IMAX 3D 24FPS

[petronia]

And that's the last of this round of Hobbiting in theatres, I fancy, unless Erin and I do one of our very late dollar cinema coupon runs. XD; (This IMAX screening was also on points.) Verdict: motion blur was shockingly bad. I don't usually notice it in 3D movies being that I have trouble tracking fast movement with my eyes IRL anyway ahaha orz, but some of the shots here were shaky to the point of unwatchability. I suppose they blocked for 48fps, seeing no reason not to push the limit, and so the pan speed was too aggressive for 24fps 3D to handle. The same shots in 48fps were as smooth as butter. But on the bright side, in 24fps 3D Bag End and Rivendell no longer look like a Weta set visit undertaken on psychedelics, so you win some, you lose some.

I'm genuinely interested in the technology, what can I say.

I wrote up my dissatisfaction with the movie reviews here, which bafflingly got me followed by like ten journalist types on Tumblr. Verdict: everyone is a closet Tolkien nerd. dubdobdee then linked me his meta on Freakytrigger (plus discussion), which goes into much more detail. Though I now sort of want to do a poll: how many people think of The Hobbit as a "direct translation" of the Red Book of Westmarch (eg. that Bilbo wrote his story in a drily ironic/twee 3rd person omniscient)? Like, it's clear from what's said here and there that whatever Bilbo did write down is not seen as fully reliable, being unintentionally skewed or intentionally embellished at points (and less reliable the more it pertains to himself/the Ring); but I find it intriguing to consider, as dubdobdee does, the text of The Hobbit itself in a fully Watsonian light, since it never really occurred to me before. Positing, for instance, that the movie script and Martin Freeman's performance can be read as incorporating aspects of Bilbo('s motivation) he wouldn't have/didn't write down -- rage, and altruism, are the signal ones that struck me watching the film. That and Thorin's tsundere negging.

(I am 100% agnostic as to whether this thought experiment guided PJ etc.'s intent, or if he just wanted to make the characters more heroic all around. It would have been important to Freeman, I imagine, to work out Bilbo's access to his anger.)

Comments

[flamebyrd]

That and Thorin's tsundere negging.

That is the best description of Thorin's character ever. XD

[perevision]

I just read that phrase and laughed myself fully awake. Better than coffee!

[petronia]

Conforms to the classic TV Tropes formulation, what can I say. I had 30 seconds or so of pure disbelief on first viewing, like, really, Peter Jackson? We're going there? This is a there to which we are going to go?

Then I remembered that this guy was responsible for Orlando Bloom everything.

[petronia]

COFFEE. Sorry, am much in need of one at moment. XD

[horusporus]

i'm not sure how i've managed to go through life without hearing the phrase, 'tsundere negging' <3.

[petronia]

It's certainly not the week to be on Tumblr if you don't want to encounter Thorin Tsundereshield jokes.

...Which, OK, I am making fun of this mercilessly, but it ties in with the psychology PJ decided to give the character -- fear of failure and having to confront the fear's source and buying in to the story everyone else needs to hear from him to keep them united. The absolute worst thing you can do to a dude like that is hand them something ELSE that's weak and helpless and be like, "Don't let the tamagotchi die!"