‘the Hobbit’ might look a little too good

As you may know, Peter Jackson is directing his two ‘Lord of the Rings’ prequels in 3D and at 48 frames per second, twice the old standard of 24 frames per second. ‘The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey’ will be the first major movie filmed at this rate.

Well today he screened 10 minutes of footage at CinemaCon in Las Vegas, and according to some, it sorta sucked. Because now the images are actually too crisp and clear, and it doesn’t look like a movie any more.

Devin Faraci on Badass Digest says:

“…it has that soap opera look you get from badly calibrated TVs at Best Buy.
The footage I saw looked terrible … completely non-cinematic. The sets looked like sets … sets don’t even look like sets when you’re on them live, but these looked like sets. The magical illusion of cinema is stripped away completely.”

A reporter from Variety (via IndieWire) was slightly kinder:

“…a thing to behold. Totally different experience. Not all will like the change. 48 fps has an immediacy that is almost jarring … unfortunately, (it also) looks a bit like television.”

Well between this new clarity and the 3D, ‘The Hobbit’ should be just like going to a super elaborate LARP battle, complete with me calling everyone in a costume a fag.