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Posted: Fri Jul 20, 2007 12:54 am
by Menolly
:::cross posted in the JKR forum:::

Finally...

Hyperception and I just returned from the movie. All I can say is...

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Jenn, you are absolutely right. It is not the book, too much is left unexplained (I so miss not seeing Lockhart again, and the explanation about Neville's parents didn't justify Bellatrix without seeing the result of Neville's love for them in St. Mungo's), but as a movie it was fantastic. I even felt more about Sirius and the veil from the movie than from what I read in the book. I became more involved in his and Harry's relationship in this movie than I ever did in the books.

That said, my minor gripes about the movie are:
Spoiler
1. I spent the whole film trying to see past Harry bangs, looking for his scar. The only time I saw it was when Lucius mentions it, and then it was like it was blatant. Weird.

2. Physical age is definitely catching up with the kids, yet their emotional actions don't match their bodies. Ginny looks 15, the others even older, and she's supposed to be two years younger. I have seen older actors play younger ones convincingly. I blame make up for this more than anything else.

3. I don't understand why they changed the way Sirius's head appears in the flames. I loved the way it was done in GOF, with his facial features being made out of glowing coals.

4. I did not like how trivial the OWLs seemed to be. It made it appear it was a one day test, similar to SATs. Totally misleading, IMO.

5. I would have liked to have heard that Hagrid went to the giants with Madam Maxine. Build up a little back story outside of Harry.

6. The attack on McGonagal. How could that be left out?

7. Not introducing the new Divination teacher, I forgot his name, the centaur. I so wanted to see him again...sigh...

8. And finally...

If Kreacher is so important that Jo made them put him back into the movie after being cut, how could they not have had the locket with 'S' on it that was found in Grimmauld Place? Unless it doesn't mean what we all think it means?
I am so glad I have an excuse to go see it again in the theater when Beorn comes home. I am sure there are a ton of things I missed!!

::end of cross post:::

That said, I was really excited by a lot of the trailers I saw before the movie. Disney's Enchanted looks hysterical, I had not heard a thing about Across the Universe before seeing the trailer and now I am intensely curious to see what this is about, and what is The Spiderwick Chronicles? I never heard of it but it looks intriguing. This from someone who goes to the theater maybe three times a year at most...

Posted: Sun Jul 22, 2007 2:07 am
by dlbpharmd
We saw this today, and thought it was very good. The dark mood certainly matched the book well, and the battle at the end was spectacular.

Posted: Sun Jul 22, 2007 4:18 pm
by Dragonlily
Scrooge alert:
Spoiler
ORDER OF THE PHOENIX is my least favorite book because of the adolescent angst, and I hope "Order of the Phoenix" will be my least favorite movie.

1. If it had been any darker, I wouldn't have been able to see what was going on, in a lot of places. I'm worrying that it won't be visible at all on TV.

2. The editing in the first half was very choppy. I also felt the movie was too short. They could have made it smoother by giving it more time.

3. Too much time and attention spent on visual fireworks, not enough time on the relationships -- which, after all, are what the series is about.

I'm not at all pleased that this is is the director we will have for the rest of the series. I hope at least that he buys some scene lights.
To me, Luna Lovegood was a totally sweetie, the best thing in the movie. Second best, the thestrals. I missed the section where Luna arranged for the Quibbler to publish the true Harry interview. I'm not complaining about most of the things that were cut out, but to me that interview was important to building up Luna's character.

There were some good trailers in my theater, too. I'm going to keep an eye out for The Water Horse and The Golden Compass. I think I need to read THE GOLDEN COMPASS.

Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2007 4:20 am
by Wyldewode
Menolly wrote:. . .what is The Spiderwick Chronicles? I never heard of it but it looks intriguing. This from someone who goes to the theater maybe three times a year at most...
Well, funny you should ask! The Spiderwick Chronicles are a series of books written by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black. I posted about having dinner with Tony in the Brushes With Fame thread. You can read my post here.

www.spiderwick.com/

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Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2007 11:57 am
by Menolly
Thanks ~Lyr! Yet another series to add to the growing TBR read list...

Posted: Tue Jul 31, 2007 12:41 am
by Wyldewode
No problem! :D

Posted: Tue Jul 31, 2007 4:26 pm
by Cameraman Jenn
I went and saw it again last night. Still really enjoyed it.
Spoiler
I gathered a bit more respect for Bonnie Wright and the subtlety of her acting. She gives some fleeting expressions that are priceless. When Hermione says that part about Cho not being able to take her eyes off Harry, Bonnie Wright conveys jealousy, worry and a bit of taken aback affrontedness and peevishness by Hermione's forwardness.

The look on her face when she sees the oncoming magnitude of the havoc she just brought about with her reducto spell in the Hall of Prophecy is priceless.

Posted: Sat Aug 04, 2007 6:41 pm
by [Syl]
Thought it was alright. First 30 mins were good, last 30 were great. The rest kind of dragged. It should've focused on character development/relationships, but ended up with a few neat tricks but otherwise being hollow.

Posted: Sat Aug 04, 2007 7:53 pm
by stormrider
Sorry, but I really didn't like this movie. It's partly because I've never been able to cope with book-to-movie transitions very well. I always have huge problems with movie adaptations. The 5th book was just way too long, and predictably, I feel like it got butchered. I know there wasn't enough time, but they could have at least stretched it to 3 hours. That would have helped a little. Also, despite the amount of action they were trying to fit in, I somehow managed to feel bored throughout most of it.

Of course, in this instance, I guess I would be especially hard to please because this is my favorite book. In large part, it's the little things, all added up, which make it my favorite. There wasn't time to include most of those things, and the whole movie just seemed rushed and hollow to me -- a bunch of big, important things happening, with few (or no) details to explain crucial points or to fill out the plot. Really kind of... hated it.

Posted: Sat Aug 11, 2007 8:58 pm
by Dragonlily
Syl wrote:It should've focused on character evelopment/relationships, but ended up with a few neat tricks but otherwise being hollow.
I agree completely, Syl. The director is supposed to have come from doing TV thrillers -- wrong focus.