First footage of the upcoming hobbit movie shown to public greeted with mixed reactions . . .

Ten minutes of footage from the upcoming The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey has been shown to delegates at the annual CinemaCon in Las Vegas.

Reactions from cinema owners and projectionists at the screening include:

- “It reminds me of when I first saw Blu-Ray, in that it takes away that warm feeling of film. It looked to me like a behind-the-scenes featurette.”

-”It looked like a made-for-TV movie. It was too accurate – too clear. The contrast ratio isn’t there yet – everything looked either too bright or black.”

- “The question is if people want to watch movies that really look real or not. I was expecting a subtle difference, but this was dramatic. Might that work against a narrative? I don’t know.”

The footage was also criticized by one media outlet as “appearing overlit and sharp in a way that many compared to modern sports broadcasts or daytime television.”

Both Hobbit movies will be shot in a 48 frames-per-second format which according to director Peter Jackson results in a “more attractive” 3D image that is “more gentle on the eyes”.  James Cameron is also a proponent of the format and has said that he might even shoot his Avatar sequels in an even higher 60 frames per second format.

(Twenty four frames per second has been the standard for most of cinema’s history.)