CinemaCon '12: The Hobbit @ 48 FPS

Ten minutes from Peter Jackson's The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey/The Hobbit: There and Back Again  screened to an industry crowd during CinemaCon (formerly called ShoWest) in Vegas today and the reaction was pretty divisive and very mixed.

The problem WAS NOT with the content shown-The footage contained various scenes with, the dwarves, Gandalf (Ian McKellen) and Legolas (Orlando Bloom). The biggest sequence was one between Bilbo (Martin Freeman) and Gollum, and those who've talked about the footage reacted very well to it.

Less well received though, was the presentation--using the new 48 frames-per-second technology that Jackson is using on the films. This marked the first time footage from the film was screened in the format for a large audience outside those involved in the production.

The online outlets took quickly to penning reaction. The most common praise was that the higher frame rate does make everything more crystal clear and does eliminate the eye strain and strobing problems with current 3-D.

Unfortunately that much more life like appearance was also a little too perfect in that it makes the fakeness of the sets, costumes, make-up etc. much more obvious and gives the film a look similar to video or 'Smooth Motion' effect common to LCDs from some TV department stores.

Here are some of those mixed reactions:

Devin Faraci, Bad Ass Digest, Steve Weintraub of  Collider, a projectionist to The L.A. Times, Monty Cristo, for AICN, Hollywood Elsewhere editor Jeffrey Wells, First Showing editor Alex Billington.

The prequel sees Bilbo travel on his journey with dwarves Thorin Oakshield (Richard Armitage) Bofur (Stephen Hunter), Bombur (James Nesbitt), and Bifur (William Kircher). Oin and Gloin (John Callen and Peter Hambleton) Jed Brophy as Nori, Adam Brown as Ori Mark Hadlow as Dori Balin (Ken Stott) and Dwalin (Graham McTavish)

Stephen Fry, Ryan Gage Benedict Cumberbatch Luke Evans Conan Stevens Cate Blanchett, Hugo Weaving Dean O'Gorman, Elijah Wood, Ian Holm, David Tennant, Barry Humphries., Lee Pace Bret McKenzie, former "Lost" actress Evangeline Lilly Billy Connolly and Christopher Lee also star in the Hobbit 2-fer...Production takes place through July.

Journey will bow on December 14th 2012 while Again reaches cinemas on December 13th 2013