Hobbit Trailer looks crap

[Alcidas]

Originally Posted by Nogrod

They have just been fast copying the format from the Game of Thrones who (or whose fans - I think we don't khow how far HBO-organized the initial video was) published videos of fan-reactions to the "Red wedding" - anyway then George Martin appeared on Conan's TV-show and watched the fan reactions.

Pretty much the same idea...

Hmm. So its a staged video of Orlando Bloom and his co-stars, all dressed as elves, watching a staged video of a couple of fangals giggling while they watch some footage?

I suppose you can say that it is 'somehow sweet'. Like having seven spoons of sugar in your tea.

[Mithalwen]

Maybe merely demonstrating a ' mise en abyme" (literal translation not really helpful but a cultural version of the laughing cow cheesebox). Given that some advertisements are made to seem like youtube amateur efforts now it may not be surprising that this has been latched on to. My sister went to the opening ceremony of the Olympic games last year and a few weeks before she got an email from Danny Boyle saying that he would have wished his father to be at the games and inviting attendees to email picture of someone who they wouldmhave liked to have been there. So my late father was one of those shown in the memorial section. And that was touching. But Boyle wasn't selling something in the same way.

[Alcidas]

Originally Posted by Mithalwen

...merely demonstrating a ' mise en abyme"...

Yes, I do agree that it is pretty abysmal...

[Mithalwen]

Well the literal meaning is pretty much the Gandalfian cast into an abyss...

[alatar]

Note that many of these same criticism aren't just about Peter Jackson's work. Below is part of a review of the new Superman movie (emphasis mine):

Originally Posted by Justin Craig

Little in this film feels natural or real, which Snyder seems to want to convey. The oversaturation of effects, which has become the norm in most blockbusters, completely overshadows any natural cinematography, which may create a schism between the audience and the film. Nolan’s “Dark Knight” trilogy was a massive success for its dark realism, and there are attempts to do that here, too, but the crew seems to have gotten a bit carried away with creating as many CGI shots as possible that all realism is lost. With Snyder, Nolan and Goyer sacrificing story for endless CGI action sequences, “Man of Steel” can be summed up by that great line Jeff Goldblum says in “Jurassic Park”: they “were so preoccupied with whether or not they could that they didn't stop to think if they should.”

Switch out the directors' names with Jackson et al, and swap Superman with Hobbit, and you have many of the posts on this thread.

And I doubt the writer is a Superman book purist...

[Inziladun]

The over-emphasis on special effects to give a sense of "being there" is one of the main reasons I have so little time for modern films. I feel that in most cases the CGI and whatnot detracts from story and acting, as it tends to monopolize the viewer's attention, as well eating up screen time.
I think that's the reason my favorite movies tend to be on the older side, as the technology didn't allow for so much flash, and acting had to take the forefront to make a film work well.

[Nerwen]

Well, I’ve said this before: people often rail against CGI and special effects in general, but they can be a very good tool if used properly. It’s when the effects become the point of the film that you run into trouble.

Also, even with all the advances of modern computer graphics, there are still some things that are better done as live action– I think studios can be a bit prone to kidding themselves about how realistic some of the work they produce looks.

[Kuruharan]

Originally Posted by Nerwen

Well, I’ve said this before: people often rail against CGI and special effects in general, but they can be a very good tool if used properly. It’s when the effects become the point of the film that you run into trouble.

Also, even with all the advances of modern computer graphics, there are still some things that are better done as live action– I think studios can be a bit prone to kidding themselves about how realistic some of the work they produce looks.

Moviemakers seem to commonly forget that in order to tell a story people have to be at the heart of it. An endless string of flash and gimmicks may sparkle and amuse...briefly, but it is not a story.

Stories are what hook people to invest themselves in them. Sparkle and flash by themselves cannot do that because by themselves they really aren't much of anything.

Just thinking about it: the LotR in six seasons (one season per book) where one season would be ten times one hour episodes!

And we would have the added bonus of not having to worry about what will happen when the series catches up to and then passes the author in telling the story.

[Mithalwen]

Having had anothwr look the rare glimpses of Bilbo which were about the only things I rcognised from the book save the doorstep were relatively appealing. The look on Freeman's face when he breathes clear air and sees butterflies was perfect. But it was a nanosecond in a lot of portentous extraeneous stuff. F they hadn' been so desperate to echo the LOTR films there mighthave been a jolly romp of a Bilbo focussed film there. If the trailer is representative then calling it the Hobbit might contravene trade descriptions.

Why ARE Tauriel's ears so big? Much larger than the male elves... really distracting.

[Nogrod]

Originally Posted by Mithalwen

If the trailer is representative then calling it the Hobbit might contravene trade descriptions.

Happily trailers are not representative as their basic raison d'être is to catch the attention of as many - or the right kind of - people as possible. So all the trailers of action films (which the Hobbit sadly seems to be) are even more packed with action than the real films as they have to convince the wannabe audiences they will get some reaallly hard and fast speed stuff to blow their minds off... they kind of pack the thick of the action scenes into a short music video kind of burst in trailers.

[Morthoron]

Originally Posted by Mithalwen

The look on Freeman's face when he breathes clear air and sees butterflies was perfect.

Perfect, perhaps, except that the butterflies were blue and not black. Mirkwood, by definition, is reflected by the dark denizens habitating therein (a point Tolkien referred to often). A white stag offers a color variation that is notable as a folk motif. And so, we're back to that whole subtlety thing that PJ is utterly incapable of divining.

Originally Posted by Mithalwen

Why ARE Tauriel's ears so big? Much larger than the male elves... really distracting.

Perhaps she got caught in a lie.