Warner Bros. and Peter Jackson have responded to claims that The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is causing motion sickness and nausea for moviegoers after the film premiered in New Zealand.
According to The Huffington Post, two anonymous sources told The New Zealand Herald about the alleged motion sickness and nausea.
Add to that Collider critic Dave Trumbore, who wrote a review saying, "Definite 'motion sickness' potential during scenes of chaotic action or fast-movement; the increased clarity often feels as if you’re standing on set with the actors/characters, so when they take a crazy tumble down a rabbit hole, for example, you feel just as disoriented."
The possible reason behind these claims is Jackson's decision to use 48 frames per second, making The Hobbit the first studio film to do so instead of the usual 24 frames per second, which has been used for films since 1927.
Jackson spoke with journalists at a press conference in New York on Wednesday and discussed the reactions of those who saw the film.
"I'm fascinated by reactions. I'm tending to see that anyone under the age of 20 or so doesn't really care and thinks it looks cool, not that they understand it but they often just say that 3D looks really cool," the director said, as quoted by ComingSoon.net.
"I think 3D at 24 frames is interesting, but it's the 48 that actually allows 3D to almost achieve the potential that it can achieve because it's less eye strain and you have a sharper picture which creates more of the 3-dimensional world," he continued.
Warner Bros. released their statement on Wednesday in response to the film's higher frame rate controversy.
"We have been screening the full-length HFR 3D presentation of THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY extensively and feedback has been extremely positive, with none of thousands who have seen the film projected in this format expressing any of the issues described by two anonymous sources in media reports," their statement began, according to Yahoo Movies.
"We share the filmmakers' belief that by offering filmgoers the additional choice of HFR 3D, alongside traditional viewing formats, they have an opportunity to be part of a groundbreaking advancement in the movie going experience and we look forward to having audiences everywhere share in this new way of storytelling," Warner Bros. concluded.
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey opens everywhere on December 14 and fans worried about these nauseous claims have a choice of how they will watch the film since it will be shown in 2D, 3D and IMAX 3D.