I only wish the film itself had more of that scrappy quality. Once it transitions to Oz it becomes so overproduced, with so little stylistic flair (good try with the canted frames though) that it just lays there on the screen. There’s heaps to look at but nothing to take in.

Raimi seems to have little control over the tone, not just across scenes but even within them. I got the sense he wanted to push harder with the stuff that was typically ‘Raimi-an’ – innuendo-laden one-liners, the mechanical mayhem – but that the need to maximise an audience was making him stop short of doing anything too scary or funny.

It was hard not to feel embarrassment for all of the actors struggling to make sense of this confusion. Franco seemed more comfortable when he was being “sleazy” – not at all when he needed to express astonishment, cunning, or sincerity. And I agree about Kunis, although the flatness of the Wicked Witch character (is she scary? is she campy? why not hedge our bets and go for a bland middle ground?!) did her no favours.

As for the story itself, I’m still mystified as to how 2.5 hours manages to yield so little narrative interest or development of most of the characters. Theodora’s arc is simplistic to the extreme – the idea that one afternoon with Oz would be enough cement a lifetime of Wicked Witch-iness was laughable but also disappointingly regressive in terms of gender stereotypes. And they couldn’t give the Flying Monkey or the China Doll ANYTHING interesting to do?

I saw ‘Samsara’ on the weekend and I was blown away. I think the clay man performance art scene was a highlight for me – it was so unexpected and confronting, I still can’t stop thinking about it.

After watching ‘Baraka’ the week before, I was surprised to see ‘Samsara’ revisit many of the same/similar locations (sex doll factory, Mecca, the Wailing Wall, etc) but the movies had very different feels to them. Where ‘Baraka’ seemed to move through numerous themes fairly quickly, to me ‘Samsara’ shifted through its subjects much more gradually before eventually finishing with its wonderful cyclical ending at the Buddhist temple.

As you said, it’s a real shame there aren’t more of these films being made.

I first watched the film in 2D at the normal 24fps and I found myself finding it somewhat difficult keeping up with some of the action. In fact, contrary to a common criticism about 48fps, I would say I found the that the CGI stood out more in the 2D version than the 3D. Indeed, CGI quality can, in general, be a very subjective component to a film but I had no such problems in the Vmax screening.

What I find exciting about 48fps is that it will also challenge production crews to lift their game with make-up, set design and special FX in terms of details and realism. With Dolby Surround 7.1, drastically increased image definition (2160p is not far away, not to mention 4K and 8K pictures on the horizon), and CGI being pioneered further by the likes of Avatar and Life of Pi, a movie’s ability to immerse its audience into that film’s universe appears to be an inescapable direction filmmaking has been taking so I don’t see why a technology that makes a movie “too life like” will become criticised for too long.

Obviously this is an issue of personal preference but I intend to watch the next two Hobbits at 48fps and 3D, and nothing else when they hit cinemas. I won’t be looking forward to the dent it makes in my wallet though.

Sorry about the rant, but it feels great to write down everything that’s running through my head!

I have *just* come home from a Vmax 3D screening at 48fps and I must say, for me, the 48fps was amazing. The clarity it gives is amazing and I didn’t find the motion at all jarring.

I very recently purchased a new LED-LCD TV that runs at 200Hz, so in other words it has a very quick refresh rate which is not exactly the same as 48fps but when I watched snippets of my Blu-Ray LOTR, the crispness of motion particularly during the actions scenes very much resembled what I experienced in The Hobbit.

I think mainstreaming 48fps will be an uphill battle and, I agree, perhaps the full potential of the technology remains to be seen but I for one think it’s benefits out way the downsides.