I wonder....

[Stan Kosmoski]

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I have been following the comments here since the
first viewings, and had the chance to see COS twice
this past weekend, coming away with very mixed
feelings.
- I felt this came much closer to the "feel" of what a
Harry Potter movie should be. Good use of humor, lots
of action, paced quickly, very moody, and essentially
true to the books.
- I didnt like the flow of the story. It was too
choppy, and seemed almost like a collection of
"scenes" trying to tie together into a storyline. I
would have liked a tighter, more flowing progression
of events (which the first movie did better). here it
felt like scenes were added because they were in the
book, but not necessarily for what they brought to
advancing the plot. (An example - In the book the the
visit to the spiders was necessary, exciting, and
furthered the plot. In the movie it was overly scary -
for younger viewers -  and did nothing to further the
movie plot. All we learned from this is that Hagrid
was innocent and that there was a monster. This could
have been accomplished much easier through a line of
dialogue by Tom Riddle in the Chamber allowing much
more plot and character development elsewhere)
These types of changes would be more readical
departures from the books, but would make a better
movie.
- There was too little use of what I felt were great
characters who would add spice to the proceedings -
Snape, the Twins, Neville, and Draco. Even Hagrid was
severly downplayed in this movie. Star Trek (TOS)
became just Kirk, Spock, Mccoy and everyone else. This
is becoming HP, Ron, HG, and everyone else with a
splash of Dumbledore to tie up the loose ends.
- Am I prejudiced because I have read the books? The
depth of character and storyline in the books makes
the movie seem rushed, disjointed, and fragmented.
Would I enjoy the movies more if I hadn't read the
books until afterwards? Along the same lines would the
first movie have even been a hit if there had not been
a book series preceeding it?

Casting has been superb, and the sets and mood of the
films right on target. What this series needs more
than a director switch is a skilled storyteller to
write the movies as movies...rather than book
adaptations. The book is canon, but until this becomes
an extended mini-series no movie will do justice to
the storytelling of JK Rowling the author.

Just a few thoughts.

By the way I loved..."Who Am I" at the end. Brilliant!

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