4. Effects
The Lord of the Rings wowed audiences with the computer generated armies and giant beasts that graced the scene and once again Jackson's team deliver. The map paintings are exquisite, combining the natural landscape with the designs of Alan Lee and John Howe and the imaginative designs of the monsters (though not as realistic as the Lord of the Rings bunch, sadly) are brought to life effectively. This film in particular shines with the use of motion capture to portray the majority of the baddies. If there is one thing to be said for the higher definition of the film its that Gollum looks real. Whilst ironically making the human characters a little less realistic it lessens the gap between the mo-cap characters and the real ones bringing each into the same reality on the screen. The stand out effect though has to be the seamless way that Jackson put fifteen grown men into a hobbit hole and makes one look twice as tall. With all due respect to Fellowship, those with a trained eye can see the tricks being pulled to make Gandalf look tall, a clever camera angle here, a subtle use of green-screen there but in this film it is flawless. In particular the single shot that shows Gandalf counting the dwarves before dinner time Dori the Dwarf passes him a glass of red wine which shrinks to a thimble in his hand and not a person or prop looks out of place there.