Awful

Rating: 3/10 (5 January 2013)

My background is mixed: I loved LOTR and thought it was an exemplary execution of the epic journey genre. I am also a video engineer in L.A., and hated The Hobbit in its book form. The Hobbit comes across as a pale clone and completely unnecessary movie that follow's in LOTR's steps. I saw it essentially as a professional duty to go and see it in 48fps. The impact on us filmmakers is major and the Hobbit's importance in that regard is unquestionable. I have the eye to spot different frame rate all the time, and think that 120MHz TV's and "fluid motion" features are the worst thing that has ever happened to home theater. Nevertheless 24fps is constricting to filmmakers and I was looking forward to see what 48fps could bring.
The difference was obvious from the second the WB logo came up. Despite my 3 hours of genuine attempts to enjoy the movie, I couldn't. The action seemed horrifyingly sped up at times as if the projector was malfunctioning, and everything had a cheap, unmagical feel to it, no matter how exquisite the lighting, camera work, and production design were. This was the key - unmagical - in the kind of movie that needs it like no other. HFR might work for other genres or dramas that call for more realism, but it fell completely flat for this fantasy epic. I'm able to separate resolution from frame rate so the movie didn't seem "clearer" to me at all - and I was trying to NOT look for detail but enjoy the story as a whole. This, though, might also have to do with the fact that we probably watched the movie in 2K, on a non-huge screen in a Chicago suburb.
I read The Hobbit a decade ago when I was in the military and posted in the middle of the desert for a week. I didn't remember the plot, but to this day I remember how boring it was for such a short and renown book. It was all worsened by the decision to inflate it into 3 double-length movies. Every plot point is utterly mundane, non-dramatic, and cliché, and they're all stretched to the max. 400 reviewers have already given plenty of examples for that.
To my personal dismay, the 7 relatives I saw the movie with had no qualms with the frame rate and they all loved the movie. Oh well, I'm allowed my one vote.