Comments on: Harry Potter and the Half-Assed Movie http://www.flockofcats.com/yulzopolis/arts-and-culture/829/ Politics, Video Games, Japan, Random Stuff, Etc Sun, 20 Jun 2010 18:11:22 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=abc hourly 1 By: Naftali http://www.flockofcats.com/yulzopolis/arts-and-culture/829/comment-page-1/#comment-285 Naftali Tue, 28 Jul 2009 17:31:29 +0000 http://www.flockofcats.com/?p=829#comment-285 You can complain about the 90210 aspect, and I agree that there was probably too much of it, but I'd say that those scenes showed that the three main characters are played by people who can actually act. It's helped at least a little bit by the fact that the actors aren't much older than the characters they're portraying. Harry and Ron look like big, awkward dolts, and they act the part, and Hermione, well... Possibly the reason people are picking on it so much is because there really wasn't alot of action, at least in comparison to the Melrose Place stuff. There were a few cool zomg wizards! moments like Dumbledore AE'ing the ghouls in the cave (they have a name, I just can't think of it right now), but by and large it felt a little light in comparison to the great set-pieces in 4 and 5. The scene you complain about at the end was, in the book, the climax of a battle through the whole castle. *LAST BOOK SPOILERS*Will the last two be an improvement? The last book frankly wasn't that great. The middle third approached Robert Jordan levels of nothing happening. The reason that Harry is able to defeat Voldemort comes off as confusing and contrived in the book. I haven't the faintest idea how they're going to manage to explain it in the movie. There will be some great moments, I'm sure, but I'm scared that they'll just be OK, grade B movies like this one was. Also, am I the only one who wants to read some Harry Potter books that don't have Harry Potter? I don't think JK Rowling realizes that people don't really care about Harry that much. He's just a prop that we follow around in this interesting parallel universe. There are so many interesting questions that she (or somebody she chooses) could write about, like what are wizards like in America? or Asia? How about some detective stories? Maybe a James Bond type wizard spy. These would be cool things to read about and potentially watch movies of, but we're stuck with god-damn Harry Potter. I do like the books and movies, but I just can't see why they have to be all we get. You can complain about the 90210 aspect, and I agree that there was probably too much of it, but I’d say that those scenes showed that the three main characters are played by people who can actually act. It’s helped at least a little bit by the fact that the actors aren’t much older than the characters they’re portraying. Harry and Ron look like big, awkward dolts, and they act the part, and Hermione, well…

Possibly the reason people are picking on it so much is because there really wasn’t alot of action, at least in comparison to the Melrose Place stuff. There were a few cool zomg wizards! moments like Dumbledore AE’ing the ghouls in the cave (they have a name, I just can’t think of it right now), but by and large it felt a little light in comparison to the great set-pieces in 4 and 5. The scene you complain about at the end was, in the book, the climax of a battle through the whole castle.

*LAST BOOK SPOILERS*Will the last two be an improvement? The last book frankly wasn’t that great. The middle third approached Robert Jordan levels of nothing happening. The reason that Harry is able to defeat Voldemort comes off as confusing and contrived in the book. I haven’t the faintest idea how they’re going to manage to explain it in the movie. There will be some great moments, I’m sure, but I’m scared that they’ll just be OK, grade B movies like this one was.

Also, am I the only one who wants to read some Harry Potter books that don’t have Harry Potter? I don’t think JK Rowling realizes that people don’t really care about Harry that much. He’s just a prop that we follow around in this interesting parallel universe. There are so many interesting questions that she (or somebody she chooses) could write about, like what are wizards like in America? or Asia? How about some detective stories? Maybe a James Bond type wizard spy. These would be cool things to read about and potentially watch movies of, but we’re stuck with god-damn Harry Potter. I do like the books and movies, but I just can’t see why they have to be all we get.

]]>