While The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey has been very sucessful at the box office, it has not been without its lumps as it seems most critics and not a small amount of the audience disliked the movie when they say it in 48 frames per second (aka High Frame Rate). I have yet to see the movie in the new format so don't have a personal experience to go back on. Having said that, this whole thing really reminds me of how critics treated HDTV when it first started.

It is also an almost verbatim retread of the anti-HDTV argument complete with discussion of a soap opera look, bad makeup, bad sets and more. And the critics were right. Until Hollywood masters in makeup, sets and more figured it out. I think that is the case here. Its new technology with a new way to display a movie that has never been done before at this kind of scale. That means refining and developing new techniques to go with the display format. Like learning anything new there will be stumbles but that doesn't mean it isn't worth doing. Time will tell if 48 frames becomes a new standard but I think its worth giving it a shot.

Any case that is my argument for patience. Over at Collider they have written a long essay on why they feel that 40FPS is the future of filmmaking. Worth reading if care about these kinds of details.

An Argument for 48 Frames Per Second. There are any An Argument for 48 Frames Per Second in here.