newarenanow wrote:Dickie Dunn wrote:The Hobbit reviews have been an interesting read so far. Lots of hate for the 48 FPS, mainly due how "fake" it makes the movie look. One thing that is very disappointing to me is that Orcs and Uruk-hai are no longer actors in this movie. Its all CGI, and apparently its very noticeable its CGI, with one review describing them as looking like they came straight out of a video game. Using actual actors in The Lord of the Rings gave it a "realistic" feel. They were frightening, imposing characters. The battles and sword fights actually took place. One review I read compared it to the original trilogy and the prequel trilogy for Star Wars. The excessive use of CGI in the prequel trilogy causes a major disconnect between the feel of the two series, and the same is happening here. The use of 48 FPS is causing Middle-Earth to no longer feel or look like the Middle-Earth from LOTR. The use of CGI instead of actual actors has removed the weight and realism from the action scenes. Seems like a poor decision for them to make regarding the production of this movie.
Even before you got to it, the first thing I thought of was the original Star Wars trilogy vs the prequel. The battle scenes and just interaction in the original vs the prequel doesnt' even compare, the original felt "real".
I loved the LOTR trilogy because like you described, the orcs, etc were real actors and it just gave it a better sense of realism. It's amazing what you can do with CGI, and if you have a few characters that are CGI, just like that weird looking little dude in LOTR, or yoda in the prequel, it's fine, but when entire worlds are created and every character is CGI, I dont' like it.
Also read Ian McGregor actually cried a few times on set because he just couldn't take acting by himself in front of a green screen for almost the entire filming.
The Star Wars prequels drive me crazy, and thats with ignoring that the first two are just crappy movies. If you're going to make prequel movies, when you are finished with the prequels the appropriate way to watch the movies should be in chronological order, going from Episode I and finishing with Episode VI, and it just doesn't work. There is the previously mentioned disconnect between the two series regarding the feel of the movies, technology use, etc. (And why the hell is everything so damn shiny in the prequel trilogy?) Three movies of non-stop "Sith this, Sith that, blah blah blah Sith", yet there isn't a single mention of a "Sith" in the original trilogy. All of the surprises of the original trilogy have been ruined. If you take someone who has never watched Star Wars before and make them start with Episode I, not only do they hate their life and wonder why so many people love Star Wars, they know that Luke and Leia are siblings, they know that Anakin is Darth Vader, they know that Darth Vader is Luke's father, they've already seen the Death Star, etc. The only people surprised by the "big reveals" in the original trilogy are the characters in the movie, and thats just bad story telling.
Anyways, another big complaint I am seeing about The Hobbit is pacing issues, especially early in the movie. I'm sure this will be blamed on the questionable decision to extend two movies into three, but I'm wondering how much that really factored in.