My COS Review

[jonathandupont]

I really don't get this previews thing here in the UK at all, but I 
guess I ought to be grateful. I just don't get what exactly the point 
is.

Anyhow ...

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Okay, those thoughts are going to be completely random, and just be 
written down as they come out of my head.

- I liked the cloud motif they used at the beginning and at two later 
places to cut between scenes. Nice way to use the flying car thing.

- They really used a lot of John Williams music again, didn't they? 
The only new theme I remember is Fawke's. OTOH I think the score was 
probably better arranged overall due to the lack of Hedwig's Theme 
being repeated again and again and ...

- I can't really complain about much in the film up till they get to 
Hogwarts. I especially liked can't-remember-his-name as Arthur 
Wealey, and Jason Isaacs just managed to get away with that 
ridiculous sceptre contraption

- Except, of course, for Daniel Radcliffe's acting. The more I watch 
the original (which admittedly is only three times overall), the less 
I'm impressed. He just doesn't have sufficient timing or emotion and 
I'm very worried about how he's gonna handle stuff in POA. I hate it 
when not so good main actors ruin good acting (see "Angel").

- Rupert Grint is still very good at what he does, although I felt 
they traded in a bit too much on things from the first film. And he 
only really has one comedic expression which gets tired. When he does 
something different, he's good enough though, although I'm not sure 
what he's like with serious stuff. I wouldn't want to change him, 
anyhow.

- I'm trying to remember if I had problems with Emma Watson in the 
first movie. Whatever, she was pretty much perfect in this one, 
although she has hardly any screen time. However, the writing for her 
wasn't particularly that sharp. Quite a few times they made her use 
too many long words just for the sake of it. Oh, and not particularly 
interesting fact - I have a friend who has a friend who is her 
cousin. Apparently they get lots of sneak showings and general free 
goodies.

- Steve Kloves shows absolutely no sign of relenting from the main 
flaws of the first movie - the complete lack of the school element of 
the story and his eradication of much of the books' humour. Split 
into two:- 

a)It amazes me that whenever a JKR line is left in it always provokes 
more of a laugh, yet many are changed for no good reason (... "Or 
maybe he's waiting to hear why two didn't arrive on the school 
train", "Which goes to show that the best of us must sometimes eat 
our words" etc.)

b) Dumbledore still keenly misses his humourous side. Even worse, 
Fred and George just don't appear, which IMO unbalances the story 
rather a lot. It annoys me that there's only left a rather weak 
homage to perhaps my favourite moment in the series ("Make way for 
the Heir of Slytherin, seriously evil wizard coming through...")

c) Related to the above, Kloves really, really needs to discover the 
power of the MONTAGE. Or just a short inbetween scene. In this movie 
its all EVENT EVENT EVENT, basically the chapter titles from the book 
are taken and shown. But this is not really what has created the 
richest fandom I know - it is the world. We need small scenes of them 
in the corridors - Fred & George's random comments, Peeves to a 
lesser extent, Percy and Penelope, Ginny and her crush, and so on. 
The last is especially important, as without it the end of the movie 
may seem unfair to the audience.

- Kenneth Branagh rocks too, come to think of it. Not quite how I'd 
have intepreted the character, but good enough. What I was going on 
about above does mean he's missing from the middle, which is not 
good. And of course there's even less Snape and so on.

- A rather silly moment in the Polyjuice scene where Harry stays in 
sight while Ron and Hermione run away, just because they can't afford 
the budget. They could have tried to put a slight better reason in 
for them to suddenty disappear :) The morphing shot itself was good.

- The special effects are very much improved. Even Dobby's CGI isn't 
that bad, and I liked the monster at the end. According to interviews 
I had the impression that they had changed more in this one for the 
action sequences, whereas I felt this time they were much more in the 
spirit of the book rather than the complete changes to the finale we 
had last time. It was good stop, although I missed "Do you see what 
he's doing, Potter? He's crying."

- I love long movies but I think the end was a bit too long in this 
one, so that the structure felt unbalance. By that, I mean the time 
after they've left the Chamber. I'm glad that they at least didn't go 
through the house points again. I think they really shouldn't have 
written in such a long Lucius scene - the time could have been used 
better earlier on. 

- The hug ... Or lack of a hug. When I first heard about this, it was 
talked up as a H/H moment. As it is, presuming Steve Kloves has 
talked to JKR, it's a pretty clear confirmation that in GOF Hermione 
returns Ron's feelings (insert the word 'crush', if your bias goes 
the other way). I think. Of course that's a shipping comment, so I'm 
sure someone can probably argue it down.

- Having Hagrid returning as the end I don't think really worked - we 
just hadn't seen enough of him in this one. It wasn't like PS where 
he was appearing every five seconds, and I don't really see the rest 
of the school being that affectionate to him, anyway. I'm also very 
worried, after someone pointed it out, that he's now doomed in Book 5.

- Overall, I thought that it was very enjoyable and taken as a sequel 
and not a standalone probably a better experience than the first. I'm 
really looking forward to seeing what they do with POA. OTOH I don't 
think they'll ever replace the books (which I'm currently very 
tempted to read again, come to think of it). These thoughts may look 
negative, but that's because there's a lot more to say about stuff 
that went wrong. :) If I haven't complained about it, that's because 
I think it was perfect, and there was a lot of stuff I didn't 
complain about.

Good work.

Next up : Book Five

Jon