Brits Only Restrictions/LOTR raves

[alyeskakc]

--- In HPFGU-Movie at y..., "selah_1977" <ebonyink at h...> wrote:

> The fact that so many of the LOTR actors immersed themselves in 
> Middle-Earth lore SHOWED.  But only imagine if they had restricted 
> all casting in the same manner that the HP movies are doing... and 
> yes, they very well could have done this.  But they did not.  It 
> seems as if they chose actors who respected the story that Tolkien 
> had to tell, and good on them.


Yes! I think it did show enormously how casting can have a effect on 
the overall movie. The LOTR cast was heads above HP. They were some 
good moments in HP and I think certain people like Robbie Coltrane 
and Maggie Smith got into their characters. The kids did quite well, 
although Emma went a little over the top, IMHO.  Richard Harris was 
just very flat and not Dumbledore at all. 


> I was a little disappointed the first time I saw HP.  It took three 
> viewings before I was comfortable with Columbus' vision.  But LOTR: 
> FOTR swept me away the very first time.

Actually I didn't really like SS/PS the first time. I thought it was 
slow and it didn't have the punch I was expecting. I was expecting to 
be blown away. It's agood movie but it could have been so much 
better. LOTR however had that punch, I sat through the movie and at 
the end went "WHAT IT"S OVER!" It did not feel like a 3 hour movie.

>And every time I saw Ian McKellen as Gandalf, I kept saying to 
>myself "Why couldn't he have been Dumbledore?"  I always saw Gandalf 
>as being more like what Richard  Harris did with Dumbledore in the 
>HP movie.


Yes! Yes! The whole time I kept thinking why couldn't they have had 
Ian McKellen play Dumbledore. He had that twinkle in his eye and just 
overall Dumbledoreness. Harris as I said above was flat and I thought 
he was just going through the motions.


Funny I was thinking that Viggo Mortensen would make a great Remus. 
Of course I may just be a little more partial to Remus than Sirius 
and I love Viggo. Either way he'd make a good choice.

I do think that a director change needs to be made at PoA and actor 
restrictions lifted. Get the best person for the job and who can 
embrace the character fully. Not someone who did the movie because 
their grandchild would be cross with them if they didn't do it.

Cheers,
Kristin