Actually, I’m such a narcissist I thought I’d dig back and find my original review!
Completely forgot about the 48fps fiasco!
Looking back at that thread it really was a much livelier and more happening time on the forums...
Oh and how funny that I distinctly remember saying “WTF” out loud when reading this post
Without reading the other reviews in here I'll give my opinion:
I went into this optimistic and open minded but I ended up really disappointed. Although it was cool too go back to middle earth, there were so many things that were just... bad.
First things first, the HFR 3D version of the film. Holy poo was that hard to get used to. At times it looks amazing but before my eyes could adjust a lot of it looks like a Benny Hill sketch or in fast forward mode. Even with that aside, with a combination of the 3D and the HFR, or for whatever reason, the fast paced action scenes looked fake and false.. Perhaps it's because the more realistic you try to make something the more your eye can see that it's false.The main offender was the brown wizard and his sleigh. That looked terrible
So with that in mind, I really don't know if I could recommend the HFR version... it just didn't sit right with my eyes. I completely understand the comments from critics suggesting it looked more like a slick BBC TV production than a feature film, but I don't think that made it any worse. It looked sharper and more fluid, but is that 'better' in this context? Hmm.
Any-who, onto the actual film. There is the fundamental problem is that the film lacks what the LOTR trilogy has in spades: the sense of threat. There is nothing menacing going on and as a result it's not a dramatic film, relatively speaking or otherwise. It's just not that exciting. The next problem is that there is some seriously misplaced goofy humour and some seriously misplaced goofy characters.Fair enough the story isn't as 'epic' or 'menacing' as LOTR, but does that mean we have to suffer this dumbness?The portrayal of the brown wizard was just terrible. Likewise the scene with the trolls around the fire was silly due to their herp derp nature and voices. Only one of the songs was warranted (the second song in bag end with the humming). The first song with the tidying up of dishes... again, really bad. The biggest offender by a long way was the dwarf with an orange beard. Oh wow hilarious look at the fat dwarf doing fat things like falling over a lot. Peter Jackon. On behalf of the world: He's fat. We get it.
With no malingering sense of dread or doom, and the above silliness, it is an enormously lengthy and at times a tedious watch. Far too long considering the content anyway. I'm pretty sure nearly everyone in the audience groaned with disappointment when they realised that even after escaping the mountain, it wasn't over.
Good parts:
Misc. Bad Parts:
- The scene with Gollum.
- The introduction of the Necromancer
- King dwarf and leader of the troupe was just a douchebag.
- Did I mention the brown wizard :/
Enough said
4/10
Completely forgot about the 48fps fiasco!
Looking back at that thread it really was a much livelier and more happening time on the forums...
Oh and how funny that I distinctly remember saying “WTF” out loud when reading this post
