[COS SPOILERS] Bullet-point review

[GulPlum]

As promised before the weekend, here's a small (?!) summary of what I 
thought about the movie. It's been a VERY long weekend for me and I 
*think* I've caught up with my sleep. :-)

At least I got to see the movie a total of not-quite four times... 
(the "not quite" will be explained).

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GOOD POINTS:

- First and foremost Lucius, Lucius and once again Lucius. Dispite 
mispronouncing his name by my reckoning :-) Isaacs did his homework, 
had some ideas and ran with them as far as he could. I liked every 
one of them, even the flowing hair, which I know some peoole don't 
like.

- Arthur Weasley. Only a very short appearance and not quite like in 
the book, but Mark Williams has made the character his own. By a 
strange coincidence (or was it?), one of the trailers showing before 
the movie is for "Anita & Me", in which Williams plays a trendy vicar 
in the seventies, which nicely built up the anticipation. :-)

- Dobby. A week ago, I would have laughed if I'd thought I'd be 
saying that. Both technically (ie the CG work) and the appearance/ 
voice, I was utterly gobsmacked. He is no PS/SS troll, and I found 
the character quite endearing in a way I didn't when reading the 
book. I didn't like the instance of Dobby referring to himself in the 
first person, though (in the hospital, about how the House Elves were 
treated like vermin in the Dark days). :-)

- Polyjuice sequence and Moaning Myrtle. The transformation itself is 
a very cinematic moment in the book anyway, but I thought the few 
changes they introduced were for the good. The Crabbe & Goyle actors 
playing Ron & Harry playing themselves were terrific. Ron's 
throwaway "how thick can you get?" line was priceless (in the book, I 
found it a bit weird that C&G would go for it). Having seen Shirley 
Henderson in "Once Upon a Time in the Midlands" just recently, I 
couldn't see her pulling off playing a teenager, but she got it down 
excellently. In answer to a comment I saw somewhere, yes, that is her 
*real* voice, squeakiness and fingernails-on-a-blackboard 
scratchiness included. :-)

- The Chamber squence, with a couple of exceptions. However, having 
heard all the hype about how wonderful it was and how they'd made it 
look taller than it was, I was expecting it to be somewhat *more* 
impressive. I'd got the impression from some of the publicity 
material that at some stage Ron was in the Chamber itself; I was 
relieved to find that this isn't the case.

- Little touches in the script which, although departures from the 
book, added a little something. A few examples: Hermione fixing 
Harry's glasses in Diagon Alley ("Oculus Repairo") and 
Harry's "Thanks, I definitely need to remember that one". Vernon's 
reference to Hedwig as a "pigeon" (that one had me in stitches). 
Lucius's lines in Flourish & Blotts and the fact that *he* 
establishes that the Grangers are Muggles (the implication is that 
for most wizards, the distinction is irrelevant so it's never been 
brought up, but for him, it is). Unlike some, I'm glad that Arthur 
didn't physically attack Lucius.

BAD POINTS:

- First and foremost, the last scene in the Great Hall. From 
beginning to end. What the hell were they thinking? I honestly don't 
have a single good thing to say about it: Badly written, poorly 
acted, at odds with the book and so sugary that diabetics should stay 
away. It was *so* bad that I walked out of the cinema after my first 
viewing feeling the whole film was bad, as it had so coloured my 
experience. For my second viewing, I left the cinema before the cut 
to that scene and as a result, felt much better about the film 
overall.

- Daniel's acting. I'm going to be tactless and say that I'm glad 
that Daniel has interests outside acting on which he might build a 
future career, because on the evidence of this film, without some 
serious coaching he's not going to get anywhere. In his defence, 
though, I suspect that his main failing isn't necessarily a lack of 
talent, but that he seems too self-conscious. He doesn't appear to 
abandon himself to the role and half of his dialogue was spoken as if 
he didn't understand what he was saying. He did very well in the 
action sequences, but in scenes which required a degree of subtlety, 
he (or rather, Columbus) seemed to rely on his admittedly very sweet 
smile. I am geatting heartily sick of getting ultra close-ups of his 
face (a Columbus trademark). This was acceptable in the first film, 
where the character was meant to be innocent and lost in this new 
world, but CoS presents a much more complicated Harry, and this 
simply didn't come across. As with most 10 or 11 years old, he got 
the part because he looked it; that is no longer enough. Another 
element is Columbus's direction, so I might change my mind about 
Daniel after I've seen what Cuaron gets out of him.

- Rupert. This is more Columbus's fault than Rupert's. Many people 
commented on Rupert's "rubber face" abilities in the first film, and 
Columbus relied on that aspect far too much in this one. The problem 
is that Rupert's facial mimickry isn't *that* good: in this film, he 
had two basic facial expressions: gormless and terrified. There was 
little in between and very little subtelty. I think Columbus should 
have spent more effort on getting Rupert to deliver his lines 
properly (which he didn't, most of the time) rather than close in on 
his face over and over again.

- Richard Harris. He was visibly ill and haggard, and should not have 
agreed to do this film. He looked uncomfortable and was completely 
unconvincing. He did himself a major disservice by this being his 
last appearance on screen; otherwise his last film would have 
been "The Field", in which he is reputed to have been on top form 
(I've not seen it yet). 

- Tom Felton. For starters, his accent was all over the place. 
Sometimes quite upper class, sometimes straight out of the bottom of 
the Thames. YUK.

- Everyone introducing themselves. I appreciate that the team needed 
to make quick introductions to the characters for the benefit of 
viewers who may not have seen the first film, but I thought the 
introductions were a bit heavy-handed. Example: the flying car is 
outside Harry's window. Harry: "Ron, Fred, George! What are you 
doing?"; Diagon Alley: "Hello Hagrid", "Hello Hermione", with the 
names audibly underlined. Colin Creevey gets a single line in the 
whole movie: "Hello, I'm Colin Creevey. I'm in Gryffindor too". 

- Flying car sequence: too long. A more general comment: Columbus put 
too much effort into making the set pieces the talk of the film and 
some of them dragged on more than they should have. The car sequence 
is one of these. The Whomping Willow didn;t convince me at all.

- Hagrid being taken away and his return (see also above). Neither 
scene had any emotional punch and we weren't made to feel that this 
was a major bad experience.

- Parseltongue. I knew from the hype that Dan was going to be 
speaking it rather than English on screen. I didn't like the idea 
before seeing the film, and I still don't. The film's dialogue makes 
a direct reference to the first film's snake scene, during which 
Harry spoke (and heard) English, so I simply couldn't work out why 
this should change. Too big a deal of it was made during the Duelling 
Club scene, the reaction shots were limp and unconvincing, and 
considering its length, it took Snape *far* too long to do anything 
about it. The audience would have shared Harry's (and everyone 
else's) astonishment if the on-screen snake dialogue had been in 
English. 

A FEW OTHER COMMENTS

I'll try not to raise things I've seen in other posts. These are 
mainly changes from the book; some of them I liked, some not. These 
are in the order in which they occur to me rather than movie running 
order.

- Lack of apology from Justin Filtch-Fletchley for having suspected 
Harry. Although there was only one scene which implied the pupils' 
distrust of Harry (F&G's "make way for the heir" was redone to a 
statement during Quidditch practice), it was too subtle (not 
something one would expect from Columbus!), this arc needed closure.

- Harry's "Sir" to Vernon after Dobby's first appearance. Sorry, it 
just wouldn't happoen in England. What happened to the first movie's 
respectful "Uncle Vernon"?

- Despite my reservations above about Dan's acting, I thought his 
delivery of the "I'll be in my room [...] pretenting I don't exist" 
line was done to perfection. Just the right hint of sarcasm, a little 
glint in his eye, but on the surface, very respectful.

- Ginny's reference to "jumper" at The Burrow. The tittering in the 
various audiences with which I saw the movie indicated where the 
online fans were sitting, anticipating the US audiences' reaction. :-)

- At Flourish & Blotts, it's the photographer who pulls Harry out of 
the crowd, not Lockhart (although Lockhart does notice him). I would 
have preferred it if the original version had prevailed. In fact, had 
I been the director, I'd have arranged the whole scene entirely 
differently.

- Lucius ends the F&B confrontation with "see you at work" to Arthur. 
I don't like the idea of Malfoy "working" at the Ministry, nor do I 
like the implication that he can consider Arthur a "colleague" in any 
way. This was mirrored by Draco's "see you at school" to the Trio 
immediately afterwards, of course.

- Draco as vandal/thief. A couple of hints to this effect are made. 
Draco's first appearance at Flourish & Blotts features him tearing a 
page out of a book and putting it in his pocket. Later on, in the 
Slytherin common room, he picks up a box from the table, asks C&G (ie 
Harry & Ron) :-) if it's theirs and pockets it when they say no. 

- Lucius putting the diary into Ginny's cauldron is very, very 
obvious if you're looking out for it. But for first-time viewers, 
it's imperceptible. VERY well done.

- I suspect this is going to be controversial: I didn't like the way 
THE anagram was done. Yes, it was done *exactly* the way it was in 
the book, in which it worked fine. But after Riddle's speech, writing 
his name in the air takes too long. This was meant to be a major 
climax, but it was deflated by the delay in getting the letters up. 
If it had been down to me, I'd have had him point at the diary (or 
rather, his embossed name thereon), and have those letters rearrange 
themselves. 

- Lack of Ron's detention at the beginning. Riddle's plaque appeared 
in the first movie; making a direct reference to it this time would 
have been a very nice touch, and had viewers scurrying for their 
DVDs/videos as soon as they got home. ;-)

- I did, however, like Hermione & Ron telling Harry that hearing 
voices is a BAD thing even in the wizarding world (and having it 
confirmed by a picture on the wall). This made Harry's reluctance to 
say anything about it much more believable.

- No Dippett in the diary flashback, with the plot elements provided 
by Dumbledore istead. I liked this, and in particular his "do you 
have something you want to tell me?" and his dismissal of Tom 
mirroring his dismissal of Harry.

- I'm not 100% certain, but I think the guard at King's Cross was the 
same guy from the first movie. Nice touch. :-)

- Harry's request to Dumbledore at the end of the movie "Can I have 
that?" rather than the book's "Can I give that diary back to Mr 
Malfoy, please?" is *so* much weaker. I did, however, prefer putting 
the sock inside the diary rather than the other way around. However, 
the sock was a little too clean. :-) (incidentally, nice bit of 
foreshadowing: Dobby falls out of the wardrobe at the beginning of 
the film with a dirty sock on his nose...).

- The Howler. Whilst the animation was very good, the sequence 
petered out, rather than ended with a (literal) bang, and I 
particularly didn't like the Ginny congratulations tacked onto the 
end.

- The Weasley clock. Positions include "Dentist" and "Quidditch". 
Very amusing. Note, however,we only see the top half of it up close. 
Doubtless the production team thought that seeing the rest might be a 
spoiler... :-)

OK, I think I'll end this here as I need to go out and I see there's 
a temporary lull in the rain. :-) Some more thoughts might occur to 
me with time (and further viewings).