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I loff Harry Potter, I do.
There are spoilers in here, but, um, you've read the books, right? I can't understand these wacky people like my sister, who are all, "Don't spoil the movie," despite the fact that the only way they could remain unspoiled at this point would be to slam their heads against the wall until they develop amnesia. "You read 350 pages of book telling you what happened at the end, you dork." If you're not a wuss, here's my
Overall Opinion: By far the best of the three movies so far. I *heart* Cuaron.
So now that that's out of the way, things I wanted to improve:
And the things I loved:
So? Who agrees with me? Who has others to contribute? C'mon, step right up!
Overall Opinion: By far the best of the three movies so far. I *heart* Cuaron.
So now that that's out of the way, things I wanted to improve:
The significance of the dementors. Harry heard a scream, passed out, felt bad. Every time after that, it was just like, whooooo, they so scary. But their true scariness isn't in the fact that they make things go cold: it's that they drag out your worst memories and force you to relive it. And we heard that, clinically, but the reason it was so compelling in the book is because every time he remembered a little more of the single most important event in the Harry Potter series: the murders of the Potters, and the downfall of Voldemort. That was totally removed in the movie. "Whoo scary" replaced the screams, the bravery, the whole miracle of it. Likewise the Patronus -- it would've been easy to show us a two-second flash of the memory he was recalling, his first ride on the broomstick, God, how moving would it have been to see a flashback to Sirius awkwardly asking him if he wanted to live together, right before he summoned up that big ol' Patronus, as opposed to just, "hyah. I DO it. because!"?
Speaking of memories, almost everything regarding Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs was totally removed? No mention of them being Animagi together. No mention of the horror of Sirius and James' friendship and how it was theoretically abused; more was made out of his fictional murder of Peter than the fictional betrayal of his best friend. No mention of even the fact that they WERE Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs, or the significance of Harry's Patronus being a stag. They were just a bunch of people who knew each other. As a matter of fact, a LOT of stuff about James was removed. I guess I can see why, but... It's important. It's not just setting. That stuff is important.
Lupin's casting bothered me from the beginning. Lupin is scruffy, malnourished, and tired, old before his years. The man they casted to be him was tall, well-fed, and neat. But he acted well, so I got into it and didn't mind. Until the part where he found the Marauder's Map: he was almost yelling at Harry, and I seem to recall that in the actual book, Lupin was very even and controlled when he told Harry that he was disappointed in him for behaving so irresponsibly, which is why Lupin's lecture hurt a lot, and Snape's condescending "OBEY you little PUNK" just made him mad. Also, obviously, his connection to James-tachi is so thin... Plus, um, is it just me, or did he spontaneously develop an inexplicable crush on Lily?
He spoke more about Lily............. than about James and Sirius combined.
On a final note, this movie was very nearly Snape-less. They removed his hysterical bout with insanity at the end, too. XD "POTTER DID IT! YOU DID IT, DIDN'T YOU, POTTER! HE'S RESPONSIBLE!"
Later addendums: It is a fact that Sirius and Remus are under the age of 35 in Prisoner of Azkaban.
And the things I loved:
Sirius' casting. Gary Oldman is the MAN, although they seem to have told him that in order to be In Character, he must have his mouth open as wide as possible. He does semi-insane, semi-awkward down pretty impressive once he's encountered in person, and I absolutely love him. Also, I love the fact that he and Lupin are just about officially engaged, even though a lot of their interaction was minimized. Snape, in one of his eight lines, accused them of being a married couple, which I had totally been thinking for the last five minutes. Lupin would try to be reasonable and Sirius would insist on not being reasonable at the top of his lungs in the height of his semi-insanity manner, and Lupin would spin off to get out of his way exasperatedly, all, "Oh, fine, be that way."
Their bizarre wrestling as Lupin was changing, and Sirius' touching but somewhat strained rambling about feeling his heart his home etc? So. Gay. I spent the entire ending sequence (which was, of course, missing the incredibly beautiful touching discussion of Harry's patronus, whyyyy?) laughing at Lupin's "discreet" turn of phrase. "They wouldn't want... someone like me teaching their children." "People like me... Well, I'm used to [persecution]." People like you werewolves, or people like you gay gay gay gay gay people?
Speaking of the werewolf, wasn't it weird? Not even remotely accurate to the story, because in the actual book the werewolf is a, um, wolf. (Snape asked, "How do you tell a werewolf from the true wolf?" Hermione said there weren't many, and they were small.) The hybrid was very cool-looking, though, and I loved watching him move.
Speaking of cool-looking CGI, Buckbeak the Hippogriff was too damn cool for words. Wow, that thing was a masterpiece. The Dementors themselves were really creepy, too, from the frost effect to the fluttering intangibility to the hideous, hideous mouths you could just see under their hoods.
Later Addendums: A) The Awkwardly Romancing!Ron and Hermione. It sort of replaced the moments where Scabbers was supposed to be ruining their friendship; instead of being tense and ANGRY, they were tense and NERVOUS, and it was sodamncute. B) The Steadily Evolving!Harry. He didn't take any nonsense from the Dursleys in the beginning, and none from Draco later. He's done being uncomfortable with confrontations; he's being an adolescent now. He's tangibly darker, with his fury at Aunt Marge and his violent "I WANT TO KILL HIM" towards Sirius... and it's a beautiful segue to what he'll be like later, in the fifth book.
What else was cool? The Fat Lady had the best entrance ever... Neville was so adorable for the twenty seconds he was on-screen... The new Dumbledore is much, much better than the late Dumbledore, no disrespect intended. He sounds lively, fun-loving, more the kind to joke around and enjoy himself, although he was just as capable of pontificating with the best of them. His goofy robes...! *heart* And Harry's hair was messy, Pie-chan, it was great.
But most importantly, I loved the directing. The other two movies weren't even remotely... movie-like, to me. It was just "this happened and this happened, then this happened..." whereas this story had actual story-telling to it. Even though it's less accurate to the books than the other two, the discrepancies made it more like a coherent flow of its OWN. There were several elements that bothered me, of course; I'm nitpicky. But I didn't mind them so much in this movie as in the others, because I could get into the movie, as its own experience, and not as a sequel of a representation of the book. It even had symbolism, there was meaning in things, and the camerawork -- it was notably less cartoony, more gritty and faded and dark. HOGWARTS seemed more real, more solid, because you could see the physical toll of years on it.
Yes, changes were made. Very obvious, serious changes, changes that can't be fixed with "deleted scenes" on the DVD release, the way the complete absence of MWPP stuff can be. But I liked them. It shows that Cuaron wasn't just trying to copy the scenes from the book -- he wanted to make them his own without taking away what we loved about them. I think he did that, sort of. The part about Harry seeing Peter Pettigrew on the map... It was very interesting. (Although the loss of Snape's quiet, brilliant, "What was your head doing in Hogsmeade, Potter? Your head is not allowed in Hogsmeade. No part of your body has permission to be in Hogsmeade," was painful. XD )
But I enjoyed them. I enjoyed this movie, very much.
I hope Lupin shaves off his Nazi moustache for later, though.
So? Who agrees with me? Who has others to contribute? C'mon, step right up!
Down with the Nazi moustache!
I think people don't want to know how the movie was done, like, "Well, what did they do with this part?" and so forth - so maybe that's the spoilers people mean?
But I must say I agree with you. I loved Cuaron's use of the natural settings - he played with nature so much in the film and I adored that.
Something I really liked about Buckbeak was when he was all tied up and waiting execution, and you could *tell* he knew that something bad was going to happen, because he just looked so... worried. I was really impressed with his CGI - they outdid themselves. After the weirdness you had mentioned, I was bracing myself when Buckbeak was about to be seen, but then it was like, "Oh... cool! ^^"
You know what part I liked? I liked the part where Hagrid asked if his first day was going okay. And aaaaah I wanted to hug him. ::clings::
I loved the "You want to move closer?" part at the Shrieking Shack. Ron and Hermione had more focused awkward!teen moments, which I found cute. XD
I also, dorky as it was, enjoyed the part where the boys were eating those things that made them do animal noises. Because I thought about it and wondered, "Well, what do they do after they get to Hogwarts on the first day?" The answer: Act like silly teenage boys. The kids just felt like kids, which I liked. I may have already mentioned this, but since Cuaron did A Little Princess, I think we can see that he's had a history of working with kids, and he knows how. I remember seeing a little clip from the production, where he's telling Hermione to be more loose, and it's just so right, because when she's loose and relaxed, she'll be more like a kid, more like Hermione and less like a girl acting like a kid.
Sirius and Lupin are so gay. SO VERY GAY.
I thought Snape, in what we could see, was a lot meaner than he had been in the first two films, which I liked. I also loved Professor Trelawney - Emma Thompson did a marvelous job with her. She was so WEIRD. XD
I agree with you about Neville. <3 The darling.
Did you notice... Flitwick (I think?) also had a Hitler!look to him? HARRY POTTER IS BEING INVADED BY NAZIS MAKE IT STOP!
I looooved the new Dumbledore. I mean, Richard Harris was great, again, no disrespect, but the new guy was just so... fun. Like you said, he joked more and seemed more likely to have his fun little speeches that make him so Dumbledore, but he also took charge of situations without taking any guff, which I liked.
The Fat Lady was awesome. XD I also liked Aunt Marge, in what little she was in. And Stan had pimples!! I spazzed on... account of his acne. XD XD Little details like that made it enjoyable, but then Cuaron would have fun with it, like including the talking shrunken heads, and, like you said, make it his movie without sacrificing too much of the book (MWPP aside... ^^;;;).
I did like Gary Oldman's near insanity. It was well-played. (Just different from the tone of the book in that scene, I think.) But it would be interesting to reread the book and think of that tone while reading it.
::shallow:: My friend Teri and I found an arguement against the old, though! If you think about it, Lily and James got married soon after they graduated Hogwarts, right? So they could have had Harry when they were around 19 or 20 (as you're... seventeen when you graduate, I believe). That would make Lupin, Sirius, Snape, all those guys, in their early thirties by the time the third book comes. SO HA. We can have Japanese fanart be canon and have our pretty. ::/shallow::
All in all, I thought it was a lovely movie. ^^
....
THE GAY IT CONSUMES YOU!!!!!!1111one
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Or shall I say, get it gay.
Daniel's improved so much and I want to pet him on his little acting head. <3
OH!!!! The part! When Hermione was looking at the bite on Ron's leg (er, which is supposed to be broken, but oh well), OMG. "They're probably going to have to chop it." Aaaaaaaaaah, he was such an adorable little, "Oh, yeah, it'll hurt a ton. But you know, I'm strong. I can take it. ::macho::" Eeeeeeeee~ I *loved* that part.
Did you notice that Goyle was replaced by thin!lackey? I was confused. XD Draco lorded his height over Harry in the Buckbeak scene. I loved his whimpering when he got his arm hit. ^^
They downplayed the fight between Ron and Hermione. That was supposed to be KILLING their friendship. Of course... I don't mind the squishy teenage awkward scenes. :3
Married couple~~~ See, Cuaron and the writers know where it's at. <3 <3 They understand the gaygay love.
And it was SO pitiful when Harry had the whole, "I don't even know if it's a real memory... but it's the best I have," stuff. Even though I don't think that was in the book. ^^; Oh, well. It was still heartbreaking.
I liked Fudge. I don't know if it's the same guy as in the second film, but I liked him. ^^
Did you notice how everyone kept finishing each others' sentences? They did that a lot.
You know what I think this movie benefits from? Not having Dobby. Ahaha, he scared me so badly.
I really liked the Knight Bus. Especially the way Stan was just lounging and Harry was flying around - because Stan's so used to it. ^^
The music was also DIFFERENT. This is coming from the girl who owns both the first two CDs, but yeah. XD It was different. ^^
Ahaha. So much gay. I think there might have been a Harry/Ron or Harry/Draco implication, but since I'm not a fan of those couples, I wasn't really paying attention. ^^;;
But yes, the next time I see you online, we're fangirling. <3
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[/end fangirling of the Kenyan feline]
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Only in Kenyaaaaaaaaa~
Reiteration of Potterness
Our little actors are growing up. <3 I love Cuaron for how much he's helping them. Daniel too is significantly better in this movie than in the first one -- compare the performances. I spent the ENTIRE first movie thinking that he was on the verge of breaking into a grin, like the whole time he was thinking to himself, "Hey, I'M HARRY POTTER, COOOOOL." In this movie, I think it's the first time he really replaced that with something else, with Harry's future Angst.
I thought Snape, in what we could see, was a lot meaner than he had been in the first two films, which I liked.
My sister tried to tell me she was disappointed in the movie because it didn't give him a "reason" to hate Harry, but I'm thinking, first of all, if you like Snape, you should like him BECAUSE he's a snarky hateful bastard, not IN SPITE of it, he shouldn't need reasons like "Your father was mean to me and I hate you." That's actually rather childish and not justification at all.
But at the end of the movie, when he stepped in front of the kids he'd been berating and took the werewolf's claws to protect them... Mean, but still given his moment of selflessness. I remember being so impressed with him when I saw that, even in the middle of the chaos. ^_^ They didn't make a big deal of it, but it was damn cool.
I looooved the new Dumbledore. I mean, Richard Harris was great, again, no disrespect, but the new guy was just so... fun.
Still feel bad bashing the dead guy, but it's not his fault, it's Columbus' fault. <3 Don't hire a dying man to play a lively character. Yay, not us being mean!
Did you notice that Goyle was replaced by thin!lackey?
I did indeed. I think it's mostly because of the... thing. I remember one of the lackeys was supposed to be broad and menacing, and the other one tall and menacing... but he didn't look quite thuggish enough. ^^ Still, Malfoy screaming like a girl? <3
No Harry/Ron, for which I am glad. No Harry/Draco, unless you count the supreme gayness of the enchanted origami crane hate-mail. I've already heard people reviving Sirius/Harry from the dead, where it should be, and it makes baby Jesus cry.
If only they could cut Dobby from the fourth movie. :D God he's so creepy. The director for Goblet of Fire is the same guy who did Mona Lisa Smile, Traffic, High Fidelity... Some other stuff. I don't know his name. But oh well. ^_^
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I also agree that Lupin reminds me of Mein Kempf.
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This comes horribly late...
I noticed that the second time I watched Harry Potter. I was like, "...Wow, Snape!" Only you put it in better words than I can. ^^; You give life to the mushy incoherency that floats around in my brain, talking about my opinion on Snape. Because, yes, I felt bad for him when he was being picked on in the fifth book, and there might be something with an abusive family in there, but that doesn't change the fact that he is a supremely awful jerk. He protects the children, but it doesn't change the fact that you know he would snap at them the next minute and threaten to take away all of Gryffindor's points for as long as Hogwarts is in existence (and probably did). Snape, you three-dimensional character, you.