Washington Post review (ouch!)

[GulPlum]

--- In HPFGU-Movie at y..., rvotaw at i... wrote:


> Well, I didn't agree with a thing he said.  He obviously didn't
> have a clue what Harry Potter is actually about, and I highly 
> suspect that he was writing something else while watching the 
> movie, thus not understanding what on Earth was going on.  

Errr... I apologise in advance if this sounds rude (it's honestly not 
meant to) but he was reviewing a movie which you've not seen. On what 
basis can you possibly disagree with everything he says?

The fact is, the movie *IS* a narrative mess. I saw PS/SS not having 
read the book, but could still make out the thrust of the story 
despite not understanding a couple of things until I'd read the book; 
with CoS, I can't be objective but I can honestly see how someone who 
has not read the book might see it as a series of non-sequiturs.

A few of the things the movie does not address, or if it does, 
they're so subtle that only people who've read the book can see them 
(this is FAR from an exhaustive list!):

- Ginny's crush on Harry
- explanation for why Ron & Co arrive to "save" Harry (ie no 
implication that they've been worried about lack of communication)
- letter from Hermione arranging to meet in Diagon Alley (she's just 
*there* with her parents)
- Riddle's "Award for Services to Hogwarts" (on what basis does Harry 
make any kind of connection between him and the Chamber?)
- Colin's fascination with Harry (major disappointment)
- establishment of who is and isn't Muggle-born (we're left to infer 
it from the Basilisk's victims)

And a few other departures from canon:

As I've said before, I have a HUGE problem with the fact that Harry 
speaks Parseltongue rather than English. He hears English in the 
walls, and spoke English to the snake in PS/SS. I'm sure this is all 
quite puzzling to newcomers to the story.

There is absolutely no sense of deepening malaise after the Basilisk 
attacks. The *only* person affected appears to be Harry. There is 
only one small indication of the school turning against Harry (and no 
real direct connection with the attacks or the Parseltongue).

No MoM warning letter about doing magic at home.

Conflation of time (Harry arrives at The Burrow; they seem 
immediately to depart for Diagon Alley and immediately after that to 
leave for Kings Cross).

Something I find particularly worrying is the recuction of Ron's role 
to comic relief. He comes out of this movie appearing quite 
horrendously stupid.

I therefore find it perfectly reasonable for someone who has not read 
the books to find the movie confusing. Heck, it wasn't until I'd re-
read the book and refreshed my memory about a few things that it 
stopped being confusing for me!

> I hate ill informed writers who don't properly research before
> writing.

Whilst that accusation may be (slightly) addressed to Todd Leopold on 
CNN (although I found his article to be reasonably fair), movie 
reviewers are NOT required to research the background to movies. If a 
movie doesn't stand on its own merits, there's nothing wrong with 
pointing it out. And I would submit that there is nothing wrong in 
itself with people not reading the HP books...

I'd add to that, that whilst PS/SS made me want to read the book, I'm 
not so sure that CoS would have had the same effect...