Half Blood Prince (contains spoilers)

[MisTer Pockets]

Oh, I HATED PoA. The new director was terrible...so much essential elements from the book were left out. And Harry conjured a successful Patronus on his 2nd attempt, whereas in the book, it took (weeks?). Oh, right. The setting was god awful as well. Hey, let's make the castle be on the tip of a very steep hill, and you have to hike down a damn mountain just to visit your good buddy, Hagrid.


Sirius was cool, Lupin was pretty cool, but still not as awesome as he was in the books, but the movie felt like it was at the final moments just as it was getting started.

[chex]

The CoS to PoA Flitwick change pissed me off, too.

[MisTer Pockets]

[prick moment] Actually, in PoA, there technically was no Flitwick. The new Flitwick (the guy with short brown hair + mustache) appeared only in 1 scene in PoA as a choir conductor, and was credited as 'wizard.' He was not credited as Flitwick until GoF. [/prick moment]


Hah, hell I wouldn't have known that if Google wasn't so amazing.

[chex]

I don't give a shazam! how he was credited. They still smurf with Flitwick.

[Dowster]

Well I haven't watched this one yet, but I have to say with the first 5 im with Pockets. I did actually find them all entertaining, but 1,2 and 4 were far superior to 3 and 5. I was happy to be pleasantly suprised by GoF after being a little disappionted with PoA, so hopefully the same will happen this time around

[Jonny Boy]

I hate them cause I hate harry. I hate the character for his personality.

[deathfire123]

I found #6 to be missing many vital moments. I loved the scenes they added, hated the ones they changed. And they took out almost all the quidditch which was one of the main points in the starting of Ginny and Harry's relationship. Which was severely lacking in the movie.

[Dowster]

As I have very little else to do at the moment and having recently watched all 6 movies again, pretty much back to back. I thought I would kill a little time with some very long winded appreciation of the work that's been done on these films. Obviously none of them are perfect but what is sometimes a little overlooked is how hard a task the had. Turning a book into a film is always tricky, the more lenghty the book the harder the task (compare how long it takes you to read one of these books cover to cover against how long people are willing to sit down in the cinema or in front of a dvd...), and the more popular the book the higher the chances of getting it wrong. So with something like this and as passionate as people are about the stories, the characters, the places and the events, it required a damn good piece of film making every time just to avoid being landed with hoardes of outraged HP fans jabberwocky that the films are some kind of travesty. Now while im sure there are a few around I can honestly say I've never seen a book as popular as any of these adapted for the screen with so little fuss and complaint from the literary zealots, and to see so many people online with profiles saying something along the line of "Big fan of HP the books and the movies" is quite unique, with anything else it's usually "never read the book" or "liked the book(s) hated the movie(s)"

So I`ll quickly skim over the fact that I think the visuals and effects in each of the films are first class - again something to bear in mind with a book is that everyone who reads it imagines things in their own way and includes part of their own taste and preference in the images/profiles they create of the characters and locations. So for anything in this aspect to be accepted by a decent range of fans it needed to be done very well. Which I think it was - with one exception. Which rather amusingly I just noticed that Mr P also mentioned, the stupid steep hill leading from the castle down to Hagrids. I much prefered the idea of it being a short walk across the grass as it was in the first two.

What I want to give the most credit for however is the casting, because I think of all the elements that were brought together to create these films, this is the one that could most easily have been a disaster and caused the whole thing to fail. From the main characters I've been perfectly happy with both choices for Dumbledore, (even though they're played it rather differently), and with Harry himself. More than happy with the choices made for Ron, Hermione, and Hagrid. For me they are those characters now regardless of anything in the books, and they've been outstanding all the way thorugh. At the top of my list though I would put Snape, and Draco Malfoy.

Both for similar reasons - I think they have a harder task than most of the others, with Draco he has to be someone that has almost no redeeming qualities whatsoever throughout the course of the stories, but when it comes to it you need to care enough to want him to be saved. If not it makes what Dumbledore and Snape did seem pretty pointless, and also detracts from a few of the events that take place in the final book, and watching them all again I appreciate what a damn good job Tom Felton has done of being a detestable little shazam! for so long . But even so at the point when you're supposed to care, you find that do... Snape I think is even more difficult and had that task been given to pretty much any other actor it could have failed badly, if someone were to say to me "here's the character for you to play, he's arrogant, cold, mean, socially inept, insecure and rude. But make him likeable and cool" I would probably consider it to be impossible, but somehow Alan Rickman managed it, and considering Snape's role in the books he's one of the most pivitol characters in the story, so I am very glad that job was assigned to him.

Finally I would also consider even some of the smaller roles to be worth a mention because in their few moments on screen they stand out, for example Luna, Ron's parents, Harrys muggle family.

I had a whole day free on the weekend before my wife came back, and wanted to make myself do nothing but rest. Cutting out the credits, the running time of these films added up to around 13 and 1/2 hours, and aside from getting food, drink and calls of nature they actually kept me in my seat (aka lounging on the sofa) for the whole day, so credit where it's due, a damn good job well done. Tis a shame I only have a crappy torrent download copy of the 6th film at the moment, but the DvD should be out before Christmas

[chex]

Yeah, for the most part, they've done an amazing job with the casting. Emma Watson has done a great job as Hermione, and despite the fact that she looks nothing like how I pictured Hermione at first, she's what I picture when I read the books now.

The first Dumbledore was absolutely amazing, so I still can't really buy the new guy. I blame Alfonso Curon (?) for smurf with the characterization. But then, I'd like to blame Alfonso Curon for any flaw in any of the movies, just because he deserves it. Yes, I'm aware he only directed the third.

That said, I'm choosing to blame Alfonso Curon for the horrible casting of Lavender Brown. She wasn't believable as a human being.

[Dowster]

She made me lol, but yeah not on my list of "well cast"

With Dumbledore im kind of torn, unfortunately they had no choice but to change when Richard Harris died, but at a 4 films to 2 ratio I've kind of gotten used to him with a bit more attitude, although Micheal Gambon's way of speaking is sometimes a little weird and not always in a good way. I think overall it would have been better had they been able to stick with the same actor all the way through. But it's been easier for me to accept both because the first one I ever saw was no 4 - when it first came out - I had been a little reluctant to see the film versions previously, but after seeing that one I watched 1, 2 and 3 during the next 2 days

[chex]

I know they had no choice, but I'm still blaming Alfonso Curon. Richard Harris was exactly how I pictured Dumbledore while reading the books. Michael Gambon's portrayal, while very well done, is just wrong! (smurf' Curon)

[Dowster]

Well ok then

[chex]

I just rewatched this, and despite having seen it multiple times, the scene where McGonagal raises her lit wand, and the rest of the school follows suit triggered an "allergy attack"...

I may be just a little excited about the last movie coming out next week.