Jesse: I thought they were consistent in The Hobbit, but I kept noticing inconsistencies in The Lord of the Rings movies. It's something that I didn't pay much attention to the first time I saw it, but the 48 fps kind of draws your attention to it: how much smaller Bilbo is than the dwarves, and then how much smaller they all are than Gandalf and the elves.

Will: I always thought that "Middle Earth" was talking about time, not place, which is why characters in that time period wouldn't use that term. If it's talking about the place in between the west-lands and whatever else, it makes sense.

Matt: I do think we're on the same page about the 48 fps, and in case it didn't come across, while I can see the flaws, I believe that sense of "presence" more than makes up for it. Somehow I was even more aware that what I was watching wasn't real, but it felt like it was all happening live.

I noticed a while ago that when I'm watching Saturday Night Live, even if I'm alone, and a joke doesn't work, I'll still give a "courtesy laugh" out loud. Even though I'm watching it on television (on tape delay, no less), I feel like I'm in the audience and need to engage with it. Most of The Hobbit was similar.

I'm still not quite sold on the idea of a non-effects-driven film in 48 fps, partly because the standout scenes for me were the riddle contest and just afterwards, when Bilbo's wearing the Ring. I can remember seeing The Fellowship of the Ring and thinking how cool the "Ring world" was, especially during the attack from the Nazgul; seeing it again with that kind of clarity just made it even cooler. When the effect doesn't work, it's lousy — the entire scene with the Orcs chasing Radagast's sleigh just didn't work at all — but when it does, like with Gollum and to a lesser degree the Trolls, it's exactly what I go to a fantasy movie to see.

I think horror movies depend on that feeling of distance to keep them from being absolutely ghoulish; you have to be reminded constantly on some level that it's happening to someone else or it's just unpleasant. (It's why I don't have any interest in Saw and the like). Maybe something like Cloverfield would've benefitted, though. Have you seen [Rec] or the American remake? They emulate video in a lot of scenes.