It can only get better....can't it?

Rating: 6/10 (19 December 2012)

Watched the IMAX 3D HFR version.
I have been eagerly awaiting the release of this movie for the last few years ever since it started production, and my early thoughts are not brilliant.
Technically there has been a lot of discussion about the 48fps and I'm afraid to say it wasn't a comfortable viewing experience. Whereas in the LOTR trilogy you really got that sense of a grand cinematic epic, it just wasn't there in this version. I really wanted it to be something new and exciting, but it looked gimmicky and false a lot of the time, only the latter scenes with the Pale Orc and Bilibo's encounter with Gollum drew me into the movie. At times the image, crystal clear as its was, did feel like a HD home camcorder had been used and certain scenes did seem sped up. What is interesting is watching the trailer at home on a home cinema setup, it looked much more like LOTR in quality and feel then the IMAX version. This is the first ever movie using this technology so I will give it the benefit of the doubt, but eagerly await the Blu-Ray in a years time.
The story itself suffers from the feeling of being padded out at every opportunity, I have no idea why we had to see cameo's of Frodo and Galadriel, I believe even Legolas will make an appearance in a future episode. The Hobbit is a very different story, which can be read in an afternoon, it does not need to be a 9 hour epic like it's predecessors.
The dwarfs comedy seemed over hammed, feeling very corny at times, the troll scene was nowhere near as good as the books, and why omit Gandalf's voice throwing?
I'm not even going anywhere near the mess that a certain Brown wizard brought to the film.
As a lifelong fan of Tolkien's work, and Mr Jackson's LOTR trilogy I left very disappointed.
Here's hoping the second installment is an "Empire Strikes Back" and redeems PJ's credibility