barrel ride, all could have made fine storytelling, but Jackson went with some arbitrary changes to get more post-foreshadowing for his LotR trilogy, completely sacrificing the integrity of the original work. An opening cameo? Oh come on. Tauriel the ginger elf? Really? The gold statue attack on Smaug just to show some mediocre special effect? Seriously? It reminded me of Lampoon's Bored of the Rings.

I did not see it in 3D or HFR and I'm glad I didn't drop the extra $ on this. Such a waste.

Even T was laughing at parts that weren't supposed to be funny. She kept going 'What!?!?' with so many of the story tangents.

And the really annoying thing is that I'll still see the third installment when it comes out next year. But I'll be complaining about it. You know I will.

[cranefly]

Last night we watched the first installment of the Hobbit, in preparation for an outing to see this. The first part seemed to stand up pretty good, though the fights with the orcs and goblins were very long hack-and-slash affairs without much plot to them, and I found myself starting to daydream during them -- probably not a good sign. But I think it adds to the franchise.

As for Desolation, we'll likely see that in the next few days. DM's review is most ominous....

[Drunk Monk]

Desolation only covers about half a dozen chapters in the center of The Hobbit. It's a lot about the drudgery of a long march. Mirkwood is dark and depressing, and the characters are pushed to their limits with hunger and thirst, not just for their food and water, but for light, which is amplified by the fact that they are dwarves and in Tolkien's world, that means they are cave dwellers. It also represents the turning point for Bilbo, as he had just acquired the RING, and in Mirkwood, he learns how to use it. It should have been dreary and claustrophobic, hopeless, and Bilbo, through his Hobbit charm, restores hope with a desperate rescue. Jackson turns the whole section into a chase scene, which is really silly if you follow the logic of Middle-earth. Tolkien devoted a lot of time to the geography. That, and his development of all the languages and cultures, formed some of the best parts of his work. He had a encyclopedic sense of backstory, one that preceded so many other fantasy worlds like Star Trek, Star Wars or Harry Potter. The whole reason that they cut through Mirkwood was because the goblins wouldn't go that way. So to have the goblins chase them to Laketown really messed with the story's integrity.

I suggest you smuggle a flask of wine into the theater to enhance your enjoyment. Maybe take a drink every time a goblin gets chopped. LCF is driving, right?

[cranefly]

Still haven't seen it. Just thought I'd mention that we watched the first Hobbit movie with the audio balance shifted all the way to the right -- a direct result of DOOM party shenanigans days before.

Regarding the DOOM party, DM had brought Saving General Yang, filmed mostly in southern Siberia and employing a cast of locals who are descendents of Tuvanese throat-singers. While few throat-sing anymore, they have adopted a most peculiar oral tradition: they speak both Mandarin and Cantonese simultaneously. The director, using a sophisticated COBOL program, managed to separate out these two dialects onto right and left audio channels. In this way the home viewer has a choice of listening to the characters speak naturally (simultaneous Mandarin and Cantonese), or one or the other by shifting the audio balance entirely left or right. We watched the movie all three ways, the last being Mandarin on the right.

But in the aftermath of that long night of mayhem, I completely forgot to recenter the audio balance.
So when LCF and I later watched the first Hobbit movie, I was forever looking at the right edge of the screen, sensing from the sound that something ominous was about to impend from over there.

As for how familiar I am with The Hobbit, well, I studied it in college. It was required reading. But for some reason I don't remember much of it (this was circa 1975). So I suppose that will make it easier for me to enjoy the journey as Jackson deems to spin it. Let me see when LCF wants to go see it.

[cranefly]

You already know this if you follow LCF's tweets.
We saw the 3D version, which was impressively sharp, with almost no swimming in and out of focus towards the edges of the screen.

I don't feel that my critical faculties were fully engaged for this movie. There was just too much newness and freshness to the CGI and filming technology. While in the theater, I was suitably engaged. Only afterwards, upon reflection, did I start noting all the story problems. The worst aspect was the overtly video game "feel" of the movie, where the protagonists are just slaughtering the bad guys as fast as they appear on screen, with no real danger or consequences. It's hard to become emotionally involved with such characters or their quest. You're just waiting for the next level of targets to appear.

I suppose my biggest disappointment was with the Hobbit fucks rabbit scene -- which never happened. You hear me? It never happened. I thought that's what HFR stood for (DOOM sure knows how to toss acronyms around; I hardly ever know what is really being discussed). So anyway, I got all excited for nothing when Dr. Who appeared with his sled and rabbits. Now I know that HFR stands for some new projection technology where photons are accelerated to faster than the speed of light and register in the eyes before they even appear on screen. (For our showing, the movie actually started 10 seconds before the projectionist showed up.) This is all well and good, and maybe it contributed to the sharpness of the 3D. But at the same time it tended to telegraph everything that was going to happen.

Oh dear. I think I'm blathering again. And this year was going to be different....

[Drunk Monk]

And that definition is spot on.