SPOILER; CoS review, the good and the bad

[TACtalk at adelanta.co.uk]

Following on from Richard's post:-

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I agree with most of what you said; here are my comments on your review,
and a couple of others thrown in:-

>GOOD POINTS:

>- 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).

I liked that they kept DR/RG's voices throughout.

> 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. :-)

She was also in Bridget Jones's Diary; squeakiness a little toned down.


>BAD POINTS:
>
>- First and foremost, the last scene in the Great Hall. From
>beginning to end. What the hell were they thinking?

I concluded that Columbus had had his way on that, over Heyman's advice. I
cannot *ever* imagine British teenagers acting like that. Utterly wrong.
How do you think they should have ended the movie?

>
>- 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.(snip) Another
>element is Columbus's direction, so I might change my mind about
>Daniel after I've seen what Cuaron gets out of him.

I don't really agree about DR's acting; I think that he has it in him, but
I also think that Columbus doesn't manage to bring it out. I noticed in
PS/SS that it's always worth watching DR's eyes; he manages to convey
emotion very well with them, but his body-language is not as eloquent. I
found the body-language better in CoS (though he still flaps his hands
about on occasion; Columbus should have cured that by now) but didn't
really observe his eyes too closely; will watch out for that next time
around.
Best examples of conveying emotion through his eyes in PS/SS; when he
watches Uncle Vernon burning the letters, and in the outtake which appeared
on the DVD when he is in the Great Hall, mesmerised by the Mirror of
Erised.


>- 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.

Sorry, can't resist a 'Me too' here. It was particularly startling in
contrast to Isaacs's very patrician accent.

>- 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.

Yes; the later scenes in  Parseltongue would have been enough.

> 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.

What I noticed was that the snake did not visibly back off when Harry spoke
to it, as it should have done. Also; why did the other kids keep hanging
around the stage area when the snake appeared? Surely the natural reaction
would be to retreat as fast as possible, with the snake pursuing if
necessary.

>A FEW OTHER COMMENTS
>- 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.

But no big deal was made about Justin anyway; only that he was the one
threatened by the snake; no mention that he was Muggle-born and had told
Harry about being down for Eton. Neither did we know that Colin was
Muggle-born; those scenelets were omitted. I also thought that Harry was
too nice to Colin; in the book, the younger boy was driving him crazy with
the camera.

>- 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.

Yes; and why did Lockhart not announce then that he would be the new DADA
teacher?
But I did like Branagh; excellent in the part; would have liked to have
seen more of him.

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

Yes, it was.

>- 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.

I thought that Mrs Weasley wasn't nearly fierce enough. When she was
telling Mr W about the boys taking the car, she was almost avuncular.
That's not how she was written. Julie Walters is perfectly capable of being
a harridan, so assume that this was Columbus again. The Howler should also
have been fiercer and louder; but I did like the way it was shaped like a
mouth.

>
>- 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... :-)

I would have liked to see more of The Burrow, and I really missed the
de-gnoming scene.

The Special effects were much better than in PS/SS, but I wasn't happy with
the Quidditch; not enough Quidditch, too much racing around the
grandstands, which was reminiscent of the flights through the Death Star
canyons in the first 'Star Wars' movie. I liked the de-boning!

I also liked Malfoy's comment to 'Goyle', who was wearing Harry's glasses
('They're for reading? I didn't know that you could read!') Not in the
book, because there Harry did take off his glasses when he turned into
Goyle.

Overall, I wasn't exactly spellbound by CoS; however, I seem to remember
feeling the same about PS/SS, and that one definitely grew on me. I'll
probably see CoS again next weekend. I've only managed to see it three
times already.

Regards,
Nicholas