The movie hits Australia!

[Tabouli]

Yes, after weeks of whingeing and sulking, I am pleased to say that I have now seen the movie twice!  Now, I hope I'm not going to rehash well-trodden ground here (I've been off-list for a week or so due to a trip to Adelaide), but here, for what they're worth, are my thoughts.

And the verdict is a resounding...

...not bad.  Some bits good, some could have been better.

On the soundtrack, I didn't mind the actual music (Hedwig's Theme has a certain majesty to it, and I rather liked the medieval luting that popped up in one part), but I wish John had restrained himself a little in the volume and vim department.  Less is more, John.  IMO, you would have done your score more favours if you'd played it a little less loud and continuously.  I also wondered whereabouts in Hogwarts the infamous "land under the trapdoor" is, because if it were anywhere near anyone in the school, the extremely loud racket from the chess set would surely have had them wrapping their heads in pillows.

Robbie Coltrane did a fine Hagrid (I can well believe that JKR had him in mind when writing the character), but I have to agree with the waves of protest about Richard Harris.  He really annoyed me.  Since when is Dumbledore droopy and slack-mouthed?  He seemed to be playing the wheezy, distant, vague old man he parodies himself as in the book, and the script is no excuse in my view.  He could have used the lines he had a lot better.  Surgically insert a twinkle in the man!  I also found Maggie Smith a tough insipid and finicky as McGonagall - I see her as having rather more oomph than that.

Rupert did well as Ron, both in comic moments and his moment of nobility astride the horse, but alas, I'm inclined to agree that Emma was a bit over the top.  The general Hermione style is there, but it needed toning down.  Not that I blame Emma for this - surely this was CC's job.  I have unworthy suspicions that he's so used to encouraging gross overacting from children that he couldn't restrain himself from having one stompy shouter.  Though my personal Golden Cowpat for worst actor in the movie was whatshisname as Quirrell.  Terrible.  Neither funny nor convincing as the tremulous stutterer, and that fainting scene was a veritable shocker.

I have been preparing carefully for my next comment.  Not only have I donned my bullet-proof vest and suit of armour, I have also erected a electrified barbed wire fence around my concrete bunker and hidden inside it bearing a can of Mace.  Because... I didn't find Alan Rickman particularly sexy!  (gasps of horror and fury and cries of vengeance from all and sundry Snape fans).  Before I reinforced my fence with a pack of three headed dogs, let me hastily say that his *acting* was good, and his *voice* is gorgeously deep and melodious.  However, he didn't do it for me physically at all.  Too old, too chunky, too stiff around the neck (I agree with the high collar comment).  Neither did he fit my mental image of Snape.  Snape is younger, more gaunt, his hair is shoulder length and greasy.  Plus I didn't go for the "no foolish wand waving" speech while striding briskly into the classroom.  Feels all wrong to me.  If I were CC, I'd have had him pause silkily, one eyebrow raised, in the doorway, while the students fell silent, and then make his way slowly and deliberately to the front of the room and *then* quietly, coolly begin his speech.  I know the film was long and they had to hurry along what they could, but CC's version lost a lot of Snape's gravitas IMO.

(Tabouli adds a couple of Norwegian Ridgebacks to the roof of her concrete bunker)

I'm really going to make myself unpopular here, but Sean Biggerstaff, though he had a lovely accent, didn't really grab me either.  Not bad, but not incredible (for those of you who wade through my OT posts, you'll know I rarely take to actors anyway - I need a holistic feel for someone to find him attractive).

To my mind, the most attractive (or potentially attractive) male character in the film was actually Daniel Radcliffe.  OK, OK, don't set the pedophile police on me, I know he's only 12, but he's a lovely little boy: give him 8 years or so, and he will be gorgeous.  I don't usually go for the dark hair, blue eyes combo, but he had such a beautiful, haunted presence, and such an endearingly cheeky grin.  In my holistic rating scale, the philosophical/introspective yet playful and warm wins a lot of points.  My throat veritably swelled in the Mirror of Erised scene, both times I saw it.

I didn't mind Harry's parents, and even the centaur, after bracing myself for the worst after comments on this list.  The centaur had a bit of Pan about him, that slightly rough around the edges, bearded, rustic look.  Not the conventional centaur, but plausible enough for me.  The Invisibility Cloak was great, Quidditch good but a bit excessively violent (presumably for dramatic effect, but I thought it a bit gratuitous), and what was with Voldemort in the Forest?  Wasn't the hooded figure meant to be Quirrel with V's head on him, not some amorphous slithering cloak with nothing apparently in it??

Looking over what I've written, I seem to be pretty negative.  Erm.  Erm, for all the above, I *did* enjoy the movie...

Tabouli.


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