10 Movies That Ruined Awesome Cinematic Tricks

One of the most potential-rich cinematic innovations of recent years is high-frame rate (HFR) production, whereby a film is shot and presented at a frame-rate far higher than the usual 24fps.

In theory, HFR provides the audience with a greater sense of immersion by allowing them to notice visual details which simply aren't apparent at 24fps, and yet despite its relative infancy in Hollywood, those few over-eager filmmakers to dip their toe might've poisoned the well already.

First there was Peter Jackson, whose Hobbit trilogy was screened in 48fps around the world - sensibly, alongside a 24fps version - and yet, the response from audiences was wildly divisive.

Many felt that the higher frame-rate made the sets and VFX appear more artificial, even as others argued that it was simply a case of our brains being so used to 24fps that we couldn't conceive of a higher frame-rate as cinematic.

Yet the debate was perhaps put to bed by the release of Ang Lee's 2019 Will Smith-starring actioner Gemini Man, which was screened in 120fps as its major selling point.

Beyond mixed reviews for the film as a whole, many criticised the HFR execution as "ugly" and "cheap," making the film look less like a movie than, well, a mediocre video game cutscene.

Gemini Man bombing at the box office basically helped kill mainstream interest in the HFR format, and though James Cameron is currently planning to release all four Avatar sequels in some form of HFR, a) it'll almost certainly be 60fps and b) it will be an industry outlier.

Any potential HFR had to become a more mainstream format has basically been killed off by its lackluster showings so far, and outside of a major event like Avatar, you shouldn't expect to see anything - say, the MCU - in HFR.