Movie Theater The Hobbit

[5RWill]

Re: The Hobbit

64 Cores hehe nice. AMD or intel? I would imagine intel considering Bulldozer was a massive failure on AMD's part or IMO anyhow.

 

[Dogtown]

Re: The Hobbit

Actually, the real beast is the clusters where we have racks of nodes that all simultaneously compute bounded areas of a single fluid simulation. It can process in 12 hours what would take my 8-core workstation 2 weeks. As for the 64-core single boxes, they're from HP - not sure about CPU brand though. They're the size of half a fridge and have a crazy proprietary backplane assembly that mounts 16 individual CPU sockets. Of course the only reason I know this is because someone in the IT dept told me - all of the servers, sim & render nodes are in a separate air conditioned building.

 

[Greg Langelius *]

Re: The Hobbit

Ahem, and in other news, my Wife and Granddaughter attended <span style="font-style: italic">The Hobbit</span> at yesterday's matinee. As a longtime fan of the story, I really enjoyed it.

Greg

 

[SledDog]

Re: The Hobbit

Dogtown mentioned the water and fire effects. We saw the movie yesterday and to be honest I didn't think twice about either one being the real deal. When the effects are so good you don't realize they aren't the real thing....

I thought the story was great, if changed. I'm giving it some room in that regard for the sake of the story in its entirety. The GF was frustrated at the end because she wanted more, which was the whole point I suppose. We'll be seeing the rest of the trilogy.

 

[VisionPro Shop]

Re: The Hobbit

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Sled Dog</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Dogtown mentioned the water and fire effects. We saw the movie yesterday and to be honest I didn't think twice about either one being the real deal. When the effects are so good you don't realize they aren't the real thing....
</div></div>

Couldn't agree more, the entire movie felt so real. Dogtown, I want to thank you for all the in-depth information!

 

[Peloton]

Re: The Hobbit

I really liked it. (of course I'm a huge nerd)

 

[Paladin4Christ]

Re: The Hobbit

I thought it was well made but....

Holy smokes was it long and SLOOOOOWWWWWWWW. The detail was fantastic and the special effects were pretty much flawless. The scene with the raptors was amazing and Smaug in the gold was incredible.

However, I do not know how they are planning on making this into 3 movies. I felt I got ripped off since the story only progressed just past Bilbo getting the ring. I'm not so naive that I don't realize making money is the main goal but I think this is going to the extreme.

 

[Captain Kirk]

Re: The Hobbit

I saw it in 3D, amazing

 

[Dogtown]

Re: The Hobbit

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Mister John Galt</div><div class="ubbcode-body">However, I do not know how they are planning on making this into 3 movies. I felt I got ripped off since the story only progressed just past Bilbo getting the ring. I'm not so naive that I don't realize making money is the main goal but I think this is going to the extreme.</div></div>

PJ is all about storytelling, Warner Bros & New Line are all about money - that's the Faustian bargain for filmmakers and their crews. If you know the book, you'll know that there is a LOT ahead in the next two films. We only see hints of Smaug in this first film, but the second film is all about him while there's The Battle of the Five Armies in the third film. This film was all about setting that up...and giving you an eyegasm.

 

[Paladin4Christ]

Re: The Hobbit

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Dogtown</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Mister John Galt</div><div class="ubbcode-body">However, I do not know how they are planning on making this into 3 movies. I felt I got ripped off since the story only progressed just past Bilbo getting the ring. I'm not so naive that I don't realize making money is the main goal but I think this is going to the extreme.</div></div>

PJ is all about storytelling, Warner Bros & New Line are all about money - that's the Faustian bargain for filmmakers and their crews. If you know the book, you'll know that there is a LOT ahead in the next two films. We only see hints of Smaug in this first film, but the second film is all about him while there's The Battle of the Five Armies in the third film. This film was all about setting that up...and giving you an eyegasm. </div></div>

Still I found it a let down and walked out of the theater feeling ripped off both in my wallet and my time. Almost 3 hours to "introduce" the story lines. I will wait to watch the others until they are out on disc.

 

[W54/XM-388]

Re: The Hobbit

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Dogtown</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: ZLBubba</div><div class="ubbcode-body">IThe back story on the dwarves of Erebor and the elves was excellent. </div></div>

That prologue sequence was a last minute addition to the film, pulling people off of other shows to help crunch through those shots before the deadline. The "sea of gold" with Smaug interacting was by far one of the most technically challenging aspects of it, with lots of custom rigid body simulation software being modified to handle the sheer number of pieces interacting at that scale. The smoke pouring out of Erebor was my task, and while not as difficult as the millions of gold pieces, I did have to run my sims on a pair of very expensive servers each with 64 cores and 256GB RAM. </div></div>

256GB ram.....

 

[5RWill]

Re: The Hobbit

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Dogtown</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Actually, the real beast is the clusters where we have racks of nodes that all simultaneously compute bounded areas of a single fluid simulation. It can process in 12 hours what would take my 8-core workstation 2 weeks. As for the 64-core single boxes, they're from HP - not sure about CPU brand though. They're the size of half a fridge and have a crazy proprietary backplane assembly that mounts 16 individual CPU sockets. Of course the only reason I know this is because someone in the IT dept told me - all of the servers, sim & render nodes are in a separate air conditioned building.</div></div>

I'm still running Yorkfield and Deneb as my two rigs lol only 4 measly cores that are around 30% slower than existing Nehalem based Architecture, even when overclocked to 3.6ghz

 

[GunKnowledge]

Re: The Hobbit

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: W54/XM-388</div><div class="ubbcode-body">

</div></div>

Seriously? 1 TB displayed with a BIOS font that looks like it's running DOS.

 

[W54/XM-388]

Re: The Hobbit

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: KSwift</div><div class="ubbcode-body">

Seriously? 1 TB displayed with a BIOS font that looks like it's running DOS.

</div></div>

Yes actually, a non EFI bios page is quite often restricted to more standard ASCII characters, especially if it is setup to be able to be able to be used with console redirection to serial port if needed.

If you want a picture of a windows GUI type screen, I can see if I can get one done on the next time I setup a unit like that. (The one pictured had 40 cores (Intel) + HT & was being tested with 1 TB memory, the system can go to 2TB if there is an unlimited budget).

 

[Tyler Kemp]

Re: The Hobbit

I saw the movie opening night. I enjoyed it a lot, but was getting sleepy at the end. I expect the series to get much darker, but if I could say anything negative I'd say this first one was too light-hearted for me. There were intense moments for sure, but the whole thing seemed a bit sarcastic a lot of the time.

Nonetheless, great movie!

 

[Dogtown]

Re: The Hobbit

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Tyler Kemp</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I expect the series to get much darker, but if I could say anything negative I'd say this first one was too light-hearted for me.</div></div>

Keep in mind the book was more of a children's book than any of the LOTR books. There's a lot more singing hymns and comedic moments than dark moments.

 

[vetski]

Re: The Hobbit

The final scene of Smaug in the treasure room was absolutely incredible. I cannot wait for the second installment--if the interaction between Bilbo and Smaug is a fraction as good as Bilbo/Gollum it will be worth the price of admission IMO.

 

[Dogtown]

Re: The Hobbit

That scene was literally the final shot finished minutes before the deadline. There are still problems with it that couldn't be solved in time (some coins pass through Smaug's skin) but it's still a technically amazing shot that I'm sure will be fixed in the extended version.

 

[ZLBubba]

Re: The Hobbit

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: mike1023</div><div class="ubbcode-body">The final scene of Smaug in the treasure room was absolutely incredible. I cannot wait for the second installment--if the interaction between Bilbo and Smaug is a fraction as good as Bilbo/Gollum it will be worth the price of admission IMO. </div></div>

That final shot of Smaug's eye was phenomenal. I'm hooked, I'll see all three on their opening weekends. Dogtown, thanks for giving us the skinny on these movies!

 

[Alric]

Re: The Hobbit

I enjoyed the movie more than I thought I would. I expected something much slower.

It was a visually amazing movie. I'm looking forward to trying HFR 3D.

 

[dperry19]

Re: The Hobbit

I don't think I enjoyed it as much as the first ofthe LOTR movies, at least not initially. I did think the songs that the dwarves sang were pretty cool though. The song they sang around bilbo's fireplace stuck around in my ear for a while. Was singing it on the way home to my wife's displeasure.

 

[5RWill]

Re: The Hobbit

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Duckysattva</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I don't think I enjoyed it as much as the first ofthe LOTR movies, at least not initially. I did think the songs that the dwarves sang were pretty cool though. The song they sang around bilbo's fireplace stuck around in my ear for a while. Was singing it on the way home to my wife's displeasure.</div></div>

Same here. Some people also said Howard Shore's score wasn't good but i think it was my favorite so far. I was a bit disappointed in some things though. I was expecting a bit more action than the regular LOTR. The CGI is throws off some things for me. I'm one of those that really really enjoyed the costume design of the fellowship. I wanted to see more Dwarve battles. I also didn't get the necromancer and wasn't fond of the brown wizard. The good though is great cinematography, brilliant costume design (dwarves), acting, etc. It was immersive. Thorin, Dwalin, and Balin were my favorites. For what fights they had they were good. Really love the dwarves and it makes me hate that you don't see them in LOTR trilogy.

Misty mountains cold is so awesome as well as the dwarf theme.

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[Big Bo]

Re: The Hobbit

Slow. Long, ok movie. Wait for the dvd.

 

[NaHa]

Re: The Hobbit

I give it a C-. Whatever TLOR movies had, this one doesn't. The action sequences were cartoonish, the jabba the hut guy was lame (and derivative), the tongue-in-cheek remarks were reminiscent of crummy (i.e. most) Bond movies before the current crop, and the theater we saw it in didn't have the heat on, so the six (that's right, 6) of us TOTAL watching were freezing.

 

[SuckitTrebek]

Re: The Hobbit

A solid C. nowhere near as good as the previous 3 movies.

 

[kingjr]

Re: The Hobbit

Saw it last night, kids loved it, I thought it was alright...

 

[KevinTM]

Re: The Hobbit

Saw it in "regular" 3D and it was OK. To me, the film tries to do the same two things at once that the book did but it is less successful.

The book was briefly controversial in the 70's when Tolkien revealed that the dwarves were based in part on the Jewish culture he observed around him. The book can be interpreted as both a childrens story and an alegory of the Jewish desire to return to Jerusalem (the book was written before the founding of Israel). One example is the use of the name, "Moria" (a hill in Jerusalem), as the name of a lost dwarven hold. Some of the depiction of the dwarves was not popular with parts of the Jewish community, and the depiction of the creatures opposing the dwarves as goblins was even less popular with the Arab community.

 

[Papa Zero Three]

Re: The Hobbit

There is some very good graphics in the movie, it is very immersive. However,I was a bit disappointed with the CGI'd goblins and Orcs. The Orcs from the LOTR set the standard IMO.

Story did drag a bit in places and the whole goblin battle was too long and overdone IMO. They could have gotten more story line in place of a protracted goblin fight and not ended the movie on such a empty ending that can't even be called a cliff hanger as it just ends on what you know is an unfinished story.

 

[5RWill]

Re: The Hobbit

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Papa Zero Three</div><div class="ubbcode-body">There is some very good graphics in the movie, it is very immersive. However,I was a bit disappointed with the CGI'd goblins and Orcs. The Orcs from the LOTR set the standard IMO.</div></div>

Same here i rewatched LOTR and love the orcs and costume. CGI is how everything is done now a days.

 

[Wolfrandal]

Re: The Hobbit

I would have to say I enjoyed the film and am glad I watched it at the theatre. I didn't like it as much as LOTR trilogy, but was happy to see they decided to do the prequel and so was looking forward to it.

 

[NaHa]

Re: The Hobbit

Does it occur to any other viewers that the eagles, rather than dropping them off with their mountain destination visible way off in the distance, could have just carried the group all the way there?

Ditto LOTR. Why not just have Frodo and the other guy get on the back of an eagle, fly to that mountain/volcano, and drop the ring in? Ta-da. The End.

 

[5RWill]

Re: The Hobbit

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: NaHa</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Does it occur to any other viewers that the eagles, rather than dropping them off with their mountain destination visible way off in the distance, could have just carried the group all the way there?

Ditto LOTR. Why not just have Frodo and the other guy get on the back of an eagle, fly to that mountain/volcano, and drop the ring in? Ta-da. The End.</div></div>

Because then the movies might be in jeopardy of not breaking the 3hr mark lol

 

[Papa Zero Three]

Re: The Hobbit

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: NaHa</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Does it occur to any other viewers that the eagles, rather than dropping them off with their mountain destination visible way off in the distance, could have just carried the group all the way there?

Ditto LOTR. Why not just have Frodo and the other guy get on the back of an eagle, fly to that mountain/volcano, and drop the ring in? Ta-da. The End. </div></div>


I thought the same thing when I saw how far off the mountain was. In looking back on the movie, I think the story was pretty weak and relied on the graphics and gratuitous action scenes to carry it through. I hope the other 2 are better.

 

[Outdoorsman9]

Re: The Hobbit

Movie dragged on too long. Good graphics and everything but the story had me looking at my watch 3/4th of the way through. Wait for the DVD and save the movie theater costs.

 

[tylerw02]

Re: The Hobbit

The wife and I went to see the Hobbit last weekend. I read the books as a 12 year old, and from memory, it seemed to follow along the story very well. I did think the graphics were a little much, almost like a video game, but that comes with the territory. I especially liked the scenes with the dwarfs tossing things around and singing.

The wife never read any of it and watched one of the LOTR movies. She enjoyed it. But toward the end of the movie, we both were getting sleepy from sitting so long. It should have been a bit shorter, but overall, we both enjoyed it.

 

[Dogtown]

Re: The Hobbit

It looks like the Publicity Dept finally got some video clips out there showing some of the details about how the VFX work was done:

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[Dogtown]

And one more, voiced over by the awesome Matt Aitken...

 

[Dogtown]

We're starting to wade hip deep into the second film, so along those lines here's a cool clip of a seriously talented crew making a real deal replica axe from LOTR....

 

[218bee]

frickin cool!!!

 

[Finris]

I want one..

 

[kis2]

I thought the Hobbit was really good, but was anyone else a little ticked off that the soundtrack was basically the same as Lord of the Rings? I really would've liked to have heard new music unique to this story.

Besides the fact that an orc gets the same entrance music as Sauron, I really liked the movie. Looked great.