Back at the hotel at 3:25 am. Movie was great.

The picture color and resolution was great. I believe that the theater I saw it at has 4K projection. The big image was really nice too. The Dolby Atmos was impressive (not as amazing of sound as when I saw Brave this summer at the El Capitan theater in Hollywood which clearly was calibrated and played at reference levels). There were 10 "speakers" on each side, and two "arrays" of 10 more on the ceiling running front to back. Wind and other ambient sounds were really cool, HOWEVER, with THAT many speakers in that many channels, if you weren't smack dab in the middle of the theater, some things are overly loud because you were too close to the side speakers. I would say that it would be "natural" if the action was happening in those surround channels only, but it would be at times of dialog and you wouldn't be able to hear from time to time what was being said. Overall, still really cool though.

BUT...
48 fps sucks! Peter Jackson and James Cameron can keep it. With the next Hobbit and Avatar films come out, I will opt for the 24 fps. It was like watching a movie on a TV with too much of that "smooth motion" crap. Any non-action seen was fine, but as soon as there was a slightly elevated level of motion, and I am not talking just about action or running scenes either, it was WAY too artificial looking and seemed "sped up" although some would argue that *technically* it was slowed down because you were seeing more frames to represent the same amount of time. Whatever, it was stupid!

Oh, and the theater was PACKED. It held just around 500 people and 100% of the seats for this particular experience was sold out. I heard that most of the other showings (regular 3D and 2D without 48 fps or the big screen or Dolby Atmos) were sold out as well.

I saw several hobbits in the crowd and we even had our own Gandalf live and in person with a staff with a glowing stone on the top. Not as many people dressed up as like when Star Wars Ep1, 2, and 3 came out, or even the latter Harry Potter movies, but still some creative costumes.

I scored another shirt, and two Hobbit posters plus one Les Miserables poster, just to realize that there is no real way to get them home on the plan unless I hold them the entire flights or fold them. Bummer. I will find someone who wants them before I go, and if not, I will put them in my suitcase against the "back" of it (bottom of it when you are backing it that becomes the "back" when it is standing upright).

Anyway, if you liked the other movies, give this one a shot for sure. Just remember that if you don't like the look of the "clear motion" or whatever it is called on a TV like me, and watch stuff at "normal" speeds, then do NOT see the movie in 48fps. I am sure that at some point they will get it polished a bit so that it doesn't seem so quirky like characters seeming superimposed over a background even when they aren't, but until then, I am staying away from it.

Oh, and I scored some AWESOME green Real3D glasses that are stamped "The Hobbit" on the side.

Ok, so they are nothing different from the normal black Real3D ones, but whatever. :-)

Now to get a couple of hours of sleep before I need to get up and head to the airport to fly home.


Farewell - June 4, 2020