The Dark Knight Rises + The Hobbit Revealed at CinemaCon
Yesterday, April 24th 2012, 10 minute reels of both The Dark Knight Rises and The Hobbit were shown at CinemaCon in Las Vegas, albeit to a closed audience of press members. Warner Bros. screened much more footage than what’s been shown in trailers, making this the first proper opportunity to see how both films are shaping up. It should be noted that I didn’t actually attend CinemaCon. These are just my impressions based on an IGN article detailing the footage shown.
First thing’s first: how does The Dark Knight Rises look? Awesome.
An extended montage was shown, spotlighting many of the series’ new players including Bane (Tom Hardy), Selina Kyle / Catwoman (Anne Hathaway), and John Blake (Joseph Gordon-Levitt). Some intense action sequences were also shown, including the stadium scene from the first full-length trailer.
Following the controversy regarding Bane’s voice in the film’s first full-length trailer (I personally was unable to understand him), the hulking villain’s voice is completely intelligible now, which is a huge win for those of us who couldn’t understand him in the first place.
Hans Zimmer’s score, which I’m incredibly excited for, is, as IGN’s Jim Dejvoda describes it, “atmospheric”, and “slowly built in tension and eeriness the way Joker’s theme did in the Dark Knight”. YES.
There’s a bolder sense of scale, as the entirety of Gotham is at stake as Bane fights against the wealthy, powerful, and corrupt in a supposedly righteous cause with questionable execution. Tom Hardy’s villain is as much of a force to be reckoned with as the Joker was in the Dark Knight, which should lead to some exciting physical and verbal exchanges between Bane and Batman.
Anne Hathaway is given a great deal of screen time, both as Catwoman and Selina Kyle. Based on what was shown, it sounds like TDKR will focus heavily on economic and political themes of greed and corruption, which is relevant given the current climate. It sounds like both Bane and Catwoman will play a significant role in the development of this theme.
Here’s the IGN article discussing The Dark Knight Rises footage.
Again, I wasn’t fortunate enough to give true first-hand impressions on the footage shown, but given the reactions of those who were lucky enough, the footage shown was, as Dejvoda explains, “stunning… Atmospheric, unsettling, nerdgasm-inducing and epic”. The closer we get to its July 20th release, the more The Dark Knight Rises looks like it’ll live up to overwhelming hype as Christopher Nolan’s true swan song to the best superhero film trilogy of all time.
The Hobbit, on the other hand, is a different story.
A similar 10 minute reel to that of TDKR was shown for the Hobbit and out of that footage, there’s only one universal complaint regarding the footage shown, but it’s a big one.
The Hobbit is the first film in history to be shot on 48 FPS (frames per second), which is double the industry standard. Peter Jackson, the film’s director, explained that the film would benefit from a higher level of clarity, realism, and immersion. However, attendees seem to unfavorably agree with these sentiments.
Vejvoda says the film’s 48 FPS “looks like live television or hi-def video”, going so far as to compare the footage to “an old Doctor Who episode, or a videotaped BBC TV production”. Vejvoda then elaborates further,
“While 48fps may create a more realistic, ‘you are there’ picture quality, it actually works against The Hobbit from the 10 minutes of footage we saw. This undeniable ‘reality’ kept pulling me out of the movie rather than immersing me fully into its world as the Lord of the Rings films did; the very fantasy element, the artifice of it all (whether it’s the wigs, fake beards or CG monsters) was plainly, at times painfully, evident.”
Regardless of how engaging the story is or how superb the dialogue is written, I can only imagine I will be continually pulled out of the experience due to the uncanny amount of realism. This is a significant problem that WILL harm other areas of the film.
The “uncanny valley” is a problem filmmakers and game developers continually wrestle with. How do you balance visual realism with the inherent escapism of these mediums to communicate a story? When this line is crossed, visuals can be “uncannily” creepy and/or too realistic for our eyes, meaning that, in the case of the Hobbit, audience members are in fact drawn out of the experience.
Here’s the IGN article discussing the Hobbit footage.
I hope this isn’t a problem in the final cut, and I’m reserving judgement until I see the film in its entirety this winter. But I will admit, I’m a bit concerned about the film, and can only hope Jackson can bring the same magic to the Hobbit as he did to the original LOTR trilogy.
What do you think? Are you excited? Even more so? Leave a comment below!
– KZ
Kenneth Zink | Composer 