Seventeen points against the movie...

[dragondor1709 at yahoo.com]

--- In HPFGU-Movie at y..., Andrea <ra_1013 at y...> wrote:
> Some interesting points. :)  I'll comment here and there.
> 
> --- pigwidgeon37 at y... wrote:
> > (to say nothing of the fact that they 
> > have what must be breakfast at the LEaky Cauldron and Harry eats 
some 
> > kind of soup which for breakfast is a tad unusual)
> 
> Well, this was *after* they'd done all their shopping, so I assumed 
it was
> lunch.  Soup's not that unusual then. ;)
>  
> > 2) My strongest objection to the film: Richard Harris as 
Dumbledore. 
> > Where is the smile, where is the fundamental goodness of this 
great 
> > man, where is his wonderful eccentricity? Here is an 
inaccessible, 
> > rather authoritarian personality who would never ever say (and in 
> > fact he doesn't) that his heart's desire are warm socks.
> 
> Yes!  I sorely missed this about Dumblydore.  Harris just didn't 
have that
> twinkle we've come to know and love about him.
> 
> > 3) From what I saw, the Sorting Hat has already been argued about-
 
> > anyway, it remains incomprehensible to me *why* on earth it's 
> > impossible to give the hat a tiny little voice, and why the 
children 
> > cannot be called in alphabetical order.
> 
> Alphabetical order was dispensed with for dramatic purposes. (Did 
you
> honestly want to wait through the whole sea of kids getting Sorted 
before
> Harry?  And who would wait around *after* Harry was Sorted to see 
where
> Ron ended up?)  I sort of liked the hat's voice, though.  Where did 
it say
> it was supposed to be tiny?
> 
> > 4)To somebody who hasn't read the book, it cannot be clear why 
Harry 
> > doesn't want to become a Slytherin. There is one short thing Ron 
> > mutters to him (originally Hagrid's line) about all Dark Wizards 
> > being ex-Slytherins, but that is certainly not enough.
> 
> His only friend so far just got Sorted into Gryffindor, after 
telling him
> that all the bad ones go to Slytherin.  The one he *doesn't* like 
just got
> put into Slytherin.  I think that's sufficient to make an 11 year 
old boy
> want a different House.
> 
> > 5) It is never stated that McGonagall is Head of Gryffindor and 
Snape 
> > Head of Slytherin, albeit it is vitally important to the plot, 
above 
> > all to make Snape seem to be the Bad Guy.
> 
> I have seen so many people saying this!!  The FIRST thing we hear 
about
> Snape is Percy saying, "Oh, that's Professor Snape, *HEAD OF 
SLYTHERIN
> HOUSE*."  Harry asks what he teaches, Percy replies with Potions 
and the
> spiel of how he really wants DADA.  It is certainly established 
that Snape
> is head of Slytherin, although I'll admit that McGonagall is not 
described
> as head of Gryffindor.
>  
> > 6) The way the HRH friendship develops has, IMHO, been completely 
> > bungled. The three of them are shown together in a not so 
unfriendly 
> > way when Hermione leads Harry to the showcase with James Potter's 
> > brass plaque (a totally unnecessary scene, and Hermione's 
line "It's 
> > in your blood" is of such striking banality!). Anyway, besides 
from 
> > being unnecessary, the scene spoils the effect of the trio 
becoming 
> > friends after Harry and Ron have knocked out the troll.
> 
> This is a bit that I think worked fairly well on screen, where it 
wouldn't
> have worked in the book.  Hermione *thinks* she's Harry & Ron's 
friend
> before the troll incident.  I think she decided, "I met them on the 
train,
> they're my House-mates, of COURSE we're friends."  Which is why she 
spoke
> up about James being a Quidditch player.  And *that* is why it hurt 
her
> feelings so much when she heard Ron saying she was a nightmare and 
didn't
> have any friends.  Just hearing a random kid you don't like saying 
that
> isn't bad enough to send you to hide in the bathroom crying all 
day, but
> hearing someone YOU thought of as a friend say that is much worse.
> 
> > 8) Did JKR *tell* Columbus that Voldemort went to Godric's Hollow 
> > unaccompanied? Or did Columbus make that up by himself? That 
would re-
> > raise the question of how V.'s wand and clothes got into 
Pettigrew's 
> > hands.
> 
> We heard that she wrote a new scene especially for the movie.  I 
assumed
> this was it.
> 
> > 9) Another one in the interminable list of small things that are 
> > different from the book but wouldn't need to be: Why does the 
> > Invisibility cloak have to look like a Persian carpet instead of 
> > being silvery grey?
> 
> I thought it was *really* cool looking, but I don't understand why 
it
> couldn't have been grey, either.
> 
> > 10) What's everybody's opinion about the moving staircases? For 
my 
> > taste, they are much too scary and exaggerated.
> 
> I liked them, for the most part, and as someone else said, it was 
an easy
> way to get them to the forbidden floor while leaving out the
> time-consuming "duel" challenge from Malfoy, etc.
> 
> > [snip "We need the potion challenge] Important because she 
> > is awarded 50 points "for the use of cool logic in the face of 
> > danger", which certainly doesn't refer to the Devil's Snare, but 
to 
> > the potion puzzle.
> 
> If you'll notice, Hermione acted a great deal more on her own in the
> Devil's Snare here than in the book.  She's the one who figured out 
how to
> get them all out, and quite simply saved Ron's life.  He wasn't far 
from
> being strangled, but she remembered the plant's weakness and the 
spell to
> stop it.  I'd say that's worth 50 points.  The potions challenge, 
frankly,
> would not have translated well to screen, no matter how much I 
loved it.
> 
> > 14) What are they going to do about characters like Binns, Peeves 
and 
> > Sprout? Spout f.ex. will be essential in the next film, let alone 
> > that she's also Head of House, but then the fact that there *is* 
such 
> > a thing as heads of houses is completely neglected (see above)
> 
> They'll just introduce them in the next film.  It's clear that we 
don't
> meet EVERYONE in Hogwarts during this movie (or during the books, 
for that
> matter!).  We'd never had any reference to Trelawny before POA, but 
we
> accepted her arrival as a long-established Hogwarts prof who Harry 
simply
> hadn't come across before.
>  
> > 15) *Very* personal POV: I simply hate Gred and Forge! They look 
like 
> > they were two Percys- I cannot imagine them as the super-
pranksters 
> > they should be!
> 
> I really missed the Christmas scene with the Weasleys!  I'm hoping 
and
> praying it's in the DVD (along with the Platform 9 3/4 bit).  They
> certainly seemed like pranksters to me - the first time we meet 
them they
> pull the "He's not Fred, I am!" bit which is just hilarious - 
although not
> quite as much as in the books.  I'm confident that will be 
established bit
> by bit through the next two movies so the Marauder's Map won't seem 
out of
> place.  (BTW, to those who've complained about it, since they 
didn't have
> the bit about blowing up a toilet at Platform 9 3/4, Dumbledore 
mentioning
> the twins sending a toilet seat wouldn't make a lot of sense!)
> 
> > 5) A detail I liked immensely: Harry taking those completely 
> > nonsensical notes at the beginning of the Potions lesson.
>  
> Wasn't that *cute*?  I was so ANGRY with Snape for accusing him of 
not
> paying attention when he was dilligently taking notes.  Poor kid.
> 
> 
> 
> Andrea
> 
> =====
> "Reality is for people who lack imagination."

I haven't read all of your posts. Boy do your minds work overtime or 
what. All this analysis of a movie. You reminded me of two things. 
One about Professor Sprout who got left out of the movie. In the 
book,Hermoine rememebers about the plant and its properties I believe 
because of their herbology lessons. Which were never brought up in 
the film. So right there,except for her looking it up,it doesn't make 
a whole lot of sense as a line in the film. I think the other thing I 
was remembering was that the reason Harry didn't want to go to 
Slytherin,was because of the dark wizard reference,Malfoy,and Snape 
being the head of Slytherin. More things from the book that were left 
out of the movie. Chris
> 
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