Six new clips from The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and reactions to 48fps screenings

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

If the numerous trailers, TV spots, featurettes, and making-of’s weren’t enough for you, today we have six new clips from THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY, which feature a smattering of all the things you have come to know and love from Peter Jackson‘s Middle-Earth saga.  Orcs, beasts, dwarves, elfs, and of course, Gollum, are all jammed into these six clips, making them a much better offering than your standard movie clips.  It’s a healthy dose of Hobbit, for sure, and potentially enough to tide you over for the next ten days.  Maybe.

On the flip side, the review embargo has been lifted and they’re flooding in from all over with decidedly mixed reactions, particularly on the 48 frames-per-second showings, which caused much controversy when samples were screened to audiences in August.  It seems that not much has changed and that the doubled frame rate has not left an impression that harkens a new era in cinama, but rather one we may not want to continue.  Scroll past the clips to see the reactions…

Get your Hobbit On:

Movieline editor Jen Yamato:

“It felt like watching daytime soaps in HD, terrible BBC broadcasts, or ‘Faerie Tale Theater’ circa 1985, only in amazingly sharp clarity and with hobbits.” 

Jordan Hoffman at ScreenCrush:

“When people run, they look like they are on the ‘Benny Hill Show,'” Hoffman wrote, adding that the 48 fps “isn’t a case of good or bad; it’s an aesthetic choice.”

Peter DeBruge for Variety:

“Everything takes on an overblown, artificial quality in which the phoniness of the sets and costumes becomes obvious, while well-lit areas bleed into their surroundings, like watching a high-end home movie.”

Neala Johnson for Herald Sun:

At first, it’s distracting – somehow everything looks TOO real. From the wizard Gandalf’s wrinkles to the rolling green meadows of Hobbiton, everything is brighter, crisper, as eye-poppingly colourful as kids’ TV. Where the format comes into its own is in intense, action-packed territory. An Unexpected Journey’s battle sequences are especially striking – such scenes are often just a murky blur of flying limbs and blades; here you can see for miles through the skirmishes, right down to the last mud-splattered, club-wielding orc.”

Rodrigo Perez for The Playlist:

“[T]he last two acts of ‘The Hobbit’ are simply a non-stop action-adventure rollercoaster that is just as engaging and winning as anything in the director’s previous trilogy,” said Perez. “As epic, grandiose, and emotionally appealing as the previous pictures, ‘The Hobbit’ doesn’t stray far from the mold, but it’s a thrilling ride that’s one of the most enjoyable, exciting and engaging tentpoles of the year.”

So, the 48fps screenings seem to be about personal preference.  I think it will continue to divide audiences and won’t likely be the next coming of film.  If the reviews were universally across the board in favor of the format then it’d be another story.  There are tons of reviews out there and most seem to suggest that the film is an entertaining ride for LOTR fans, but, as Bilbo stated in FELLOWSHIP, it may be “sort of stretched. Like butter scraped over too much bread.”

THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY opens on December 14, 2012.