Anyone seen it yet? Taking the family tomorrow after school, the kids are really excited.

Someone at work mentioned its only part 1 of 3 planned movies?

Please tell me that its not true!

Big fan of Martin Freeman, so looking forward to watching it.

Please tell me that its not true!

O.K. It’s not true…

It’s true.

Ah sorry.

It’s not true!

(It is)

Apparently they’ve dipped into other books to flesh out the story.

I’m looking forward to it, but if Thorin doesn’t sit down and start singing about gold at some point I’ll be very disappointed.

Someone at work mentioned its only part 1 of 3 planned movies?

That’s right. Apparently Peter Jackson said they had enough material to make 3 good movies. I’m sure this will please the studio behind it 😉

I’d prefer two really good movies

Isn’t this just the fist part of a 9 hr trilogy? Based on a 300 page book?

OK thank’s, just read up on Wiki, still looking forward to it mind.

Who the hell in their right mind would cast Morgan Freeman as a white Somerset midget??

🙂

Going tomorrow, 3d version. I’ve been pretty disappointed with the 3d films* I’ve seen in the past, so hope this is better.

*there’s been nothing wrong with the films, just thought the 3d stuff was a bit pointless and didn’t add much to the film.

Interesting that they’re dipping into other works, I guess ‘Unfinished Tales’ and ‘The Silmarilion’? They’re huge (and complex) volumes that I could never get into. They didn’t have the ‘great story’ quality that The Hobbit and LOTRT had.

Apparently they’ve realised they can totally milk the cash cow to death, having seen it work for final instalments of Potter and Twilight, and have cobbled a 3rd film out of the appendices of LotR

FTFY.

http://screenrant.com/hobbit-3-movie-trilogy/

Cynical? Possibly? Will I still go to see them? Definitely.

The missus was offered tickets to last nights premier. She turned them down as she didn’t think I’d want to go to that London.

If he’s just bloating out the book then it will be horrific – You could actually read the thing twice in 9 hours and there’s just nothing there in terms of characterisation or depth of story – it’s a straightahead kid’s adventure tale.
However, I reckon he’ll work some magic with it – he’s got a bit of a blank canvas to bring in stuff from Lord of the Rings and borrow from all of that epic-ness. That will feed in for sure and it might work.

it’s a straightahead kid’s adventure tale.

I actually went back and tried to re-read it a couple of years ago. Anyone else tried this? It’s really, really hard going because it is very much a children’s book, it’s all “little Bilbo Baggins in his little stripy dungarees” sort of twee-ness. I gave up fairly quickly.

mediocre reviews for it so far. Filmed in 48fps which has had mixed reactions, as well.

For someone who’s supposedly such a big fan of Tolkiens writings, I wish he’d left well enough alone and given it a running time suitable for the book’s original audience. I’m sure the big set pieces will look great, with loads of noise, but as said above it’s a kids book, and it would have been nice to leave it as such, to introduce kids to the lotr thing. No neeed for all the back story and stuff, it wasn’t relevant to the original book.

Takes 15 minutes to get to the ‘in a hole in the ground’ bit apparently. 🙂

Going to see it on Friday. Not sure if the cinema I’ve booked is 48fps or not. Fingers crossed it is.

I didn’t read The Hobbit as a kid, but bought it for Jnr. He hasn’t touched it so I tried to read it. Quite liked it for as far as I’d got. I only read on holiday and only started it on the last day so didn’t get very far as Big Bob on the next sun lounger kept talking to me.

I’m off to see it this evening…it will have to be good as I’ve got tickets for the late showing so will be in danger of falling asleep!

I know I’m in a minority, but the whole Lord of the Rings thing just leaves me cold. I just don’t get it at all! The prospect of watching 9 hours of the Hobbit (9 HOURS FFS!!!), would seriously have me contemplating opening a vein.

The better half absolutely loves them though! And is pant-wettingly excited about seeing the Hobbit. And luckily she’s of the opinion that dragging a grumpy me along to watch them would be pointless. Phew! 😀

Reading the book now before I take my lad.

Read it a few years ago and enjoyed it. Enjoying it again and I too will be interested to see how they get 3 films from such a simple story.

Is it just me or does anyone else think Jackson is the worst thing to happen to LOTR?

Totally overated IMO. The whole LOTR movie trilogy made good viewing as a yarn, but was intertwined with dull drawn out camera panning sour faced moments. And the pace is all over the place.

I’d love to see another film studio do them again – LOTR Reboot!

By rights I should be the target market but the trailer just looked horrible… But I’ll go and see it anyway of course.

I enjoyed the LOTR films but I’m looking forward to the The Hobbit much more as it was one of my favourite books as a kid (didn’t read LOTR until the films came out).Plus I think Martin Freeman is potentially very well cast. Looking forward to it.

I was gonna take my 8 year old (although just seen its 12a!?) untill i saw the running length – 2hrs 50 mins!
Not sure if I could manage that, let alone her. :-0

Posted 29 minutes ago # vinnyeh – Member
mediocre reviews for it so far

http://www.empireonline.com/reviews/reviewcomplete.asp?FID=9834

Mills on radio 1,he had some woman film nerd on, having a go at it, 48 frames per second its filmed in instead of 24 fps, so it makes it look speeded up, and poor quality , she said lots more, like it was to long at 3 hours as she had a small bladder.

I enjoyed LotR 1, but 2 and 3 just merge into one long tedious mash-up of exceedingly large fights in/on mountains to me.

Currently re-reading T’Hobbit before seeing the film, but as others have said, stretching it out into 3 films just seems like a total cash-in…

I might need to remember that a large drink probably isn’t the best option, even though the economy of scale means I really should.

Is it just me or does anyone else think Jackson is the worst thing to happen to LOTR?

I reckon he did a great job with the 3 films (apart from a few horrible ‘comedy’ moments, usually involving Orlando Bloom), and I read the books religiously as a child.

Not convinced about this though – why on earth is it three films? And the complaints about 48p sound a bit worrying. Quite a few reviews say it looks too sharp/real – so you know you are looking at a film set rather than being immersed in the world of the story. I’ll still go and see it though.

48 frames per second its filmed in instead of 24 fps, so it makes it look speeded up

Why would 48fps make it look speeded up?

Grauniad seem to like it anyway:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2012/dec/09/hobbit-an-unexpected-journey-review?intcmp=239

Interestingly they were speaking about it on R4 and the 48fps is playable on any projector as its the frame rate not speed of film (although i’m not sure how that works). And as it’s faster it takes out the flicker that our brains blur out so makes it more realistic. But there is nowhere to hide poor lighting etc.

I didn’t know there was a 48fps version. Strange decision.

Quality TV Dramas deliberately avoid it so that they have a ‘filmic’ look.

I’ve had hardware capable of up-sampling to 48/72hz for a few years and it’s always made everything look very ‘video’. Very hard to put into words, but it loses gravitas.
Perhaps we’ve been brainwashed, but I prefer my happy ignorance.

I might need to remember that a large drink probably isn’t the best option, even though the economy of scale means I really should.

I’m with you there! And then there’s the ‘combo’ deal..

The thing I’m wondering is if they used a higher frame rate have they also used double the shutter speed in order to still have a 180 degree shutter? So 1/100s of a second?

It’s all very quiet here in the cinema’s so far!

48fps is just the frame rate, and only the 3d version. There’s rumblings that its caused a few issues around the country and that it has made a few people sick!!

The thing with 48fps seems to be just that it seems weird, because we’re so used to normal cinema frame rates- nothing specifically wrong with it but a lot of people have responded that it feels more like tv than film.

Shhhh make sure you talk it up so my house price increases as Weta grow as I live right in the middle of it ! James Nesbitt was my neighbour for the last couple of years and I seem to the the only person who doesn’t work in wellywood.

i wish that they managed to complete the lord of the rings animated film (from the late 70’s i think).they ran out of money (they only got as far as the middle of the first book i think).i really enjoyed the film when it was on channel 4 back in the late 80’s.