Random Movie Observations (LONG, like the movie)

[Cindy C.]

Here's my quick take on the movie, with SPOILERS, of course.  Like 
many other fans, I liked it, as it could have been badly botched and 
wasn't.   I agree with much of the praise heaped on the movie so 
far.   But be warned – I'm going to step on some toes here, because I 
have a fundamental issue with the way the book was adapted, and I 
hope there are some changes before the third and fourth movies.

All of the reviews say the movie was true to the book.  That's a good 
thing.  But that desire to be faithful went a bit too far, IMHO.  In 
the mad dash to cram as much book plot into the movie, we wound up 
with a "Best Of Harry Potter" highlights reel rather than a movie 
with memorable and compelling scenes.  I would have preferred that 
certain major scenes had been entirely deleted in favor of really 
doing the remaining ones well.

The most compelling example I can give is the potions class.   In the 
book, that scene contains my favorite speech from one of the book's 
most compelling characters, and it is very well-written.  This calls 
for lots of dramatic set-up and tension:  something like Snape 
enters, glowers a bit, gives his speech with the pauses in all the 
right places, harasses Harry, calls them names, etc.  Instead, in the 
movie, Snape literally starts giving a cut-down version of the speech 
while walking up the aisle, and then never even gives answers to the 
questions he poses.   The menacing mood is never properly established.

OK, some things have to be cut.  That's true.  But I can't for the 
life of me figure out why we need the one Transfiguration class 
scene, in which McGonagal changes from a cat (which belongs in PoA 
anyway), then has a brief, rather flat, exchange with Ron and Harry.  
Better, I think, is to skip this entirely and use the time to do 
Snape's scene really well.  Don't even get me started on the Norbert 
scene, which takes time that could have been used better, IMHO.  

That leads me to the other glaring problem for me.  The movie 
suffered from "Villain Interruptus."  The plot is supposed to first 
convince us that Snape is evil and seeking the stone.  Then we're 
supposed to be surprised that it is Quirrell.  But Snape got almost 
no screen time or interaction with the trio, and Quirrell got less.  
Neither had a sufficient chance to be menacing, which was a waste, 
and the viewer got no time to figure out what they were doing.  A few 
minor changes would really have helped.  For instance, Snape, rather 
than Filch could have escorted the trio to the Forbidden Forest.  
Without much effort to flesh out our villains, much of the dramatic 
tension was lost for me.

Finally, there's Quiddich.  I'll admit straight up that Quiddich is 
one of my least favorite plot elements in all of HP.  In light of its 
overall popularity with fans, however, I was surprised that the 
special effects seems somewhat flimsy, and some shots were clearly a 
rubber doll strapped to a broom.  It also didn't seem right that 
Harry spends a great deal of the match just sitting there on his 
broom; he should be slowly circling, like he does in the book.  I 
didn't see the logic of having to pillars for students to crash 
into.  Also, the entire Quiddich plot seemed very out of place and 
inconsequential to the plot.  Something was definitely missing, but 
I'll have to see the film again to zero in on what it was.

There were certainly plenty of bright spots, though.  I actually 
liked most of the dialogue changes ("What are you looking at?"), the 
snake scene was delightful, the owls on the house were amusing, the 
climax with Voldemort was much improved, the devil's snare was 
interesting.  Dumbledore was fine, given his itty bitty role.  There 
were some fine performances from actors who had precious little to 
do, and the movie made me actually like Hagrid, which I didn't think 
was possible.

Anyway, here are some categories and my nominations:

MAKING THE MOST OF A TINY ROLE:  Malfoy, with Wood as runner-up.  
Both are very good actors, but Draco had little to do and a bad dye 
job.  Nevertheless, I liked him very much.  Wood was outstanding in 
the pre-match talk with Harry.

LEAST COMPELLING SPECIAL EFFECT:  Harry on the Troll's back was 
really not up to scratch, which is another argument in favor of 
omitting the troll scene.

BEST SPECIAL EFFECT:  The Invisibility Cloak.  Top notch in all 
respects.  The shots from inside were particularly striking.

MOST INEXPLICABLE DECISION BY THE FILMMAKERS:  The casting of Harry's 
father.  Is there not a single man in Britain who looks anything like 
Dan Radcliffe?  I want to see a paternity test, because there is no 
way that man passes for Harry's dad.  

MOST LOGICAL CHANGE OF A BIG DETAIL:  I liked how they changed the 
wand selection scene.  It makes sense that the right wand wouldn't 
perform unfocused magic, and the right wand would give you a rush.  
The audience seemed to like this scene, so it worked.  Runner-up is 
having the glass re-appear in the snake scene.  I also liked Dudley 
stomping on Harry's cupboard ceiling.

BEST CURE OF A PLOT MYSTERY:  It always bothered me that Hagrid gave 
Dudley, an innocent child, a pig's tail.  If Hagrid is mad at Vernon, 
why does he pick on Dudley?  In the movie, they provided nice 
motivation for this by having Dudley steal the cake.  Nice touch.

Anyway, that's my opinion today.  Maybe reading the reactions of 
others will change my mind.  

Cindy (still not sure she is ready to join S.A.D., and might instead 
form a group to hire a new director for PoA and GoF)