Guest | Login | Register

Reading Movies

Ok, so the movies of HP1 and HP2 both sucked, royally. i didn't watch the third movie, but i was optimistic about Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. I thought that surely over 4 years, they would have learnt how to write a script, and act. apparently not. The movie was awful, granted not as bad as HP1 and HP2, but not worth the $8 i spent on seeing on.

they hacked away at the story until it was just a montage of events with no character motivations at all. With Rowling, a acript should be so easy to write. She's a genius with incorporating lots of dialogue to explain character thoughts, traits and motivations. but, what do the fine people in hollywood do... they cut down on dialogue as much as possible so harry can be chased by a flying dragon for 10 minutes - a scene which does not occur in the book.

they make up some crap about ron knowing about the dragons in task one for no apparent reason, they do a half assed job with incorporating rita skeeter where she isnt an animagus so i'm completely stumped as to what they're planning on doing in movie 5, and hermione doesnt apear to give a crap about elf rights as Winky doesn't exist.

but you know, i could have forgiven these things, maybe... but what really bugged me was how Dumbledore suddenly became an aggressive, possibly senile Irish American who constantly seeks advice from others. what happened to the Dumbledore from the books?! He was strong and confident, and knowledgable.

The final task changed to become a maze that ate people instead of a maze filled with creatures and curses etc. what, couldn't the budget cover the special effects? *eye rolly*

No, the movie was god-awful, with very few redeeming qualities. amongst other things, the Patil twins aren't even played by twins, and yes, it's quite obvious. this may surprise the casting people, but not all non-white people look the same...

i had high hopes with Ralph Fiennes playig voldemort, but to tell you the truth, his interpretation was something like Gollum pumped full of crack and steroids.

if they had this many issues struggling with HP4, i truly shudder to think what the rest of the movies will bring. Rowling's works of art with her intricate writing and complex characters have fallen down to alevel, where frankly my sock puppets could crap all over them.

The film blows.

-Mel

oh redeeming moments: the bathtub scene with Myrtle was good. drawn out, but good.

Look at me! I'm a prostitute robot from the future!

I agree, the HP movies aren't exactly cinematic masterpieces, but maybe you are being a bit hard on them. The biggest problem they have in making the movies is the time constraint. They simply don't have time to include even half of the scenes that happen in the books (and it's only going to get worse). All they have time for is the sequence of events that shape the plot of each book, with no time to build up the suspense, or include character - developing dialogue.

I imagine that it is really hard to understand what exactly is happening in the movies, for someone who hasn't read the books. Is there anyone who has watched all the movies but without reading the books out there?

And yes, the Dumbledore of the movies is far from how he is protrayed in the books. I didn't like it either. It was especially noticable in the Goblet of Fire.

Please, let's not argue. You love your wife; I love your wife. You see, we're on the same level here

This post was edited by MrWhite on Feb 01, 2007.

MrWhite hit the nail on the head. Time is the issue, not money and arguably, not even casting.

Rowling's stories are well entailed, and so by removing any one of the components, it makes nothing else make sense. So, instead of removing scenes like in normal movies, they remove side plots (like with Winky). I've learned to accept disappointment in movies made out of books after Jurassic Park was made. If I asked myself what I would have done differently, I don't know what I would have done, because adding anything means subtracting something else.

For the time alotted, I thought they did an excellent job... for the time alotted, that is. On the contrary as a representation of the book, it fails in virtually every aspect. The movies are getting darker, and hollywood is only making these books available to every child that saw the first harry potter movie and wanted to get a happy meal with harry potter inside.

It's a nice idea to start them off G-rated and move up, but in practice it is only getting young people to see Draco Malfoy get sliced to pieces by one of Harry Potter's spells covering both of them in blood (I can't wait to see how hollywood will interpret that).

The books are truly a great thing. The movies are franchising off the books. There's nothing deeper than that about it.

If the world should blow itself up,the last audible voice would be an expert saying it can't be done