COS Soundtrack, and MOVIE ANXIETY!!!

[GulPlum]

Lilac wrote (a lot more than I've left here):

> I didn't love the movie like I expected to, and I felt let down. 
> But, the more I saw the movie, the more I began to appreciate it in 
> and of itself, as it's own separate entity.  Now I can actually say 
> I love the movie, but it took quite a few times to get to that 
> point.   

> <Takes a deep, calming breath>  I'm just so afraid of being let 
> down again.  Silly, isn't it?  Does anyone out there know what I'm 
> talking about?

Yes, I know exactly what you're talking about, although my HP 
experience was very different, as I'd not read the books before I saw 
the PS/SS movie. 

I'm much more of an avid film-goer (that's something of an 
understatement - I go to the cinema at least 3-4 times a week!) :-) 
than avid book-reader (of fiction), and everything I'd heard about HP 
before I saw the first film had put me right off. Furthermore, the 
film magazines I read are the more scholarly/arty type, which don't 
reproduce Hollywood hype. My entire exposure to the HP film franchise 
was what I'd seen on TV (which wasn't much outside Kids' TV, which I 
don't watch) and the painted buses going through town - probably 80% 
of local public transport took on an HP theme! I therefore knew 
nothing about the movie or the franchise beyond what I'd read in the 
pretentious reviews I'd seen.

I saw the movie at a preview showing a week before it went public and 
left the cinema perplexed as to why Snape should hate Harry so much, 
so I bought a copy of PS/SS on the way home. By the time I went to 
bed that night, I'd finished the book and started looking around 
online for what fans thought. Most of what I read (mainly on 
alt.fan.harry-potter; I'm a Usenet junkie!) made it clear to me that 
I should read the remaining books if I wanted to participate or not 
get spoiled about future movies, so over the next few days I read the 
remaining books. 

I then saw the movie again on the first day of public showing and 
started getting involved in the online HP community. Since then, I've 
read the first four books cover-to-cover once more (during the 
summer), which confirmed PoA as my favourite. Of course, for the 
purposes of one online dicsussion or another, I've re-read odd 
segments of the books. 

I've pointedly refused to re-read CoS in any detail, and certainly 
not in its entirety, which I'm saving for after I've seen the film. 
As a result, although I know who dunnit and how, I want the movie 
experience to be as fresh as it can be. I also intend to write two 
reviews: one before I re-read the book and one after, for my own 
benefit. I have a great problem with reviews of films made from 
books, especially if the books are widely read, because it's very 
difficult to maintain any distance from the source material. 

An OT example: I saw The Bourne Identity earlier this year and didn't 
like it ONE SINGLE BIT. I'd gone through a "Ludlum phase" about 5 or 
6 years ago and read all of his books. I was surprised how well I 
remembered this one when I was watching the film. Despite 
transferring the denouement action from a city I've never been to 
(New York) to a city I know very well and love above all others 
(Paris), I didn't like it. I didn't like Bourne's youth (in the book, 
the fact that he was to all intents and purposes washed out was very 
important), I didn't like the Paris car chase (apart from anything, 
it took ludicrous liberties with Paris geography), and I didn't like 
the fact that they'd changed the entire premise of the book to make a 
run-of-the-mill assassin-on-the-run movie (in the book, Bourne's 
assassin history was a deliberate fiction!). 

Now, that is an example of making an above-average action book into a 
mediocre action movie. Nevertheless, some critics (who'd not read the 
book) thought the movie above-average.

Back to HP: with only one or two exceptions, I approve wholeheartedly 
of the chnages made to PS/SS in its movie adaptation (my main 
objection is the change from JKR's humour to Kloves's), and basically 
I trust the production team to do the same with the second. Whilst I 
know a lot more about it, and have willingly sucked up the hype over 
the last 10 months, I continue to believe that the changes will be 
for the better. A minus I already know about is Columbus's 
trademark "screaming kids" which he used for the Fluffy encounter in 
PS/SS, and which we've already seen in trailer with Ron & Harry in 
the flying car. This I can overlook, for the time being. :-)

>From what I recall of the detail of the CoS plot, and from what I 
know or suspect has been changed for the movie, I don't object to 
changing the duelling scene, I don't object to having the Chamber 
immersed in water and I won't mind if the Singing Valentine is gone. 
I don't see Kenneth Branagh as Gilderoy Lockhart AT ALL, though, and 
remain to be convinced...