Question for Pre-Nov 2001 HP Fans

[clio44a]

--- In HPFGU-Movie at yahoogroups.com, Taykimson at y... wrote:
> My introduction to HP was the SS movie. 

Congratulations! Better late than never.

[snip]
> Anyway...the movies introduced me to the books.  Azakaban is the 
> first movie in which I had read the book prior to seeing the 
> movie...and I was quite dissapointed.  For those who had read 
PS/SS 
> and CoS before seeing the movie, how did you feel initially - 
where 
> you happy with the adaptation?

To sum it up, yes, I was happy with the first movies. not extremely 
so, but I was.

Before the first movie came out I was a not already a Harry Potter 
fan, but a Harry Potter fanatic, Regular reader of HPfGU and all. 
Still am.

When the adaptation of the fist book came out, I was amazed. Not by 
the adaptation, but by scenery. It felt so great to really SEE 
Hogwarts and all its inhabitants brought to life. The beautiful sets 
and costums still awe me. Of course they couldn't include every 
single line from the book. I noticed the differences in the theater, 
but it didn't bother me too much. I really was dissappointet with 
Dan Radcliffe's acting skills. They have greatly improved now, but 
in the 1st movie it was obvious that he was cast for the looks, not 
the acting.

The second movie I was actually satisfied with. The 2nd book is IMHO 
the weakest of the series and the movie irons out some of the plot's 
weaknesses. Kenneth Brannagh acting did wonders to that cartoonish 
Lockhart character from the books. 
i had been looking forward to the opening scene at Hogwarts when 
Snape catches Ron and harry outside the Great Hall ("Where is 
Snape?" "Maybe he is sick?" "Maybe he got fired!" "Maybe he is 
standing right behind you two."). What a pity that it didn't make it 
into the movie, but what can you do. It is beyond my understanding 
that they kind of kept that scene, but  exchanged Snape for Filch, 
who marches Ron and Harry to Snape's office. Unneccessary and not 
logic. What really dissappointed me though was the extremely 
shortend backstory of Ginny's possession and the dead roosters.     

So in general I was happy with the movies when they first came out. 
There was some minor dissappointment, but not more than what was to 
be expected in a movie based on a novel.
Azkaban is the first movie, that really dissapointed me. Don't get 
me wrong, the acting skills of the kids have improved, the plot 
flows better, the landscape is great, I loved the whomping willow's 
antics. Just, what happened to the background story? Where did the 
Wolfsbane potion go, and the Fidelus, the secret keeper switch, and 
the animagus story, the 'Prank', and the creation of the map?

Which non-reader really understood that that friggin radiant deer 
was supposed to be James-the-stag, Harry's spiritual strenght and 
Patronus?


"Prongs rode again tonight"? certainly not in my movie theater. 

Clio,
who won't go to see the GoF because she fears they will leave out 
Snape-the-spy to simplify the plot.