The Hobbit - a somewhat longer review
I was expecting tons of reaction posts when I came back from the cinema yesterday, but then tumblr was down and then it wasn't and there's still nothing. As I understand it the movie isn't even out yet in most places, so I should actually feel privileged to have seen it already (twice!).
So to add a bit of oil into the pan I'm just going to write down what extra enjoyment I gained from this movie through being a Sherlock fan :)
- The trailer before the movie was for the new Ang Lee movie :) If you have no idea what I'm talking about read Performance in a Leading Role by Mad Lori!
- Bilbo saying something along the lines of "Not my jam!" when the dwarves clean out his pantry.
- The hedgehog. It's named Sebastian :D
- The necromancer in typical BC pose!
- Smaug!
I loved Martin's performance. Every scene was better when he was in it, even when he was just standing in the background. Tolkien's words sounded perfect coming from his mouth. Same goes for Ian McKellen and Andy Serkis.
Richard Armitage was good, but maybe channeling Aragorn a bit tooo much. But maybe he was cast for this purpose so it might not be his fault.
The music was good, but a bit repetitive. The dwarf theme was overplayed. I did love the comeback of some LOTRO themes. All in all it seemed like there wasn't much new music except for the songs and the dwarf theme?
48fps makes 3D movies a lot brighter. I don't like how it makes everything more realistic/sharper/tv-like though for following reason: It makes it difficult to immerse into the world. When it's mostly the characters it feels like a theater play, as if you could touch them so crisp and clear as they are. When it's wide shots and scenery it seems too real and less like the fantasy world it's supposed to be (especially the Shire looks less like a place where Hobbits live in and more like a film set). Action scenes and CGI scenes are improved by it and much better to follow.
I guess it would be great for theater like movies that want to through you out and make you feel like you're there, for completely 3D generated movies and for movies which are mostly CGI with lots of action?
Now the Hobbit is too much of a mish-mash of what works and what doesn't work for me to really enjoy the new technology.