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Chris C 
"Four words, never backwards."
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 Posted - 12/06/2012 : 13:24:40
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quote:
Originally posted by Sean
I just booked my 3D HFR ticket for next Thursday (the day after opening). Can't wait. 
That's most unlike you - actually going to the cinema instead of watching a DVD.  |
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Sean 
"Necrosphenisciform anthropophagist."
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Posted - 12/06/2012 : 20:38:11
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quote:
Originally posted by Chris C
quote:
Originally posted by Sean
I just booked my 3D HFR ticket for next Thursday (the day after opening). Can't wait.
That's most unlike you - actually going to the cinema instead of watching a DVD.
Yeah I save the cinema for the ones where visuals are of major importance. In this case 3D HFR is something that can only be seen at the cinema. (Last movie I saw at the cinema was Avatar.)
Also, I'm a ringnut. No way am I waiting for the DVD for this one. 
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Sean
"Necrosphenisciform anthropophagist."
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Posted - 12/13/2012 : 03:03:38
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quote:
Originally posted by Sean
I just booked my 3D HFR ticket for next Thursday (the day after opening). Can't wait.
Well, this was going to be tonight. But, their HFR projector crapped out so I cancelled my booking.   |
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Sean
"Necrosphenisciform anthropophagist."
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Posted - 12/17/2012 : 10:58:50
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NO SPOILERS
Plug Tolkein into the Tolkein-movie-generating machine (Jackson et al) and not much could be expected to go wrong... and it didn't. 
Although a lot happens, the story isn't as layered as LOTR, but that's just this particular story. Andy Serkis puts some extra Gollum-ness into Gollum, minor characters are just as endearing as the main ones (Radagast the Brown and his pets) and overall it has a lighter feel than LOTR with plenty of humour although there is no shortage of nasty things out to get everyone.
3D HFR is immersive, it looked fantastic without being jump-out-of-the-screen gimmicky. My guess is HFR is here to stay, and so is 3D. I will most certainly be seeing the next two installments in this format. There were a few times when I was rather glad I wasn't watching it in 24FPS 2D.
My only complaint is that the score felt like filler-material in places.
9/10
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Edited by - Sean on 12/17/2012 11:14:29 |
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Sludge 
"Charlie Don't Serf!"
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Posted - 12/20/2012 : 20:56:02
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I don't want to dignify it with it's own thread, but thought the knock-off "Age Of Hobbits" would be a magnet for fwiffers. It was barred from U.S. release about 10 days ago, and appears they were already setting up to change the name to "Clash of Empires."
The studio, Asylum Pictures, is no stranger to knock offs. Per The Hollywood Reporter:
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Past films from the company include 2012 Doomsday, Transmorphers: Fall of Man, Battle of Los Angeles and American Warships -- which originally was titled American Battleship until Universal sued to have it changed shortly after that studio's Battleship hit theaters.
They forgot to mention The Terminators.
...and now, back to the real thing. |
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BaftaBaby 
"Always entranced by cinema."
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Posted - 12/21/2012 : 21:48:31
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Well, guys, I don't pay nearly the attention you all do to the details - and no doubt to matters such as whether 48 fps provides so much more than the normal 24.
Don't get me wrong - Peter Jackson's Unexpected Journey looks terrific. But whatever else it's an ultra-extended set-up for the more exciting, more mythical, and - dare I say - more magical middle and end of Tolkien's first steps into Middle Earth which are yet to come. Yep, it does feel like padding.
In sheer story-telling terms it feels - hmm, how can I put this - more than slightly predictable. The most intriguing shot comes at the very, tippy-toe end - and no I'm certainly not going to tell you what it is.
What saves this first of Jackson's trio are three names: Jackson himself, Martin Freeman as the eponymous Bilbo Baggins, and the pervading presence of co-screenwriter Guillermo del Toro [who was very nearly inked to direct the film].
Of course we're already familiar with Jackson's directorial vision, backed by some stunning art direction and editing. SFX and battles have never been an issue - and personally I'm not fussed which fight works better than another.
More important is that it's clear who's who in the muddle of battle. Even though the fights here are plainly schematic, that turns out to be an advantage.
For the film, as I've mentioned, is a journey. Less rogueish than a picaresque, but nevertheless compelling us forward. In this case for any Hobbit virgins, young Bilbo is pretty well commanded by the Wizard Gandalf to help however he can a passle of hard-done by dwarves who've been deprived of their home by an embodiment of pure evil.
Modest, self-effacing, wouldn't say boo to a goose Bilbo looks about his cozy hobbit nook, his full larder and tempting library, his comforting pipe and sense of contentment - and turns them down flat.
That it doesn't take too much to change his mind is the kick-start of the journey. So we'd darn well better be on his side, rooting for him, and consequently for those dwarves. We want them to have some pals along the way who help pull them out of tiny and ginormous scrapes.
And, we may not know it, but we want Bilbo to do stuff that makes him feel the confidence of others hasn't been misplaced.
Although much screen-time is devoted to the mechanics of the plot, there are some more reflective scenes to guide us on our own journey - the one in which we grow to care about Bilbo. There's one particular scene which kindly gifts that to us - maybe the one most likely to bring a tear to the eye. And, no, I'm not going to tell you what that one is, either.
Freeman's hobbit-boy is inspiring - his performance fills every nook and cranny of Bilbo's dilemmas and self-doubts. Of the ensemble cast I must mention the inimitable Barry Humphries, completely unrecognisable as an obese Goblin; Sylvester McCoy, positively twinkling as the Brown Wizard Radagast [whose slightly bewildered energy reminded me a bit of Disney's Fairy Godmother in the 1950 Cinderella]; and of course, Gollum, as reprieved by Andy Serkis.
He is complex and complete is Andy. But there's something I could never quite put my finger on about his speech patterns. Watching this it occurred to me - Donald Duck!
OK I exaggerate. But do go see The Hobbit - because I have a feeling the second instalment will be spectacular - so, like methodical orderly Bilbo, you'd better be prepared.
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Conan The Westy 
"Father, Faithful Friend, Fwiffer"
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Posted - 12/23/2012 : 04:14:56
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| Boxing Day Opening in Australia. Can't wait (but will have to anyway). |
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Beanmimo
"August review site"
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Posted - 01/05/2013 : 23:36:19
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I am a little late with this but the updated rebooted CGI this looks great, characters and backgrounds blended seamlessly.
Despite there being a few times when I shifted in my seat and became distracted by the extensions of some scenes, this did not last long as I was soon immersed back into Middle Earth.
Acting was great particularly Freeman and Serkis.
Some nice new aspects of The Shire & Rivendell.
Look forward to the next two parts with ballymaloe relish.
Here is my blog review if you like.
http://wp.me/p1MbTJ-i2
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randall
"I like to watch."
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Posted - 05/05/2013 : 01:30:44
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I liked, didn't love. Somehow everything seemed flimsier than the original trilogy, with the sole and single exception of Gollum, who looks better than ever. [Andy Serkis even gets his own "And...as Gollum" card.] Had this been on premium cable, we would be jumping up and down at how beautiful it is [c.f., GAME OF THRONES], but it's stacked up against a three-past masterwork which, even with older technology, looks far more substantial.
If del Toro brought anything to the script, then he also has to answer for its (1) languid pace and (2) inappropriate anachronisms [c.f., the Goblin King's curtain line, a couple of Gandalf's throwaways]. Even the majestic "helicopter shots" which so thrilled us in the original films [c.f., the breathtaking fire-signal sequence] now seem stale, overdone.
Yes, it's only the first part of a longer story. Yes, it has its moments [though the escape-from-the-goblins sequence is so physically implausible that it reduces the action to a cartoon: specifically, that Popeye short where Olive Oyl sleepwalks over skyscraper girders]. But when I first watched each film in the LotR trilogy, my initial desire was to see it again. After seeing THE HOBBIT for the first time, my initial desire is to turn back to the good ones. |
Edited by - randall on 05/05/2013 18:17:07 |
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The Hobbit
