Random thoughts about the movie, etc. -- CoS Nitpics

[GulPlum]

I agree with most of what marephraim wrote, except for a few comments 
or corrections/answers:

> Having McGonnigall spill the beans about the legend of the Chamber 
> versus Flitwick did seem a bit unnecessary, but there you go. 

It was Binns (Hisotry of Magic) who spilled the beans in the book. 

As it happens, I have an ABSOLUTELY HUGE problem with McGonagall, of 
all people, giving the exposition of the Chamber legend. I can 
understand that the producers didn't want to introduce yet another 
teacher, but under the circumstances, I would have preferred it if 
Flitwick had been given those lines (the fact that poor Warwick 
Davies didn't have a single audible line throughout the movie should 
have been reason enough!).

The reason for my objection is that it makes a mockery of 
McGonagall's status. Let me explain.

In the book, as I said, the exposition is given by Binns. All we know 
about him is that he's a ghost and he doesn't socialise with the 
other staff. We don't know how long he's been teaching at Hogwarts, 
and (from memory, please correct me if I'm wrong) we don't know how 
long ago he died. Therefore, we don't know if he was around for the 
Chamber's opening fifty years previously and he could be forgiven for 
treating the whole Chamber story as a myth. Similar comments could be 
made about Flitwick.

McGonagall, on the other hand, is Deputy Head Teacher and should know 
more about the school. I know that there's fan speculation about just 
when she attended Hogwarts as a pupil herself and that her student 
days must have been very close to Riddle's (if not overlapping), but 
even dismissing that, surely she should know that the Chamber *had* 
been opened? She's Dumbledore's second in command, and in view of the 
first attacks this time, SURELY Dumbledore would have briefed her 
about what had happened the last time, even if she didn't already 
know about it? SURELY she knows about Hagrid's expulsion in 
connection with the last opening? Then WHY, for goodness' sake, does 
her exposition underline the Chamber's status as "legend"? Why does 
she fail to acknowledge that it is real and had caused trouble 
before? 

Binns may not have known about Riddle's first time, but if McGonagall 
doesn't, she really, truly, does not deserve to be in her position.

On top of all of all those canon objections, having her exposition 
state that the Chamber exists, that it was opened 50 years 
previously, and that Hagrid was suspected of having opened it, would 
have made the movie's plot significantly clearer and could have saved 
running time later on by removing further unnecessary exposition.

> And did I miss it, or did Justin Finch-
> Fletchly not get petrified? (This may be a complete senior moment 
> for me, so forgive please.) 

Yes, he did. Through Nearly Headless Nick (the petrification which 
results in Harry's first visit to Dumbledore's office).

<snip>

> If Cuaron is as good as people say (I've never 
> seen one of his movies) I doubt we've much to worry about. It might 
> actually make PoA a better movie. In fact, I wouldn't mind a bit of 
> compression or potential elimination of certain things to make a 
> better movie. 

He's certainly got a much better grasp of story-telling than 
Columbus. From the press hype, it seems that he recently sent back 
the first draft of the script with his comments to Kloves, so it 
seems that he's taking an active role in the script development, 
which cheers me no end.

On a stylistic point, if his previous movies are any basis for 
judgment (I've seen three of his four major movies to date), we're 
likely to lose Columbus's tired (and tiresome!) use of Hogwarts 
flyovers as transition sequences, and he'll probably replace 
Columbus's penchant for downward vertical pans with his own penchant 
for upward ones. :-)