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So ... today I finally got to a good theater with my good friend (the old wizard Jeremiah of Ansalon, for those who may remember him) to see "The Hobbit" in the highly controversial HFR (High Frame Rate) 3-D presentation it was created to debut. Knowing the story like the back of my hand since about age 7, I didn't worry about any spoilers, so I read every review I could get my hands on prior to seeing the film. I knew, therefore, that most reviewers were completely hating the way the film looks when viewed in this format. Descriptions range from "unwatchable" to "looks like a video game" to "looks sped up and cheesy." Most reviewers described the film as completely overstaying it's welcome - far too much exposition for what is, actually, a very simple children's story. Thus, I entered the film with my expectations set appropriately low, knowing that I was probably in for a miserable three hours.

Guess what ... I LOVED IT!

I really did. And I so did not expect to! What was wonderful for me was that this format really does make the film look jarringly real - it doesn't look like a movie at all. It looks, instead, like you are watching a stage play out of doors in an actual environment. The story ... overblown, bloated, overstaying its welcome? No no ... this is Middle Earth - I can't get enough! Plus, there is lots of cool development of themes that we hear about in LotR or the Appendices. Some are altered slightly and tweaked to make them work in this story (i.e. Thorin being the one to go to Moria to fight Azog rather than his Grandfather prior to the story of the Hobbit.)

Anyway ... it was a magical film. Truly magical. What is more ... I don't really care about "The Hobbit" as a story the way I do about LotR. I really hated what Jackson did to LotR in terms of the purity of the story, and thus ended up being *very* reserved in endorsing the those films. The Hobbit, however, is a simple children's tale, that I don't take all that seriously. Jackson had lots of fun with it, and so I don't mind silly and crazy things happening that children (and their parents) will enjoy. Here, it felt great, whereas in the LotR films ("Mind the beard!" *rolleyes*) it felt painful and annoying to me.

So ... let's hear other's opinions. Seen the Hobbit? What did ya think?
G.

I loved it aswell for the same reasons. There should be slightly more screenplay for Dol Guldur though, but I assume there will be more later.

I saw it in hfr 3d as well and besides a couple of birds coming at you, for me the 3d thign adds nothing to the movie, but since they didn't show the 2d version in my theatre i had to ... Anyway, movie was nice, just sucks that we need to wait another year for the next 1/3rd though. And i didnt like the radagast part, with the rabbits and all, i like my ME movies to be a bit more serious

Agreed. Radagast reminded me of Jar Jar Binks to some degree, but ok, the rest was pretty awesome. Gollum was just Epic.

I'm afraid to see the movie, cause it might well be that Laurel will suffer from another race-change back to hobbit, no matter the consequences ...

I neither saw it in 3D or HFR but I still loved it..still wish I had seen it in HFR tho..

I was very pleased, and I especially enjoyed Martin Freeman, knew I would since Im a fan of him since the Office(UK vers.).
One could argue about the sudden decision to make it into 3 movies, instead of the original 2, but money rules.

If one went nerdy by nature you could argue, about some of the conversion made from book form, to the big screen. However,
as some scenes might look good and tasty on paper, it is a bit harder to tell the same story in movie form. All in all, it is a
wonderful film, and I look forward to watching the second part. If we survive tomorrow that is .

Also, Gorgoth, Say hello to Nicky from me.

Flt, Henrik.