SPOILERS (point by point movie review)

[cassandraclaire73 at yahoo.com]

--- In HPFGU-Movie at y..., "Chris M. Dickson" <chris at d...> wrote:
> 
" Yay! I've been waiting for this - someone else who's seen the movie 
to discuss it with ;-)" 

Yay back! *bounces*

The spoilers below are really very precise and explicit in places, 
explaining some of the highlights in quite a lot of detail, so 
proceed at your own risk. Seriously. Think about it. Hard.
> 
> Please might I borrow your
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> Agreed. My opinion of the movie the next morning was a little less
> favourable than it was the night before - there's a real reluctance
> because you don't want to accept that the film is anything less than
> perfect.

Absolutely, and the excitement of seeing it for the first time is 
pretty overwhelming. I was at such a high pitch of excitement that 
both I and my friend Ashley were depressed after it was over!


> 
> Agreed, but it was at least as satisfying a way of communicating the
> Parseltongue and "makes magic happen without control" themes that 
of the  book. The CGI was weak here, though.

Mmm. Did you notice the snake was from Burma, not Brazil as it was in 
the books?

"Mmm - at this point, there seemed to be a hair-position continuity
> issue. We didn't see Harry move it from the relaxed, covering-the-
scar position  to the visible position. (Could well be confusing this 
scene with one of the others, though?)"

You know, I checked my notes and you might be right there -- I am not 
sure Harry moved his hair. It sort of blows to the side so we can see 
his scar. It is true that we don't see the scar very often though.

"Yes :-) It communicated Hermione's character well, not making it 
clear  whether she was doing it as a gesture of benevolence or as a 
gesture of  showing off. It makes up, in part, for the lack of a 
big "Thanks" scene  after the mountain troll, which I thought was one 
of the book's smaller  but definitely positive highlights."

Yes, I missed that scene as well. It would have more smoothly 
transitioned us into their friendship.

"Yes - Susan to Hufflepuff but nobody to Ravenclaw. Strange!"

Yes, very. Also missed seeing Neville sorted.

"I interpreted this as that the first years and the people at the
> staff-table end of the hall would be able to hear what was going on 
very faintly, but the majority would only be able to hear the shouted 
final word. Does it make much difference?"

To me, yes, because the fact that he was nearly sorted into Slytherin 
is such a secret sore point with Harry. IMHO it would be weird if 
others knew about it.
> 
"The Sorting Hat on Draco was a particular delight, too!"

Oh! The way it just barked "Slytherin!" when his hands touched it! 
Priceless!

"Another very nice scene - and you've left the reasons why as an
> extremely pleasant surprise... :-)"

;)

 > >His ribbing of Harry is pretty excellent; too
> >bad that's just about all we see of it for the whole film.
> 
"Agreed, but this is a pretty direct consequence of it being a
> two-and-a-half hour film. At least we can have a LOT of fun 
imagining all the rest!"

There'll be a heck of a DVD someday. I really did miss more Snape 
though. And the lack of his interaction with Harry made him even 
weaker as the putative villain. IMHO. Also as Ashley pointed out to 
me, he does a lot of just...staring at Harry, looking pained. 

"I thought it was a nice little scene. It reinforces that the kids 
are, well, kids and that kids like messing about. It was also quick, 
neat and  provided Ron with an opportunity for a cute line."

True. I suppose it's just that I like Seamus and there's no canon 
indication that he's lousy at spells. Also...can they DO magic at the 
table? I suppose they can.
> 
"Probably an allusion to "yellow eyes like a hawk". Looked great to 
me."

Oooh, good point, well spotted and remembered from canon!
> 
"Mmm, yes, very interesting. Also pay attention to which other names 
we see on that plaque, more food for thought."

O_O I've asked Ash and neither of us can remember any other names on 
the plaque in the version we saw. Were there in yours? If so, what?

"Furthermore, it was a good indication of the continuing increasing 
friendship between the three."

Oddly placed then since it was before the troll incident...?

"For reference, that's a typo - 10 points (two fives) as per the book.
> Yes, it's very funny."

Ooops. *blush*
> 
> >When Harry's Nimbus 2000 arrives in the mail, McGonagall winks at
> >him, making it clear that she is the one who gave it to him.
> 
> Again, a pretty direct consequence of a time-limited film. It also 
makes the storytelling a lot easier.

I liked that bit actually. I like McGonagall. Random trivia: that 
scene where the owl delivers the broom to Harry was a real stunt with 
no effects -- they built a special broom that weighed only 150 grams 
so the owl, Gizmo, could carry it.
> 
"Agreed, but it also follows that the scenes are not quite as good as
> they really need to be."

Alas, true.
> 
> >This will either annoy
> >you or make you laugh; it made me laugh.
> 
> Colour me pretty damn PO'd :-("

Oh, did you hate the "Harry surfs"? If so why?
> 
> "Mmm - not sure I agree, but it's a good point and I'd love to know 
what someone who wasn't familiar with the books thought about it. 
There are  relatively few references to house points in the film, but 
this is such  a big loss compared to the smaller gains we see that it 
may well get the desired effect across?"

>From what I got from talking to people who saw the film but haven't 
read the books -- they totally missed that. They didn't even get that 
that was why Gryffindor was down so many points at the end. I just 
think the points business was not well established and a little anger 
from the other Gryffs at this point could have gone a long way.
 

"It's also actually Hermione who catches the key (isn't it?)"

Doesn't Harry catch it and throw it to her?


"Yes, funny (funny peculiar, not funny ha ha) rather than horrific. 
Not scary enough for the Biggest Bad In The Universe. Still, there's 
scope for improvement as we go through the movies and he gets closer 
to power."

In the next movie we have Tom Riddle. THAT I want to see.

"This isn't quite explained in proper detail, either. It shouldn't 
matter to us because we know the story and the reasons, but... ohh, 
what might  have been! (Arguably, if it doesn't stick in the craw of 
people who don't know the story, then maybe it isn't such a big thing 
after all and we shouldn't be worrying about it.)"

It could have been better though and that's what hurts isn't it...

"a hyper-literal PS movie would have been both practically impossible 
and somehow strangely redundant."

Agreed, really. I loved it!

Cassie