For myself personally The Hobbit is a film that I’ve been waiting for all year as I’m sure it was for many other fans of Jackson’s Lord Of The Rings trilogy and not only was I excited to return to middle earth once again, but to see it all in HFR. HFR standing for High frame rate was a risky move by Peter Jackson, and for those who are unsure of what this means is that The Hobbit was filmed in 48 frames per second unlike any other film which are filmed at 24 per second which gives quite a different experience when watching the film.
Whilst the HFR and 3D worked brilliantly and I became immersed within the magic of the Shire and the rest of Middle Earth I found that I was judging how everything looked in the film from the start right up until the very end which was somewhat distracting from the narrative. But as far as 3D films go, this is defiantly the best I have seen, but there were a lot of moments that the 3D made it easy to tell what was fake, and by fake I mean incredibly fake. Whilst a lot are saying that the HFR was a bad move and represents ‘an old 80’s home movie’, I completely disagree and see the technology as revolutionary on modern film making and it was a fresh experience I could not have enjoyed more and quite frankly I couldn’t have felt more of a part of Jackson’s fantasy world than I did watching it in this format.
While I did find the 3D effects and fast movement somewhat distracting from the narrative, it was probably for the best. The 3D effects and frame rate really are the highlights of the film because the narrative is a little slow and dull, but of course it could only be expected for a roughly three hour film which is yet to be completed with a second film that was adapted from a book far shorter than the Lord of The Rings trilogy. So with this it’s easy to say Jackson has dragged out some of the details including the leading character Bilbo Baggins actually leaving The Shire to embark upon his adventure which takes up around an hour of the film alone. The plot of the film is small similar to that of the plot being based around the dwarves of middle earth. After loosing their home to the dragon Smaug, they are prepared with Gandalf the Grey Wizard, a map and Hobbit Bilbo Baggins to take back their home meeting old enemies; The Orcs along the way. A return and short appearance of Elijah Wood as Frodo Baggins was an unexpected surprise as the film began and the film followed with several more surprises including a return of Gollum. It starts slow, but it’s all we can expect from a book so short being made into a set of films. The film is without a doubt worth watching for anyone who enjoyed the lord of the rings trilogy, it sets up for the next film wonderfully with the film ending on a light note and an epic journey still ahead.