The Hobbit
So, after the heaviness of my last couple of blog posts, I thought I’d revert back to a bit of frivolity just to prove how unfocused and random this site will be. It’s not all godlessness and “give me liberty or death” stuff! Last weekend, I finally got around to seeing The Hobbit. It just had gotten away from me what with the holidays and everything else this time of year. I debated whether or not to see it for my first viewing in standard 2D, or in the 3D High Frame Rate (HFR). Films to me are sacred, especially the very first viewing. You only get one chance to see a film for the first time. It’s my favorite art form, and while I don’t claim to have an encyclopedic knowledge of films, they are near and dear to my heart. Ironically, this is one reason why I end up seeing few films in a year. If I feel I’m not in the right mindset to see a new movie, I won’t, and so I often find myself re-watching favorite films where I know what I’ll get and can let play in the background while I do things like write a blog post.
Back to The Hobbit and HFR… I finally decided that because of the groundbreaking aspect of 48 frames per second with this film, I needed to see it the way the Director Peter Jackson intended it to be seen (I do the same thing with director’s cuts, etc on the DVD’s). Generally, I’m leery of anything in 3D. I have found it tiring, dark, and usually not adding much to the overall experience of film. Usually, it’s quite the opposite. I feel like anything gained by 3D is trumped by being taken out of the illusion of the story. Those damn glasses usually inevitably do so.
However, The Hobbit was the first 3D experience I had where for the most part, I felt none of the annoyance, and almost all of the intended joys. The HFR improved the viewing experience of the 3D, causing less strain on my eyes. By the end of the film, I’d forgotten about those evil glasses altogether, and enjoyed the well-placed moments of images coming towards me. The clarity of the film was absolutely the best I’ve ever seen in any “D”, and only enhanced the already breathtaking vistas of New Zealand in the numerous panoramic, sweeping wide shots of the landscape. To quote from Liz Lemon on 30-Rock… “I want to go to there.” If you’re going to see 3D, make it HFR!
But that amazing clarity has its downsides. I had heard the arguments against the HFR before I saw the film. That it made it feel less cinematic, and the special effects, make-up and sets looked like… well, special effects, make-up and sets. I tried to bring an open mind to the film knowing that my brain had been trained to think of 24 fps as the way a movie is supposed to look, but that in reality it is low grade quality, causes blurring, and degradation. I wanted so much to be pleasantly surprised by the HFR experience.
Instead, the experience ended up being a mixed bag. I felt that the computer generated (CG) creatures (used far more in The Hobbit than in the previous Lord of the Rings (LOTR) films), were well placed and blended well. With a few exceptions, I was never distracted by them appearing obviously CG. And often they didn’t look CG to me at all. Perhaps I’m too used to CG characters from playing a lot of xbox games, but only in one scene where all three elements of the film – the panoramic landscape, the made-up human actors, and CGI creatures – came together in an intense action scene (the group of 14 running from the pack of Orc-ridden Wargs on the open fields of Middle Earth) did I notice anything looking distractingly fake from an effects perspective. I wish the same had been true of the more standard dramatic scenes involving the human actors against a backdrop of a fabricated set. That is where the HFR truly distracts from the film experience. It was in those moments, whether it be in Bilbo’s Hobbit Hole, or in the tight shots within Rivendell (which by the way, I still think is my dream destination of all time), or at the Dwarf camp in the mountain foothills, I often had the sensation of watching a stage play, or something on The History Channel. It was exacerbated anytime the shot involved a bit of action, with quick camera angle changes or movement. I did feel like I was in front of real people in a way, but it was like being able to see the edges of the theater’s stage. It felt like I could see the wizard’s feet behind the curtain pressing the buttons. It’s not exactly accurate… I never saw a wayward boom microphone, or part of the camera track in the shot, but the sensation was the same. Despite telling myself it’s just my brain adjusting, I couldn’t get over the fact that it didn’t feel like the movie experience I had come to love. It felt like a documentary, not like art.
But then it also annoyed me when ESPN increased the frame rate of its World Series of Poker coverage as well, so perhaps it’s just me.
Of course, some of my criticism is not all the fault of the technology. I have never read The Hobbit, so I don’t know how much of the story they managed to get in, or changed from the original story. But from the perspective of someone who has seen and loved LOTR, and knows the general back story of The Hobbit but not the details, the film felt like there was a labored attempt to string it out as long as possible, I suspect so that it could be chopped up into many films. I hate to be cynical, but it felt purely like a money grabbing ploy to milk the success of LOTR as much as possible. It’s too bad…. The suits at the studio did a disservice to the story in doing so. As I watched I wanted to yell “CUT!” numerous times so that the scene would move on to the next plot point. I suspect most of the scenes at the start of the film at Bilbo’s house could have been completely eliminated. It’s nice that Elijah Wood (Frodo) got to make a cameo appearance, and perhaps it made sense to tie the story to LOTR to keep fans of those films engaged in the new characters, but it felt similar to how the end of The Return of the King felt. Nice from a superfan perspective, but not really adding to the story. It only left me feeling manipulated in a way I don’t want when going to the movies. I don’t want to be distracted by thinking about the business side of the film industry. I just want to be immersed for a couple of hours in an amazing new world. LOTR managed to do that for me throughout most of the films, despite being shot in the old 24 fps, 2D way. The Hobbit rarely did that for me.
I’m still hoping my next journey into Middle Earth is improved, but I’m not betting all the gold in the Lonely Mountain on it.
