I watched the second Hobbit movie in 48fps and it was a horrible experience. Everything looked fake, which is how I imagine it actually looked in real life. Props seemed made of plastic, makeup looked like makeup, etc.

Also, when there was a cut to a new scene, for a few seconds my brain thought the movie was playing faster. Like those old black and white movies of the early 20th century.

That weird speed effect is because they kept the shutter open longer on each frame, so there's more motion blur.

Oh thanks now I understand some specific sensations of uneven speed in movies. I thought it might be linked to the player (not), the codec (not)...

Second that; Hobbit in particular seemed like a mid-budget British made-for-TV show. I get that it's all psychological, that I'm used to deliberate Hollywood motion-blur look... but I still couldn't bear it.

But clearly we learned something or there was something special about Hobbit, because that hasn't necessarily been my experience with all 4k / high-frame shows or movies...

I think to a large extent people overestimated how much this feeling, specifically in the Hobbit films, came from the high frame rate vs. how much came from other artistic, creative, and budget choices they made.

I saw them in both normal frame rate and HFR as they were coming out and it looked kinda low-budget, weirdly lit/color corrected, and generally just clunkier than the LotR films did in the moment.

It didn't help that the movies were way more CGI-heavy and cartoony compared to the LotR movies.

Well said. I don't think you need to refer to HFR to explain why The Hobbit films look "fake". It's hard to imagine this clip (at 24 fps) looking any worse in HFR: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCswVszTEx0

The same effect can be great for sports, animal videos, and documentaries.

I would describe the effect of HFR as pushing immersion past suspension of disbelief into reality. You can no longer see them as characters, you see them as you would as if it wasn't through a screen - as you said, like watching actors on a stage.

Fortunately(?), humans may get used to HFR as we have with previous advancements in video technology. Remember when people were freaking out about 4K, 3D, HD, Color, "The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat Station"?

Is 3D still a thing? It really wasn’t for me.