Peter Jackson’s 'The Hobbit' footage gets a cold reaction at CinemaCon – VIDEOS

Prequel to “The Lord of the Rings” gets hard review over 48 frames per second technology

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Still from 'The Hobbit'

Photo by LA Times

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This Tuesday “Lord of the Rings” director Peter Jackson debuted ten minutes of footage from the upcoming “The Hobbit”, starring Aidan Turner, to the crown at CinemaCon. Shockingly the crowds were not all that impressed.

The movie, starring Martin Kemp as Bilbo Baggins, has been long awaited by “Lord of the Rings” and Peter Jackson fans but when he aired the 3D movie, using the new 48 frames per second (fps) technology, the movie nerds gave it chilly reaction.

The 48 frames per second (fps) technology is twice the standard frame rate and hasn’t been used to make movies since the 1930s. This will be the first major studio filmed using this technology.

After the screening, the website said “everyone hated it”.

Badass Digest's Devin Faraci said the footage had "that soap opera look you get from badly calibrated TVs at Best Buy."

He added “The footage I saw looked terrible…completely non-cinematic. The sets looked like sets…sets don’t even look like sets when you’re on them live, but these looked like sets. The magical illusion of cinema is stripped away completely.”

An anonymous projectionist from a competing studio echoed those sentiments in an interview with Los Angeles Times. "It looked like a made-for-TV movie. It was too accurate -- too clear," the projectionist said. "The contrast ratio isn't there yet -- everything looked either too bright or black."
However not all reviews were negative. Variety film editor Josh Dickey tweeted “Great Scott, THE HOBBIT in 48 frames-per-second is a thing to behold. Totally different experience. Not all will like the change.”

First Showing's Alex Billington tweeted, “There are going to be endless debates about 48FPS and how good/bad it looks. I just think we need to get used to change after 80yr of 24FPS.”

Are you looking forward to the Peter Jackson creation, 48fps or not?
Here’s the trailer for the movie:

Here’s Aidan Turner and other members of the cast talking about filming on location with “The Hobbit”:

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