First look at Evangeline Lilly in "The Hobbit"

Entertainment Weekly has the first official look at Evangeline Lilly from The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (unless you bought the Lego set) She's playing Tauriel, an elf invented by Peter Jackson and company to make the film a little less sausage-fest (and my math still puts this at 15:1). Of course, you probably remember Lilly as Kate from Lost, unless you've repressed that memory. Still she looks great as an elf, though I'm concerned about the fact that the arrow looks like bad CGI.

My favorite movies and comics of 2012

Time to look at my favorite things from 2012, a follow up to last year. It was an eventful year. We had a presidential election. The world failed to end. The economy did bad stuff. You know, the usual. World and political stuff isn't what this blog's about though. This was the year of Call Me Maybe and 50 Shades of Gray. More importantly to me, it was the year that The Avengers, The Hobbit, and The Dark Knight Rises all hit the silver screen. Creatively, I was on stage a few times, and even on camera. I've started a new novel (YA fantasy) and I'm working on a comic (superheroes). I'll post updates on both here in the future. Anyway on to the things I loved about 2012.

48 Frames Per Second - HFR revisited

TheOneRing.net directed me to this blog by Pulitzer-prize-winning still photographer Vincent Laforet. He saw The Hobbit three times. Once in HFR 3D, once in normal 3D, and once in 2D. His thoughts on the different projections types and the effect they have are fascinating and well worth the read. I had a chance to catch The Hobbit in 2D on Monday, and it is a better movie in that format. Many of my original complaints seemed less significant. The opening was easier to follow and the story was more immersive, even though it was the second time I'd seen the movie, while Azog's CGI was less noticeable. Official recommendation: See The Hobbit at 24fps. 2D or 3D is up to you. Afterwords, if you're still interested, check out the HFR, but don't see that version first. Regardless of what Peter Jackson and James Cameron think, this isn't going to be the future of cinema any time soon.

The Long Expected Hobbit

Martin Freeman is a perfect Bilbo Baggins

It has finally come. The long-awaited prequel to Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy has made it through years of development and hit theaters in a brand new 48 frames-per-second 3D format. The original films rank among my favorite of all time, and I grew up with an audiobook of The Hobbit, so this is a story and world I'm familiar with. I'm not alone in this, so the film is landing with tremendous expectations. Added to that, this time around Jackson and company have decided to split a short novel into three long films. After the jump, I'll take a look at how this has worked our.

Richard Armitage is Thorin Okanshield

First, I should take a minute to talk about the high frame rate (HFR). HFR is weird. It's as jarring as the introduction of 3D, and in a film like The Hobbit, it's hard to say either technology adds anything. I will say HFR compliments 3D. Action in 3D tends to be jerky, and HFR smooths that out. Unfortunately, it speeds everything else up, so action looks great and people look weird until you get used to it. Of the people I saw the film with, one didn't even notice the difference, and most of the others said they got used to HFR after 15 or so minutes. I took over an hour before I was completely adjusted. I get the feeling that after seeing a few HFR movies, it's not going to be an issue, but I don't think The Hobbit was the best place to introduce the format. The film itself has a few issues and doesn't need the complaints HFR is going to generate. I mean, here I want to write a review of the movie and get sidetracked by the frame rate.

Now, on to the actual movie. Below there be spoilers.

The second trailer for The Hobbit!

Here's the second trailer for The Hobbit: A Unexpected Journey and it shows off the Trolls and Wargs and Goblins and so much good stuff. Seriously, it looks like there's plenty here to fill a whole movie, making me a lot more comfortable with the whole three movie decision. Can't wait for December!

Hobbit gets an extra film

Following up what seemed an off-hand comment at this year's ComicCon, Peter Jackson has announced that The Hobbit will in fact become three movies, instead of the originally planned two. This means The Hobbit will get as much screen time as the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy. I've made so secret of my love for those films, so this is exciting news, but I'm not sure just how PJ and company are going to manage to stretch this out. TheOneRing.net has a few ideas and NewLine has begun to register domain names that hint at possible titles for the next film. Of course, we'll know a lot more in December when An Unexpected Journey finally hits theaters.

They made a LEGO Bag End!

Bag End is arguably the single most recognizable location from Middle Earth. Both The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit begin and end on its doorstep. And now from ComicCon, TheOneRing.net brings us an exclusive look at the Lego version. Click on the image for a fantastic hi-res look at Bilbo's Unexpected Party and the hold in the ground in which lives a Hobbit.

Week Links: Hobbit 3D and more

This week, you can learn all about the 3D filming process being used for The Hobbit. Plus, you can be a part of the The Dark Knight Rises, and as usual, there're some rumors about various upcoming productions. Also, I saw In Time, Tower Heist and Puss in Boots. Dang, it's movie season again.

Catwoman, Dwarves and Superman

Here are three images from upcoming films that I believe warrant a closer look. First--and possibly the most exciting--is this hi-resolution look at Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle in The Dark Knight Rises. I like the practical look of Hathaway's costume. Unlike some versions of Catwoman, it doesn't look ridiculous. I'm also glad to see the return of the Batpod, and I wonder if Bruce Wayne will be sharing the technology or whether Catwoman will be "borrowing" it from Wayne Enterprises.

It's the new Bilbo Baggins

This morning, EW released the first official photos from the set of The Hobbit showing off the first look at Martin Freeman as Bilbo and the familiar Ian McKellen as Gandalf. (Entertainment Weekly via /Film and TheOneRing.net)

Also, Peter Jackson announced over Facebook that Luke Evans (Clash of the Titans, the upcoming Three Musketeers) will be playing Bard the Bowman, while Benedict Cumberbatch will voice Smaug the Dragon and Evangeline Lilly from Lost will be playing a new elf named Tauriel.

Links of the week

A few pieces of news about The Hobbit leads this weeks batch of links, but there's also news for The Dark Knight Rises and some great dietary suggestions. Also, my strange addiction to Hunger Games casting reports has finally come to an end.

First video from The Hobbit

Peter Jackson has posted the first video blog from The Hobbit. There's nothing really new shown here, but we get a look at the replicated Bag End and Rivendell sets, and get a look at the actors out of makeup. My personal highlight was Jackson running through the names of the dwarves (Dori, Ori, Nori, Balin, Bifur, Bofur, Bombur). I can tell the script supervisor is going to be working overtime. Check out the video on Facebook.

A collection of updates

It's been a while since I posted any links, though it's not like anything particularly Earth-shattering has happened over the last week or so. There's some Warner Brothers news about the future of their comic franchises, news on Ron Howard's The Dark Tower, and a small item on The Hobbit. Oh, and there's more casting for The Hunger Games. It's all after the jump, so click on ahead.

A few updates

It's time for some updates to things I seem to be making a habit of posting about. Today, that would be The Hobbit, Hunger Games, Superman, and Wonder Woman. I'll start with this first set photo from The Hobbit of Peter Jackson in Bag End. It's great that it looks exactly the same as it did in The Lord of the Rings, since I'm guessing they had to rebuild completely rebuild it. Also, PJ looks more like a hobbit than ever. That makes me wonder what his cameos will be this time around.

Avengers and other superheroes

There's just so many cool little tidbits of information floating around. For example, who knew I'd ever consider news even remotely Justin Bieber-adjacent to be worth reporting? Or care about anything related to Kevin Costner?

Some Awesome Links

You know what's awesome? These very-important-to-me links from today.

New Trailer for X-Men: First Class

Some of the leaked images for the newest X-Men film looked pretty iffy, but this new trailer has bumped this movie into "looks good" territory for me. You can watch it on Facebook if you "Like" the page, or just go to io9 and watch it there. They've also done a great screen-by-screen breakdown if you're like me and want to make sure you don't miss any details. I'm particularly liking the period feel (though it's no Captain America) and the Magneto Picking Up a Submarine image. Looks like they've done a pretty good job on the casting, and Matthew Vaughn has shown that he has a good handle on superheros with Kick Ass, so First Class just climbed a few spaces on my list of anticipated films for this year.

Dwarves Will Be Doing Their Own Singing

And here's some news from one of my Most Anticipated Movies of All Time. The principle cast of The Hobbit (Bilbo and Dwarves) was presented at a press conference today. The confirmed that they will indeed have 13 separate dwarf characters, which should make toy collectors everywhere very happy. I'm not sure that even I will be able to tell them apart until I've seen the movies three or times, but then, I will see them that many times so that's not really an issue. TV3 News in New Zealand has a video of the press conference (complete with New Zealand advertising) and you can also check out the ever reliable TheOneRing.net for their coverage, which is where I get my all my information from anyway. I just want to know if the orcs and wargs will also be singing this time around. And will trolls discuss stocking colors?