Warner Bros has responded to claims that The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is causing motion sickness and intense nausea among viewers. Peter Jackson's fantasy epic has been shot using 3-D and new 48 frames per second technology (the standard rate is 24fps), leaving some cinemagoers feeling as though they're standing on set. As Collider critic Dave Trumbore put it, "when they take a crazy tumble down a rabbit hole, for example, you feel just as disoriented."
Eager for The Hobbit to have a smooth opening weekend after the troubles of the past 2 years, Warner Bros released a statement on Wednesday (December 5, 2012) that read, "We have been screening the full-length HFR 3D presentation of THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY extensively and feedback has been extremely positive, with none of thousands who have seen the film projected in this format expressing any of the issues described by two anonymous sources in media reports." It continued, "We share the filmmakers' belief that by offering filmgoers the additional choice of HFR 3D, alongside traditional viewing formats, they have an opportunity to be part of a groundbreaking advancement in the movie going experience and we look forward to having audiences everywhere share in this new way of storytelling." Peter Jackson has understandably defended his choice to use 48fps, saying in a press conference this week, "I'm fascinated by reactions. I'm tending to see that anyone under the age of 20 or so doesn't really care and thinks it looks cool, not that they understand it but they often just say that 3D looks really cool. I think 3D at 24 frames is interesting, but it's the 48 that actually allows 3D to almost achieve the potential that it can achieve because it's less eye strain and you have a sharper picture which creates more of the 3-dimensional world."
Reviews have been mixed for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, though we're predicting a huge opening on Friday December 14, 2012.
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