The Hobbit HFR 3D

Rating: 7/10 (15 December 2012)

Made the hour-and-fifteen-minute-long trip to a city to watch the special high-frame-rate version of THE HOBBIT. At 48 frames per second, it looks like an episode of THE GUIDING LIGHT (or maybe some other soap opera, perhaps one that's still on the air). Or, like a hobbit (never pictured in the film because he's behind the camera) decided to shoot a home movie. That said, it's well crafted, and I think fans of Middle Earth will enjoy the non-HFR version of this movie just fine.
Not being nutters about LOTR (Lord of the Rings) in general, I must confess that I was bored a few times in those three hours. That doesn't change the fact that it must be absolutely nightmarish to make a movie on this scale. I bet, more than once, Peter Jackson (the movie's director) wished he'd shot the whole movie on the set of The Shire, with Bilbo walking around, expounding, spilling the entire bushel of beans to a disinterested, glassy-eyed Frodo. From a CGI standpoint, Gollum has come a long way; I could even see the moisture on his eyeballs this time.
SPOILER ALERT
My favorite character was the wizard (Radagast the Brown) who lived out in the sticks (well, the sticks beyond the stones), with his team of sled-pulling rabbits, housecat-like hedgehogs and nesting birds in his hair that crapped down the side of his face every chance they got.