Y'know, I loved most of the Harry Potter book-to-movie adaptations. It's such an amazing world to get to spend time in, I felt privileged that the movies offered me an excuse to retread previous territory in the books. I enjoyed seeing certain details as if for the first time while watching all of my favorite scenes-the most poignant ones--still present in the movies.
That is, until this drivel.
This movie is shot like an action movie, perhaps 'Heat' or the like; it plays as though the only major conflicts are between Ron 'n Hermione, and between Harry and Malfoy. It plays Harry 'n Malfoy off one another in classic 'hero/antihero' way..the only problem being that anyone who's read the books knows full well that a) Malfoy is no antihero, just a scared little boy forced into something beyond his ken by family loyalties, 'n b) that Malfoy does not in the end directly contribute to anyone's death, least of all Dumbledore's--not intentionally, certainly, 'n c) that in the end Harry saves Malfoy, thus redeeming him sort of. Malfoy has become the antihero by the end of the movie to the degree that any memory of Voldemort's role or presence in Harry's life has been virtually wiped out; the flashbacks regarding Voldemort's childhood seem to be completely irrelevant. Meanwhile Harry dedicates the year practically to finding out whether Malfoy's a bad man and what he's been up to, only to discover this was all wasted energy as Dumbledore engineered the whole thing himself, several books later. This is all a set-up for the 'Harry's not infallible nor is Dumbledore Dumbledore messed up this is how Malfoy's not such a bad guy nor is Snape goodness/evil are more complex than we first thought' message of the later books. This is necessary in a child's book, btw, to prevent the kid getting the wrong i.e. overly religious/black-'n-white world message, from the books in question. In this book, it just comes off like an overly simplified action movie sequence between two not too complicated men, 'n guess what? HP is a FANTASY. It's not a goddam action movie!
Apparently the writer is the same for all the movies, so I'm gonna go ahead 'n blame the director for cutting important scenes for time 'n altogether making a hack job out of it. Although they could have used a female writer consulting on how women ACTUALLY behave, like, ever IMO. The women in these films all seemed rather--masculine, or else were Ginny Weasley 'n disapparated after a few minutes of dialogue when she even appeared at all.
I mean, c'mon, like we don't have enough of those in the world already, now we have to make children's movies suit that structure?
It's almost like--meaning it's EXACTLY like IMO!--the writer 'n director sat down 'n said, hey, let's cut anything from this movie that a religious white adult male wouldn't appreciate, then DID SO.
I hate that they got their hands on my movie.
Meanwhile quidditch barely featured in a book that had many fantastic quidditch sequences; Ron 'n Lavender stole Harry's first kiss with Ginny, which became a g-rated nonsense bit of tomfoolery in the longest- feeling scene since the beginning of time rather than the triumphant bit of post-win snogging it was designed to be in the book. Difference? The latter was an EFFECTIVE scene; the former just made everyone in the theater start tapping their feet hoping it would be over soon.
The writer clearly did not understand the spirit of the story, nor did the director bother to demand a rewrite that would have included, say, any character development whatsoever?
The thing I liked about these books is that they so well played to both the masculine desire for action 'n sports 'n snogging etc., as well as the feminine desire for conversation 'n humor 'n emotional conflict.
The books managed to meet both of these needs, thus providing the best of both worlds--all packaged together in a fantasy land so rich with detail 'n life as to make one want to visit it again 'n again.
This movie managed none of this.
This was also the only movie I had a severe problem with, lest you believe I am simply a self-declared aficionado unwilling to accept minute changes to some of my favorite childhood stories.
From a situation with a movie adapted from a book thus attempting to communicate the spirit of the book, presumably, to audiences--from a situation with a writer presented with a well-loved story who needn't have bothered adapting much at all to make the story in question big- screen presentable--from the basic fact that this movie alone did not even manage to project a world I wished to spend time in, let alone to visit again 'n again--from the basic reality that this movie creeped me out regarding human character as well as a generally oily, icky tone to it--this fan is willing to never see any film written or directed by those involved in the writing/directing processes for this film again.
"Like, EVER!"
That is, until this drivel.
This movie is shot like an action movie, perhaps 'Heat' or the like; it plays as though the only major conflicts are between Ron 'n Hermione, and between Harry and Malfoy. It plays Harry 'n Malfoy off one another in classic 'hero/antihero' way..the only problem being that anyone who's read the books knows full well that a) Malfoy is no antihero, just a scared little boy forced into something beyond his ken by family loyalties, 'n b) that Malfoy does not in the end directly contribute to anyone's death, least of all Dumbledore's--not intentionally, certainly, 'n c) that in the end Harry saves Malfoy, thus redeeming him sort of. Malfoy has become the antihero by the end of the movie to the degree that any memory of Voldemort's role or presence in Harry's life has been virtually wiped out; the flashbacks regarding Voldemort's childhood seem to be completely irrelevant. Meanwhile Harry dedicates the year practically to finding out whether Malfoy's a bad man and what he's been up to, only to discover this was all wasted energy as Dumbledore engineered the whole thing himself, several books later. This is all a set-up for the 'Harry's not infallible nor is Dumbledore Dumbledore messed up this is how Malfoy's not such a bad guy nor is Snape goodness/evil are more complex than we first thought' message of the later books. This is necessary in a child's book, btw, to prevent the kid getting the wrong i.e. overly religious/black-'n-white world message, from the books in question. In this book, it just comes off like an overly simplified action movie sequence between two not too complicated men, 'n guess what? HP is a FANTASY. It's not a goddam action movie!
Apparently the writer is the same for all the movies, so I'm gonna go ahead 'n blame the director for cutting important scenes for time 'n altogether making a hack job out of it. Although they could have used a female writer consulting on how women ACTUALLY behave, like, ever IMO. The women in these films all seemed rather--masculine, or else were Ginny Weasley 'n disapparated after a few minutes of dialogue when she even appeared at all.
I mean, c'mon, like we don't have enough of those in the world already, now we have to make children's movies suit that structure?
It's almost like--meaning it's EXACTLY like IMO!--the writer 'n director sat down 'n said, hey, let's cut anything from this movie that a religious white adult male wouldn't appreciate, then DID SO.
I hate that they got their hands on my movie.
Meanwhile quidditch barely featured in a book that had many fantastic quidditch sequences; Ron 'n Lavender stole Harry's first kiss with Ginny, which became a g-rated nonsense bit of tomfoolery in the longest- feeling scene since the beginning of time rather than the triumphant bit of post-win snogging it was designed to be in the book. Difference? The latter was an EFFECTIVE scene; the former just made everyone in the theater start tapping their feet hoping it would be over soon.
The writer clearly did not understand the spirit of the story, nor did the director bother to demand a rewrite that would have included, say, any character development whatsoever?
The thing I liked about these books is that they so well played to both the masculine desire for action 'n sports 'n snogging etc., as well as the feminine desire for conversation 'n humor 'n emotional conflict.
The books managed to meet both of these needs, thus providing the best of both worlds--all packaged together in a fantasy land so rich with detail 'n life as to make one want to visit it again 'n again.
This movie managed none of this.
This was also the only movie I had a severe problem with, lest you believe I am simply a self-declared aficionado unwilling to accept minute changes to some of my favorite childhood stories.
From a situation with a movie adapted from a book thus attempting to communicate the spirit of the book, presumably, to audiences--from a situation with a writer presented with a well-loved story who needn't have bothered adapting much at all to make the story in question big- screen presentable--from the basic fact that this movie alone did not even manage to project a world I wished to spend time in, let alone to visit again 'n again--from the basic reality that this movie creeped me out regarding human character as well as a generally oily, icky tone to it--this fan is willing to never see any film written or directed by those involved in the writing/directing processes for this film again.
"Like, EVER!"
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