[HPFGU-Movie] Hasn't Chris Columbus done exactly what he was tasked to do?

[Taryn Kimel]

hpoldfan:
Chris Columbus, Steve Kloves, and David Heyman were tasked with the 
job of bring Harry Potter to the screen. They had to be true to the 
books, and have the approval of JKR of all the material. This almost 
has never been done before on this scale.

To reach this end they hired a cast that was recognizable by 
everyone who had read a least on of the books. When the pictures of 
the cast was first published no one needed captions to recognize all 
the characters.

The dialog in the first two movies was 90% straight from the books.

The end results was two movies that are the second and third highest 
grossing pictures ever made.

Me:
These films would have been huge box office successes no matter how bad they were. The popularity of Harry Potter guarantees it.

hpoldfan:
Now everyone seems to want to compare Harry and the Lord of the 
Rings. Anyone who has read LOR knows that it is a story of the 
Hobbits. The movies are not about the Hobbits. The movie is so far 
from the books that it is almost a different story.

The people behind LOR have done what some people want done to Harry. 
I do not think Harry Potter fans want that to happen in future films!

Me:
Why are the LotR movies so much more highly praised than the HP movies? Because they are true to the /spirit/ of the book, something the HP movies certainly aren't. The LotR movies have the depth and wonder of the books (even adding a lot of depth to characters like Aragorn that was not found in the books), while the HP movies, while entertaining, are extremely flat and childish. I would be /exceedingly/ happy if the HP movies got the same type of creative treatment that the LotR movies did. 

--Taryn

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