Seventeen points against the movie...

[Barb]

--- In HPFGU-Movie at y..., Andrea <ra_1013 at y...> wrote:
> --- pigwidgeon37 at y... wrote:
 
> > 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. [snip]  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."  [snip] 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.

Excellent point.  She was previously sort of "insinuating" herself 
into their conversations; I also disliked the "it's in your blood" 
line.  Did Kloves swallow a bunch of bad cliches for lunch and feel 
compelled to spit them back out?  (Shades of Ron's slug problem in 
CoS? <g>) 
 
> > 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.

I'm unclear about why people think Voldemort didn't go to Godric's 
Hollow alone.  If Pettigrew had been there, he probably would have 
tried to to kill Harry himself after Voldemort failed, especially 
since Harry was responsible for his master being reduced to less than 
spirit.  Thus either Harry would have been killed after all, or if 
the protection his mother's love gave him extended to ANYONE who 
tried to kill him, Pettigrew would have been hit by a rebounding 
curse.  My guess is that Peter came by later (after Hagrid had 
fetched Harry) to see the devastation he expected Voldemort to wreak 
(whether because he felt guilty or to gloat JKR will still have to 
decide) and found the dropped wand.  Why does Peter need to preserve 
Voldemort's clothes?  This seems unnecessary.  The wand is the 
important thing.
 
> > 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.

This served to point up how unfair Snape was in singling him out.  He 
was trying to be very conscientious, after all.  It was the first day 
of school.  Who else but Hermione would have read the entire text and 
have it memorized by then?  I do wish we'd seen Neville melting a 
cauldron or two instead of Seamus blowing up water and feathers.  
Where in the books do we get things exploding when spells are done 
incorrectly?

--Barb