Out of Pod Experience

Hmmm ... considering Im a fanboi of anything LOTR, I will enjoy the movie nonetheless. Though I wasnt expecting a trilogy (a truly boneheaded cash grabbin move) I still will enjoy it for the simple fact it brings to an end a cycle of movies dedicated to the works of Tolkien.

But deep down, I know that what is to blame is the high expectations people have for the film. The Hobbit story is much simpler, almost "classical". I remember reading it to kids at the hospital and mostly to make them sleep.

If people are expecting this to be an action no holds barred full contact epic fest, they wont find it in the first movie anyway.

Perhaps the Battle of the Five Armies will be depicted in gruesome detail and make the trilogy worth it, and for me, Im still waiting to see the friendly Beorn in the "flesh" , always loved the big werebear , even if his part was minuscule.

So, yeah I feel from the movie (part one at least) it will be aimed mostly at the people that decried the inaccurateness of some parts in the first trilogy.

If the reviewer feels Bilbo (and the actor) a bit overacting, trust me, he hit it spot on. Now, if this will be a mainstream appeal film, dont know, too early to tell.

My only fear is if the movie flunks, if they will have enough money to finish the other two.

I REALLY REALLY want to see Beorn and his friends ripping warg, bat and goblin flesh :) (specially big bad nasty putrid Beolg)

Ahhh, started with a bit of worry, but then ... left with high hopes. If its so accurate its almost reading the book slowly, I will enjoy it!

Well, to keep my mental sanity on I will pretend I´m at the THEATER (like a Thespian one) and Im seeing live actors, only way I could rationalize the CRISPNESS of everything.

Now that you talk about that I was watching some of the HD trailers ... I was noticing everything looked a bit too fake too ... that dreaded moment when realism destroys imagination by pretending to make imagination more realist.

Ugh ...

Also great for the whole movie being finished, I have tried to keep away from most anything related to the movie to avoid any spoilers in presentation (but kinda hard when you know the book by heart) But so far I have tried to distantiate myself from the film to truly watch it unbiased, but the review link was just too tempting ...

This is why I cant watch a lot of movies on HD TV's, they look like documentaries, it feels wrong. And yeah, stringing out the book into 3 movies def smacks of blatant cash grab.

The choice to go with three movies is much more likely because of one simple thing. They know that these are the last middle-earth movies they're ever going to make. They wanted to show on the big screen many of the events, that happen during the same time period, but the book doesn't cover. They had the choice of either abandoning those ideas entirely or go for it all now, when the funding was there, and make it a trilogy.

Well, at least the filler should be interesting as a lot is derived from the LOTR Appendix and a few of the 'unpublished' writings.

I would not really call it complex, because it is not really so. It just have a **** ton of names in it :)

You're propably right. Silmarillion is pretty weak as far as stories go and it simply is not a well written book. It's something even many Tolkien fans only read once and never pick up again. It certainly has loads of interesting ideas for film makers to expand on and tell stories about, but it isn't that popular and would require a large budget to do justice to all the gods, monsters and wars it has. It's not exactly a good recipe for box office gold.

We were discussing 48 FPS, not 3D.

I've actually read the Silmarillion 5 times through.

Anyone else beat that ??

I'm still sane I think.............

I see no complaining about 3D at all, but plenty for the few of us that have experienced 48 fps.

My first time was actually a film at Disney World and that was in 1978 so it's already an ancient technology.....with many reasons why it didn't fly. (It's so realistic and the brain takes in so much more visual information it feels like some kind of weird 'slow motion').

And sure enough at the preview footage last April the awfulness of the process overrode any rational discussion of what was actually seen in the trailer.

Big mistake Mr. Jackson. I'll see it at 24/sec thank you.