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kaydeefalls
Well, it was a cute, amusing movie. That said...
This movie should have been better. I walked into the theater expecting to have a damn good time. I walked out feeling disappointed.
First off, this wasn't a movie. This was an illustration of the book. It should have been titled "Harry Potter's Greatest Hits." Chris Columbus knows that everyone in the audience will have read the books, and that nine-year-olds will probably kill him in his sleep if he diverges from the story at all. So he essentially took all the coolest bits of the book and crammed them together, with an eye for the minutiae. Nice try, Chris. The result is this rushed barrage of scenes, with little holding them together. This isn't a story, this is a slideshow. He doesn't bother with flow or continuity, because he knows that any missing chunks will either 1) be filled in by the HP fanatics and/or 2) be explained in agonizing detail by some character later on, in many trite speeches and flat lines. My biggest problems:
-Ginny Weasley doesn't do SHIT. She runs away from Harry once in the beginning. She looks wide-eyed at Lucius Malfoy as he slips the diary into her bag. She smiles a few times, or looks vaguely concerned. I don't think the girl has a single line of dialogue before her rescue at the end. But the point is, she's a complete nobody. When she's taken into the CoS, my first reaction was "Who cares?" I mean, she doesn't even gaze at Harry, or follow him around. And I don't remember seeing her write in the diary once. Why should we give a flying fuck about this random nonentity? And when she turns out to be Riddle's tool, no one is shocked because no one even knows who she is.
-Following the thread of and-why-should-we-care, Collin also does nothing. He's adorable. He takes Harry's picture maybe three times. Isn't this kid supposed to idolize Harry? Follow him everywhere? Piss the hell out of him? Nope. Nothing. He only exists to be petrified.
-The ending is utter shit. Look how many heartwarming platitudes we can express in one sitting! Okay, admittedly the book is much of the same, but it felt even worse on the screen. Gosh, I feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Must be something I ate.
-No sense of the passage of time whatsoever. Jump from episode to episode, with less of the overall sense of magic the first movie portrayed. Okay, at one point we see the halls decked with holly and whatnot, but... Rushed. Badly rushed. Take the time, cut a few things out and expand on the ones left in. Columbus needs to take some serious lessons from Peter Jackson in How To Convert A Popular Book Into A Movie.
-Dan Radcliffe disappointed me. He's all right most of the way through, not outstanding but very watchable. But, okay, he's bitten by a fucking basilisk. He honestly thinks he's about to die. I don't care how noble the kid is supposed to be, no twelve-year-old is gonna be calm about his impending death. And when the phoenix saves his life -- a little genuine joy wouldn't go amiss, y'know? He just seems to take it for granted: "Or course! Phoenix tears have healing powers!" Well, isn't that swell.
-I'm not even gonna get into the sheer number of blatant plot devices. Were they in the book, too? Well, Rowling sure as hell did a better job of concealing them.
-Not the movie, exactly, but I was really pissed off that Richard Harris didn't get any kind of memorial in the credits.
It's not that this was a terrible movie. Like I said, it was amusing. But look, Chris, I've read the book. I know the book. Give me a reason to watch the movie instead of just rereading the book.
Okay, in all fairness, I should point out the things I genuinely liked:
-Lucius Malfoy is well cast in Jacob Isaacs. The man has presence. He takes his few moments and makes them stand out. So does Draco (Tom Felton), more in this movie than in the first. The kid isn't just obnoxious this time, he's really developing a personality. Also, he's grown up quite a bit... (And he's 15, so I feel less guilty about my lust issues.)
-While we're on the matter of lust...Sean Biggerstaff. Please, sir, I want some more!
-Kenneth Branaugh is PERFECT as Lockhart. I knew he would be, but it's always nice to be proven right. Even though his character just sort of vanished at the end...
-Rupert Grint and Emma Watson continue to shine. Love Ron's facial expressions. It's a pity Hermione didn't do as much this time around, and we only really got to see the caring-friend and hurt-Muggle sides of her personality. Oh, and by the way, wtf was that weird moment between Ron & Hermione at the end? Bah. Just didn't make sense. So Harry's allowed to hug girls, but Ron isn't? Whatever.
-A few of the scenes were spot-on. The car, anything with Moaning Myrtle, the pixies, the Tom Riddle flashback thingy, the dueling club. And Dobby was all right, too.
-Oh yeah, Moaning Myrtle rocks.
Again, not a bad movie. It just could have been so much better. As![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lush_rimbaud said, it's like the first draft of a fanfic. A good start, but it needs a beta and a few more revisions before it's ready for posting.
This movie should have been better. I walked into the theater expecting to have a damn good time. I walked out feeling disappointed.
First off, this wasn't a movie. This was an illustration of the book. It should have been titled "Harry Potter's Greatest Hits." Chris Columbus knows that everyone in the audience will have read the books, and that nine-year-olds will probably kill him in his sleep if he diverges from the story at all. So he essentially took all the coolest bits of the book and crammed them together, with an eye for the minutiae. Nice try, Chris. The result is this rushed barrage of scenes, with little holding them together. This isn't a story, this is a slideshow. He doesn't bother with flow or continuity, because he knows that any missing chunks will either 1) be filled in by the HP fanatics and/or 2) be explained in agonizing detail by some character later on, in many trite speeches and flat lines. My biggest problems:
-Ginny Weasley doesn't do SHIT. She runs away from Harry once in the beginning. She looks wide-eyed at Lucius Malfoy as he slips the diary into her bag. She smiles a few times, or looks vaguely concerned. I don't think the girl has a single line of dialogue before her rescue at the end. But the point is, she's a complete nobody. When she's taken into the CoS, my first reaction was "Who cares?" I mean, she doesn't even gaze at Harry, or follow him around. And I don't remember seeing her write in the diary once. Why should we give a flying fuck about this random nonentity? And when she turns out to be Riddle's tool, no one is shocked because no one even knows who she is.
-Following the thread of and-why-should-we-care, Collin also does nothing. He's adorable. He takes Harry's picture maybe three times. Isn't this kid supposed to idolize Harry? Follow him everywhere? Piss the hell out of him? Nope. Nothing. He only exists to be petrified.
-The ending is utter shit. Look how many heartwarming platitudes we can express in one sitting! Okay, admittedly the book is much of the same, but it felt even worse on the screen. Gosh, I feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Must be something I ate.
-No sense of the passage of time whatsoever. Jump from episode to episode, with less of the overall sense of magic the first movie portrayed. Okay, at one point we see the halls decked with holly and whatnot, but... Rushed. Badly rushed. Take the time, cut a few things out and expand on the ones left in. Columbus needs to take some serious lessons from Peter Jackson in How To Convert A Popular Book Into A Movie.
-Dan Radcliffe disappointed me. He's all right most of the way through, not outstanding but very watchable. But, okay, he's bitten by a fucking basilisk. He honestly thinks he's about to die. I don't care how noble the kid is supposed to be, no twelve-year-old is gonna be calm about his impending death. And when the phoenix saves his life -- a little genuine joy wouldn't go amiss, y'know? He just seems to take it for granted: "Or course! Phoenix tears have healing powers!" Well, isn't that swell.
-I'm not even gonna get into the sheer number of blatant plot devices. Were they in the book, too? Well, Rowling sure as hell did a better job of concealing them.
-Not the movie, exactly, but I was really pissed off that Richard Harris didn't get any kind of memorial in the credits.
It's not that this was a terrible movie. Like I said, it was amusing. But look, Chris, I've read the book. I know the book. Give me a reason to watch the movie instead of just rereading the book.
Okay, in all fairness, I should point out the things I genuinely liked:
-Lucius Malfoy is well cast in Jacob Isaacs. The man has presence. He takes his few moments and makes them stand out. So does Draco (Tom Felton), more in this movie than in the first. The kid isn't just obnoxious this time, he's really developing a personality. Also, he's grown up quite a bit... (And he's 15, so I feel less guilty about my lust issues.)
-While we're on the matter of lust...Sean Biggerstaff. Please, sir, I want some more!
-Kenneth Branaugh is PERFECT as Lockhart. I knew he would be, but it's always nice to be proven right. Even though his character just sort of vanished at the end...
-Rupert Grint and Emma Watson continue to shine. Love Ron's facial expressions. It's a pity Hermione didn't do as much this time around, and we only really got to see the caring-friend and hurt-Muggle sides of her personality. Oh, and by the way, wtf was that weird moment between Ron & Hermione at the end? Bah. Just didn't make sense. So Harry's allowed to hug girls, but Ron isn't? Whatever.
-A few of the scenes were spot-on. The car, anything with Moaning Myrtle, the pixies, the Tom Riddle flashback thingy, the dueling club. And Dobby was all right, too.
-Oh yeah, Moaning Myrtle rocks.
Again, not a bad movie. It just could have been so much better. As
lush_rimbaud said, it's like the first draft of a fanfic. A good start, but it needs a beta and a few more revisions before it's ready for posting.
