nitpicky mutterings from a long lost soul...

[Scott]

Hi everyone! *waves*
I'm sure no one remember's me, after all it's been over a year since 
I was actively posting anything on HPforgrownups, but alas, alas, 
the movie and the advent of fifth book may well foreshadow my return.
That said below is my general review of CoS along with some notes 
from my second viewing. I have not read archives and I'm sure lots 
of this is reiteration, but I'm an incredibly busy lad and I just 
don't have time...so before you mutter a curse under your breath...
S
P
O
I
L
E
R

S
P
A
C
E

J
U
S
T

I
N

C
A
S
E
!
--Alright, first of all I love the opening shot of the urban sprawl 
that conceals Privet Drive.  Conformity. The mundane nature of 
muggles. That one shot says a lot about both the D's and the muggle 
world in general. 
--There are a lot of unnatural pauses in this movie. It's better 
than the first, but...the Dursely's rounding on Harry to ask what 
he'll be doing is one of them.
--Dobby has a weak chin. Not much more to say. I mean it's not a 
*bad* thing I suppose...overall I quite like Dobby. 
--Harry's bedside table. The "Which Owl?/Glasses shot was really 
good to me, even if the Dursely's *should* have taken everything 
magical away from Harry. It looked good though.
--The Car is too loud. It wakes Harry up while still far in the 
distance. If it's that loud it would have disrupted the sleep of 
many more people than Harry.
--Can't decide about the exterior of the Weasley house...not what I 
pictured at all. What do you guys think?
--Love the interior though! It feels like such a *home* (if that 
makes sense)
--The rubber duck line doesn't ring true. Even though I know the 
function and Mr. Weasley doesn't it...doesn't work. I don't know 
*why* exactly, but it doesn't
--Percy's bed head...(smile)
--Since they weren't going to have Draco and Lucius in Knockturn 
Alley...which they should have done, but...the hand of glory bit is 
rather good. I jumped both times in any case.
--Hermione clashes terribly. What's with that blue sweater? (Is it 
just me?) Not to mention she flaunts the Restriction of Underage 
Wizardry and no one seems to take notice or be in the least worried.
--Lockhart! Kenneth Branagh! What delicious bits of celluloid! The 
teeth are great!
--At King's Cross it's the same attendant as in the first movie. 
Perhaps this is a silly assumption, but doubt that the same person 
would be in the exact same spot in a bustling station (which I 
imagine also has a fairly high job turnover rate, but that's 
speculation) a whole year later???
--It's terrible how they go from london to "we need to find the 
train" and they're in Scotland. Either HandR weren't very concerned 
about following the train or that's one fast flying car. (at least I 
think that bridge bit is in Scotland, having taken a train from 
King's Cross to Edinburgh only a few months ago and the landremained 
positively flat until we reach the Scottish borders...Scots, am I 
right?)
--Where are Madam Sprouts pink earmuffs...wish that detail hadn't 
been ignored. :(
--Even though it's really quick and you don't see her face NHNick 
does acknowledge Percy and Penelope walking together, but  do wish 
that wasn't it.
--It took Ron too long to get the Howler. He should've gotten in the 
next day, but there was a day of classes in between.
--Oh god! I was generally disappointed with what they did with Ron 
the entire movie, especially giving *all* his good lines to 
Hermie...but what bothered me most of all was the most mysterious 
magical object in the movie...Ron's damn robe kept changing colour 
the whole time. Black to grey black to grey. It completely 
distracted me. In the scene where they discover Ms Norris it's 
black, then it cuts to what's maybe five minutes later on the 
stairwell and it's grey...ick. This is a plain *bad* costume choice. 
I mean *why* make 500 black robes and one grey one????????????
--In Transfiguration when McGonagall tells about the chamber there 
are three houses present at leas (We see the trio and other Gryfs, 
Draco et. al, and Huf. Justin Finch Fletchly, who for some reason 
looked as though he would've gone to Eton even though it was never 
stated.) There may've been Raven.'s present too and I didn't notice. 
Anyone else? It doesn't make sense for there to be more than two 
houses in anyone class...just doesn't.
--When we see Ginny writing in the Diary and no one speaking to 
Harry and Harry saying "I'll see you in the common room"...where is 
this? Study hall perhaps?
--I know in the Christmas scene these are people leaving in the 
carriages but it's kind of random to see people leaving and then 
having a feast...just me I expect.
--I liked the mudblood scene. It was very different than the book, 
but I thought Emma handled what they gave her well. I really like 
Emma.
--Where's Ron's Detention?
(this are getting out of order and I stopped taking notes at this 
point in the movie)
--The older costumes...the ties were different, they weren't hooded 
and the sweaters were chunkier...other than that they didn't reveal 
houses of Tom or Myrtle, but that was ok (a suprise for later?) 
Myrtle's skirt was longer. interesting touch.
--Myrtle wasn't spotty! Spotty! Spotty! Spotty!
--If I'd been a kid that spider scene would've been really scary.
--The snake..why can we *sometimes* understand parseltongue and 
sometimes not? It didn't look much like a snake to me, some sort of 
Dinosaur type thing maybe, but still pretty scary.
--"Your bird may've blinded the basilisk but he can still *hear* 
you!" this is horrid. I knew I didn't like this line, and here's 
why, snakes have very weak hearing. They rely mostly on sensing heat 
and vibrations and such...I don't know if throwing that rock would 
*really* distract a snake...and I don't care to find out.
--Richard Harris pretty good! He has some really warm moments. 
(getting tired of typing, not to mention you're tired of 
reading...almost done)
--what the hell is up with this last scene? It just doesn't make 
much sense really...I mean H,H and R are really the only kids we 
even see to be good friends of hagrid...and I wanted to see everyone 
in their pyjamas so badly.
--cute with Lockhart at the end of the credits.

Overall, a good movie and sooo phenomenally better than the first. 
It's kind of like carrying all your bags around an airport and then 
checking them and just having the carry-on. The weight of problems 
(fixable problems nonetheless) is still there but it's much lighter.

Well that's about it, for now at least. Wake up, wake up! Sorry if I 
bored you all to tears, it wasn't intentional, I promise!

It's good to be back!

Scott