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I had a free hour at work today. Thus, I give you: This review!
So it's been a week since I saw PoA. Having had enough time to digest the experience, let me know hold forth my opinions, as I know you've all been waiting with baited breath and so forth.
Overall, cute. The change of directors was nice in that the magic in Harry's world actually seemed compelling this time around, instead of merely gimmicky or trite. I liked the Leaky Cauldron scenes, the Care of Magical Creatures textbook, and Buckbeak (more on him later). The changes some of the sets went through was a little jarring, but I liked the new ones better, as well as the deep greens and blues Curaon shot in.
That being said, I felt Curaon frequently forsook the plot in favor of showing off for the audience. The extended scene with the Knight Bus, however cool, was an extremely obvious HeyLookHowCoolMySpecialEffectsAre! bit of directorial self-love which should have been replaced by more of the scenes involving Lupin's lycanthropy, especially during the Shrieking Shack.
The movie did not emphasise such important plot points as:
1) Why should we care who Black is, why he's on the loose, and how this relates specifically to Harry (until far too late in the film).
2) Lupin's lycanthropy - the potion scene with Snape would have gone a long way toward increasing the mystery behind his character
3) The Marauders - without the MM setup of Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, Prongs, the significance of the ties between Lupin, Pettigrew, Black, and Potter was never explored. Thus, the Shrieking Shack scene lost a lot of its potency and immediacy.
After all, the movie was short, and amongst the friends I saw it with (a group of fifteen), the three of us who'd read the book enjoyed the movie, while the twelve who hadn't thought the effects were cool, but that PoA was a waste of money overall, because they had no clue what was going on. So what about Lupin being a werewolf? What the heck did Black mean by Lupin's 'potion?' What happened during that Quidditch match? What's the deal with those names on the map? Who cares about this Pettigrew guy anyway? Isn't Black still guilty? They just didn't get it, because the 'clues' Curaon left in the narrative were so clumsily integrated that if you weren't familiar with the book, you just missed them.
I'm glad the Quidditch-as-padding scenes were taken out, because Quidditch is boring and Buckbeak is way, way cool. Oh, was he ever cool. I thought they did a perfect job with him; made me want a Hippogriff of my very own. Not only did Buckbeak look real, but he was every bit as majestic and dignified as I'd imagined.
And on to the actors. I'm digging Harry's new deep(er) voice and his surliness in the opening scenes was just great. (Surly!Harry is a big kink of mine.) It's quite ironic, however, that the movies themselves are aging Harry up sufficiently that the "OMG!TheirTeenagers!!Wrong111111!!" fanfic detractors won't have a leg to stand on by the time GoF is filmed.
Hermione's turning into quite the slinky little thing, which, although I don't mind looking at slinky women (^.^) does not fit my image of bushy-haired, bucktoothed, bookish Hermione. OTOH, she's got the attitude down pat and I love her.
I'm not sure how I feel about the Muggle clothes, especially since no one really wore them in the first few movies. It was sort of jarring to see the characters go from robes or subdued jumpers in every scene to Hermione's bootcut cords. It also made it harder to remember that they're in an enchanted forest/haunted shack/wizarding school, not just a park somewhere.
The twins were, of course, perfect. We saw just enough of them and not a moment too much.
Thewlis did a great job with Lupin's bearing and manner. My Lupin's never been bishi like a lot of fandom's Lupin; ironically enough, I thought movie!Lupin was too well-fed and rounded out. My Lupin's skin and bones. I know Curaon tried to give Something's Amiss! hints with the facial injuries, but really it just made it look as though Lupin had problems shaving properly. (And again, my friends who hadn't read the book missed their significance entirely, even after the big revelation.)
As for Sirius, well, I <3 Gary Oldman, so he actually made me like the character more than is my usual wont.
Pettigrew looked like a rat in his human form, certainly, but I thought he was too caricatured. He looked too much like a Dickens character for my taste. BTW, did any of you notice if he was missing a finger in his human incarnation? I forgot to look.
Richard Harris was never really my Dumbledore, so I was surprised to discover how much he'd come to be my movie Dumbledore. I think they were trying to keep the new Dumbledore's scenes to a minimum, for this movie at least, until people can get used to the change.
MacNair was pretty damn creepy, especially whilemasturbating sharpening that big ole scythe of his. I hope the manage to bring him back for the DE scenes in later movies. It's too bad we didn't hear Hagrid's sobbing after the non-timeturnered!Harry sees him 'execute' Buckbeak. In the after-movie discussion, my friends mentioned not getting why anyone thought Buckbeak had been executed, because all MacNair did was pop his scythe in a pumpkin.
And Snape. Ooh, we had the best Potions scene yet with good old Mr Snape. I actually tried to reach for the remote in order to replay him stalking in and slamming those blinds shut again. (Of course, the fact that we'd each brought a sixpack into the theater with us had something to do with that was well).
I also dug the bit where he shielded the kids from Lupin; thought that was a nice bit of setup for Snape's increasingly ambiguous character alignment in future books. However, his placement as a character was neutered by the fact that we didn't get the 'Snape & Fudge' Order of Merlin scene at the end. Snape lied about what happened in the Shack! He lied! This is such an important window into his character, and Dumbledore's 'Yes, Snape told us all about that' throwaway line really messes things up.
And let's not even talk about the criminal omission of Snape and the Marauder's history of shared animosity. Book!PoA is a setup book for later volumes almost more than a volume in its own right - the plot points revealed in PoA don't seem significant at the time, but they'll very much become so later in the series. So without PoA's hints as to Lupin and Black's casual disdain for Snape, and Snape's spitting hot anger, the plot isn't as rich.
The Dementors were cool, especially circling around Harry and Black in the Forest scenes. The Quidditch scene was a miss for two reasons:
1) Great. We saw a big dog head in the clouds. Doesn't change the fact that Black should really have been there.
2) My non-book-reading friends had no idea what was going on with the dog's head, the Dementors, and Harry falling off of his broom.
So, my thoughts. Overall, I dug the movie. I liked the atmosphere Curaon evoked, the fact that the kids are growing up and learning how to act, and the special effects, which actually made Wizardry look more compelling than Muggle technology. But I do hope Curaon figures out that I like the books more for the plot, and adjusts future films accordingly.
これで以上です。
So it's been a week since I saw PoA. Having had enough time to digest the experience, let me know hold forth my opinions, as I know you've all been waiting with baited breath and so forth.
Overall, cute. The change of directors was nice in that the magic in Harry's world actually seemed compelling this time around, instead of merely gimmicky or trite. I liked the Leaky Cauldron scenes, the Care of Magical Creatures textbook, and Buckbeak (more on him later). The changes some of the sets went through was a little jarring, but I liked the new ones better, as well as the deep greens and blues Curaon shot in.
That being said, I felt Curaon frequently forsook the plot in favor of showing off for the audience. The extended scene with the Knight Bus, however cool, was an extremely obvious HeyLookHowCoolMySpecialEffectsAre! bit of directorial self-love which should have been replaced by more of the scenes involving Lupin's lycanthropy, especially during the Shrieking Shack.
The movie did not emphasise such important plot points as:
1) Why should we care who Black is, why he's on the loose, and how this relates specifically to Harry (until far too late in the film).
2) Lupin's lycanthropy - the potion scene with Snape would have gone a long way toward increasing the mystery behind his character
3) The Marauders - without the MM setup of Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, Prongs, the significance of the ties between Lupin, Pettigrew, Black, and Potter was never explored. Thus, the Shrieking Shack scene lost a lot of its potency and immediacy.
After all, the movie was short, and amongst the friends I saw it with (a group of fifteen), the three of us who'd read the book enjoyed the movie, while the twelve who hadn't thought the effects were cool, but that PoA was a waste of money overall, because they had no clue what was going on. So what about Lupin being a werewolf? What the heck did Black mean by Lupin's 'potion?' What happened during that Quidditch match? What's the deal with those names on the map? Who cares about this Pettigrew guy anyway? Isn't Black still guilty? They just didn't get it, because the 'clues' Curaon left in the narrative were so clumsily integrated that if you weren't familiar with the book, you just missed them.
I'm glad the Quidditch-as-padding scenes were taken out, because Quidditch is boring and Buckbeak is way, way cool. Oh, was he ever cool. I thought they did a perfect job with him; made me want a Hippogriff of my very own. Not only did Buckbeak look real, but he was every bit as majestic and dignified as I'd imagined.
And on to the actors. I'm digging Harry's new deep(er) voice and his surliness in the opening scenes was just great. (Surly!Harry is a big kink of mine.) It's quite ironic, however, that the movies themselves are aging Harry up sufficiently that the "OMG!TheirTeenagers!!Wrong111111!!" fanfic detractors won't have a leg to stand on by the time GoF is filmed.
Hermione's turning into quite the slinky little thing, which, although I don't mind looking at slinky women (^.^) does not fit my image of bushy-haired, bucktoothed, bookish Hermione. OTOH, she's got the attitude down pat and I love her.
I'm not sure how I feel about the Muggle clothes, especially since no one really wore them in the first few movies. It was sort of jarring to see the characters go from robes or subdued jumpers in every scene to Hermione's bootcut cords. It also made it harder to remember that they're in an enchanted forest/haunted shack/wizarding school, not just a park somewhere.
The twins were, of course, perfect. We saw just enough of them and not a moment too much.
Thewlis did a great job with Lupin's bearing and manner. My Lupin's never been bishi like a lot of fandom's Lupin; ironically enough, I thought movie!Lupin was too well-fed and rounded out. My Lupin's skin and bones. I know Curaon tried to give Something's Amiss! hints with the facial injuries, but really it just made it look as though Lupin had problems shaving properly. (And again, my friends who hadn't read the book missed their significance entirely, even after the big revelation.)
As for Sirius, well, I <3 Gary Oldman, so he actually made me like the character more than is my usual wont.
Pettigrew looked like a rat in his human form, certainly, but I thought he was too caricatured. He looked too much like a Dickens character for my taste. BTW, did any of you notice if he was missing a finger in his human incarnation? I forgot to look.
Richard Harris was never really my Dumbledore, so I was surprised to discover how much he'd come to be my movie Dumbledore. I think they were trying to keep the new Dumbledore's scenes to a minimum, for this movie at least, until people can get used to the change.
MacNair was pretty damn creepy, especially while
And Snape. Ooh, we had the best Potions scene yet with good old Mr Snape. I actually tried to reach for the remote in order to replay him stalking in and slamming those blinds shut again. (Of course, the fact that we'd each brought a sixpack into the theater with us had something to do with that was well).
I also dug the bit where he shielded the kids from Lupin; thought that was a nice bit of setup for Snape's increasingly ambiguous character alignment in future books. However, his placement as a character was neutered by the fact that we didn't get the 'Snape & Fudge' Order of Merlin scene at the end. Snape lied about what happened in the Shack! He lied! This is such an important window into his character, and Dumbledore's 'Yes, Snape told us all about that' throwaway line really messes things up.
And let's not even talk about the criminal omission of Snape and the Marauder's history of shared animosity. Book!PoA is a setup book for later volumes almost more than a volume in its own right - the plot points revealed in PoA don't seem significant at the time, but they'll very much become so later in the series. So without PoA's hints as to Lupin and Black's casual disdain for Snape, and Snape's spitting hot anger, the plot isn't as rich.
The Dementors were cool, especially circling around Harry and Black in the Forest scenes. The Quidditch scene was a miss for two reasons:
1) Great. We saw a big dog head in the clouds. Doesn't change the fact that Black should really have been there.
2) My non-book-reading friends had no idea what was going on with the dog's head, the Dementors, and Harry falling off of his broom.
So, my thoughts. Overall, I dug the movie. I liked the atmosphere Curaon evoked, the fact that the kids are growing up and learning how to act, and the special effects, which actually made Wizardry look more compelling than Muggle technology. But I do hope Curaon figures out that I like the books more for the plot, and adjusts future films accordingly.
これで以上です。
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I was disappointed overall. Like you, I loved the feel of the film and the boys doing magic in the dorm was one of my favourite scenes, and Buckbeak - wheeee! But we could have done with another half an hour, mainly exposition and fill-in, and I'd have been a lot happier.
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