How to watch The Hobbit

I was lucky enough to be at the Royal Premiere at Leicester Square last night. It was shown in 48FPS 3D, and to me it looked very sharp, with better depth. I've never been overly impressed with 24FPS 3D in the cinema, my Panasonic TV does it better IMO. 48FPS is an improvement to me, although I have to agree that the extra resolution can make some effects and sets look artificial.

The film is really good, yes it's long but you don't get bored! Critics today are saying that making 3 films is milking a cash cow too much, but having read The Hobbit many times, if you made a film that stuck to the book it would not work, there is a lot of material that is summarised and assumed in the book to keep it suitable for it's original audience (JRR's kids). Peter Jackson has extrapolated the action and added in some material from 'Unfinished Tales' to make more of the story and weave it into what we already know from LOTR. 9/10 from me...

The Premiere was amazing, met Bernard Hill, Dominic Monaghan, Billy Boyd, and William Kircher (Bifur), and saw just about everyone else, brilliant stuff!
 
Does the 3D add anything to the Hobbit? Last 3D I saw was Harry Potter and all it did was put people out of focus due to the narrow depth of field. LOTR was too long, because they parts of it too long winded, drawn out, and left out bits which were more interesting IMO. I hope Hobbit isn't the same.

Why they can't just do the original story, and leave it at that I don't know. Why not create a completely new original story set in the same "world" for another movie?
 
OspreyO said:
Does the 3D add anything to the Hobbit? Last 3D I saw was Harry Potter and all it did was put people out of focus due to the narrow depth of field. LOTR was too long, because they parts of it too long winded, drawn out, and left out bits which were more interesting IMO. I hope Hobbit isn't the same.

Why they can't just do the original story, and leave it at that I don't know. Why not create a completely new original story set in the same "world" for another movie?
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I'm not bothered if it's 3D or not personally in terms of enjoying the film, but it certainly didn't detract, and some sequences looked very good indeed in the new "HD3D".
If you think LOTR was drawn out you may be disappionted with The Hobbit as they've turned a small book into 9+ hours of film! As I said in my original post, I don't think you could make a (successful) film of The Hobbit without extrapolating a lot of the events that to my mind are quite short and almost simplified in the book, I'm saying that whilst appreciating the fact that for the target audience this is appropriate! There is also quite a bit of history / reminding / introducing / scene setting in this film, I imagine that like in LOTR the second and third films will get into the story more fully...
Go and see it anyway, it's a good film!
 
Right still not sure if im watching this in 3D, am taking the missus and my niece, whose over from Canada for a few weeks to watch it next week.

Planning to watch it in 3D at Westfield Shepherds Bush Vue cinema, its the extreme screen which is the stupid big screen.

Does anyone know if this will be the 3D HFR version or not??

EDIT: Nevermind, seems like there are 2 3D versions, one is HFR and one isnt.

Booked tickets for the 3D HFR version in the end...geezus £47 for me, the missus and my 12 yr old niece...forgotten how expensive going to a movie is these days :/. Mind you usually me and the missus will do the orange wed which keeps the cost down but booked 3 VIP seats so obv thats going to cost a bit more. Then theres the drinks and popcorn which my niece will want so its going to be a very expensive night with us having a meal earlier on before the movie starts.
 
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Secret_Window said:
See, I don't get this. Why are there IMAX screens that seem to be unable to do 48fps? Surely the IMAX screens would be equipped for this sort of thing...
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I don't understand this either. It's a flagship screen and I thought it had had an upgrade but who knows!
 
apparently warner brothers are limiting the number of places showing the hfr 3d version because of the negative press after early screenings, so that could be the cause. Which is really annoying if true, If I want to see it the way its intended to be seen I will have to travel about 3 hours each way to do so.

I wish the " I wish 3d would die" crowd would disappear into a black hole tbh, i'm all for having 2d showings, 2d glasses available at 3d showing, so everybody has a choice, but personally i'd like to watch the film as intended thanks.
 
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It's not annoying, if it sucks in 3D HFR then it sucks, I wish I could see it in IMAX 2d but guess not.
 
I watched it today in 3DHFR in Cineworld in Aberdeen, for the first 5 minutes it looked a bit "off", but I soon got used to it and really enjoyed it.
 
ZG002 said:
It's not annoying, if it sucks in 3D HFR then it sucks, I wish I could see it in IMAX 2d but guess not.
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the problem is though it doesn't suck, there are lots of positive reviews of the hfr 3d, I've seen more positive and hardly any negative. I wish you could watch it in IMAX 2D just the same I wish I could watch it in my local cinema in 3D HFR, the choice would be nice.

The strange thing is to me that 3d needs the high frame rate, its half the reason people dislike 3d currently, it just seems a bit daft to be showing this in 3d at the current substandard 24 fps.

I feel this guys pain..
http://www.nerdacy.com/2012/11/15/warner-bros-limits-hobbit-hfr-screens-you-world/
 
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I agree if it's going to be 3d HFR then it should be on the IMAX screens, Not even sure why the cinemas that can do HFR do the 24fps showings also. Luckily my local cinema has 2d on its biggest screen, not quite IMAX but will do me.
 
I was hoping the Vue cinema in Westfield London was going to play the 3D HFR version on their Xtreme screen but seems like they are only playing the normal 3D version and the HFR version is playing on their smaller normal screens, which doesnt make much sense.

But meh booked the tickets earlier today so will have to do without the bigger screen, was looking forward to watching it on the bigger screen.
 
I saw the 3D version (with Dbox) and then went back a little later and saw half of the HFR version.

3D version - adds nothing really and is quite pointless given the film is quite dark.

Dbox - is a proper gimmick but does work nicely with the swooping cameras and fight scenes.

HFR - everything looks alarmingly real which is a problem for a fantasy film as the dwarves just look like people in costumes giving a bit of a panto vibe. Lots of scenes look like 70's bbc drama or worse like live action action cut scenes from old video games. It does significantly improve the 3d effect and panning shots don't have any judder. When everything is 'real' on screen and there are no fantasy elements then it is very impressive but prob more suited to IMAX documentaries than fantasy films.

If you are really looking forward to it then I would go 2d but if you def want to see it in 3d then go HFR IMO the standard 3d version adds nothing.
 
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