Movie impressions of POA--spoilers /(other posts) [long]

[patientx3 at aol.com]

There is such a surge in posts today that I decided to just respond to 
several posts in just one messege and include my individual thoughts here as well.
Firstly....
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I went and saw PoA today at a late showing with a good friend of mine and her 
boyfriend (he's read the books, she hasn't but loved the first two movies). 
PoA is my definite favorite of the books so I didn't even attempt to keep away 
from spoilers, and had read quite a few fan reviews and quite a few regular 
reviews before seeing the movie. From what some people were going on about, I 
expected the Shrieking Shack scene to be awkward and rushed, and that Snape's 
relationship with Lupin/Sirius/James wasn't really explained, and that Hermione 
was some sort of Super!Hermione. Honestly, I didn't really find this to be the 
case. Despite the number of times I've read PoA, and how much I adore the 
book, I was able to detatch myself from it and enjoy the movie as just a movie. 
>From that point of view, I absolutely loved it, and as a movie I thought it was 
amazingly done and about ten times better than CoS. Anyway, on to the other 
messeges:

In "Re: [HPFGU-Movie] HPFGU-Movie impressions of POA--spoilers" Diana W 
wrote:
>>Marge blowing up - while I like that bit, it did seem to drag while she was
inflating.  I'd rather that they sped up the whole thing, and save the
screen time for more important scenes.<<
Personally, I didn't really like that scene very much at all, but I didn't 
like it in the book either (especially *visualizing* it), so that didn't 
surprise me. It did get a bit long, but I doubt they could have shaved more than 30 
seconds off of it, and that really wouldn't make much of a difference.

>>Hermione's outburst seems a bit much given
that we hardly get to see Trelawney's phoney act - she acts a bit like she's
having a temper-tantrum because she's been insulted <<
I liked Emma Thompson quite a bit in that scene, but Hermione doesn't seem as 
upset as she was in the book, I really wish they had given her a bit of 
dialogue instead of having her just leave.

>>Flitwick - why on earth did they change him?  I wanted to break into "We
represent the Lollypop League" when I first saw him.<<
Agreed. What was with that? He looked fine in the first two movies, the new 
hair and all that just looked odd, and it was too far from how he looked before 
to really believe its the same person. I wish I knew the reasoning behind 
that.

>>You get no sense of the closeness of the three, and why it was such a
betrayal on Peter's part - all that's said is that he followed Sirius around
a lot.  Sounds more like a stalker than a good friend.  And the back-story
between Snape and Sirius - it gives me a bad feeling for what they're going
to leave out in films 4 & 5 if they're not going to touch on the animosity
between Snape and Sirius.  Snape just comes out as looking vindictive for no
reason.<<

I heard a lot about this before I saw the movie, and I think the movie shows 
the animosity better than people are giving it credit for. True, its *very 
clear* in the book, and its sort of drilled into our heads, but it wasn't 
completely absent from the movie. The whole "strutting" line still made it in, which 
says very clearly that Snape knew James when he was in school and that he 
didn't like him. Now if he knew James, he had to know Sirius and Lupin. When he 
bursts in at the shack, its very clear that the three of them know each other 
(and since Sirius has been in jail for 12 years it would have to be from some 
time ago), and its clear that Sirius and Snape *dislike* each other. Yes, no one 
says why, but do they need to? Its subtle, but I think enough of it is there 
for the audience to put the pieces together. 
As for Peter, I thought his betrayal was rather clearly said in the shack, 
but I would like to take this moment to say I really disliked the Three 
Broomsticks scene. Although it was a nice touch to have him there in the cloak rather 
than under the table, I thought the conversation there was lacking. Its never 
stated how *close* Sirius and James were, in the book it goes on about how 
they were always together and were like brothers and all that, which is why its 
so horrific for Harry to hear. Obviously you could guess that they were close 
(by Sirius being Harry's godfather), but it was less dramatic. 

>>The hospital scene - okay, I admit I'm a Snape fan, but there's more than
just the anticipation of Snape tearing up the scenary from that scene.
Snape's triumph turning into disappointment, the looks exchanged between him
and Dumbledore, the sense of dynamics between the characters changing -
gone.<<

It would have been a wonderful scene to see....apparently Steve Kloves isn't 
an Alan Rickman fan. )o;

>>Ron's attack - why did they leave that out?  It was a perfect opportunity 
to
show how murderous Black is and that he's gotten into the castle more than
once.  Instead they have Ron dreaming about spiders making him tap-dance?
Huh?<<

I thought the dream was quite funny, that scene sort of took me by surprise, 
Harry's reaction to him was fantastic. I'm sort of confused about Black's 
second attack being left out though, since I know I've seen pictures of Ron and 
others in their pajamas, one of the trading cards even features it. I guess it 
got cut out for some reason (time? pacing?), hopefully it'll resurface on DVD.

>>Harry may not be the Angry-Young-Man
that he is in book 5, but I just don't see him running off to indulge in
tears like that.  Furius and upset enough to cry and yell at the same time,
but not boo-hooing cause his widdle feewings are hurt.<<
It might have worked if the Three Broomsticks scene hadn't been so diluted. 
The way it was written in the movie was far less emotional, making Harry's 
reaction a little odd.

Sherry wrote (later in the same thread):
>>The lack of the Quidditch cup was disappointing,
too.  And the Firebolt!  That was so important in the book with it being
confiscated and everything.  This way, it appeared that they lost the one
match, and that was it for Quidditch for the rest of the year.<<

I expected that since the other two movies only had one quidditch scene as 
well. IMO, I'm fine with there being only one, two in the same movie would get 
sort of redundant and boring (it works in the books of course since the 
quidditch scenes are further apart, in a movie they couldn't be more than an hour or 
so apart). AND if they are only going to show one match, then the Quidditch 
Cup sub-plot doesn't work, as does the Firebolt coming at Christmas. If it came 
at Christmas it would call attention to the fact that they only show one 
quidditch match, since you'd see Harry get it, but never use it. It works better at 
the end of the film, even if that means the confiscation sub-plot had to go.

Cindy wrote in "POA - spoiler alert - long"
>>Anyway, I have noticed folks mentioning the pacing of POA and comparing it 
to 
COS, stating that COS was better paced. Now, I am confused - I was around 
when folks were criticizing COS for being plodding, which I agreed with. It 
was 
slow - the scenes were slow. I mean, did Herbology have to be that long or in 

fact, did we even need that class other than to show off the mandrakes?<<

I found the pacing for PoA to be quite refreshing, actually. The scenes 
seemed to flow into eachother better, rather than from going abruptly from one 
scene to the next with no dialogue or anything to tie the two together.
AND I completely agree with you about the mandrake scene in CoS. Aside from 
being slightly amusing, the scene is almost completely pointless. Mandrakes 
could have (and was) explained adequately later on in the film when Mrs. Norris 
is petrified. Those 2-3 minutes spent in Herbology could have been used 
furthing the plot (such as the library scene that was cut out, much more important 
than a greenhouse scene IMO).

>>on the whole, I had fewer 
jarring moments of scene changes in this movie - for example, when Ron and 
Harry 
leave Divination and walk out - we see them going down the spiral staircase 
(a 
real sense of place which I didn't really get in COS) and then when they find 

the ball, Harry says they should take it back, Ron says no way, Harry seems a 

bit put out when he says, 'fine' or whatever. He goes back - we follow him, 
we 
are with him - he goes back into the classroom, we are hitching a ride on the 

camera and it gives it an intimate feel.<<

I noticed this as well, it seems more natural, more like a real school than 
just a movie. CoS, for the most part, had nothing to tie scenes together, every 
scene seemed individual from the one before it, it was far too choppy and 
awkward. 

>>Also, about Hogwarts itself. I really got the feeling that it is 1000 yrs. 
old, as it says 'in the books'. It looked lived in, shabby in parts, knicked 
furniture, floors rubbed smooth by thousands of feet, a bit worn at the 
edges. It 
no longer looked like the Warner Brothers version of Harry Potterland, newest 

amusement park.<<
That was definitely evident. Did anyone else catch a glimpse of the tables in 
the great hall? They really look like kids use them every day (covered in 
scratches and graffti and all), I read that Cuaron encouraged the extras to write 
on the tables (or something along those lines), to make it more like a real 
school. I really like little things like that, the Hogwarts of the first two 
movies felt too "movie-ish".

Tracy wrote in "PoA Review"
>>1) How Sirius knew Peter was alive.  We saw the photo of the Weasleys from
the Daily Prophet earlier in the movie, so it would have only taken two
extra lines to explain.  "How did you know?"  "I saw his picture with that
family in the Daily Prophet"<<
Sirius, of course, always knew that Peter was alive, but an explanation of 
how he knew where Peter was would have been helpful. I can buy no explanation of 
how he escaped Azkaban (since they didn't really play up the "dark magic" 
aspect of it, people escape from jail a lot in movies, they don't always stop to 
explain how), but him knowing where Peter was needed *some* explanation.

>>5) Too much, too soon.  I didn't like how Harry saw Peter Pettigrew on the
map.  Would it really have hurt to have Snape catch him coming back from
Hogsmeade like in the book and thus finding the map, rather than catching
Harry in the hall at night looking for the supposedly dead Peter? <<

Well, Harry not seeing Peter on the map in the books has been debated a lot, 
so I think it was a welcome addition to the movie (Harry shrugs it off, after 
all). Since they combined two Hogsmead visits into one, having Snape catch 
Harry wouldn't have worked the same way (it would be too much of an emotional 
shift, IMO). 
Also, having Harry see Peter on the map earlier in the film gave him a reason 
to suspect Lupin / Sirius might be telling the truth (notice how Ron and 
Hermione just stare at him), otherwise it would have seemed odd at that moment for 
him to attack Snape.

>>his standing in front of the
Trio was a bit overt for Snape, who is supposed to be a spy.  Spy=covert.
DUH!  It's a wonder Snape hasn't gotten himself killed in the movie universe
for being such a lousy spy. <<
At this point in the books Voldemort is hiding off somewhere in Albania, 
believed by most to be gone for good, so Snape is nothing more than a teacher. And 
just because he hates Harry doesn't mean he wants to see him get eaten by a 
werewolf. Snape may be a jerk, but he's not evil or cowardly. Him, as the adult 
in the situation, stepping in front of the kids was the natural thing to do.

>>8) Since Fudge was (presumably, since it's not really made clear in the
movie) still around, it didn't make sense for that long goodbye between
Harry and Sirius <<
But remember, they flew to a different part of the school first, and after 
that its only a minute or so before Sirius takes off. Fudge didn't know where 
they were at that point.

>>9) I would have loved to have seen Alan Rickman play Snape's blow-up when 
he
realizes that Sirius escaped again.<<
(see above), I think we all would have loved to see that. I guess it must 
have been pacing or something, but I doubt many would be thinking about *that* 
while watching Alan Rickman do an excellent angry fit.

Diana wrote in "Re: HPFGU-Movie impressions of POA--spoilers":
>>I also saw the movie this afternoon only I was extremely 
disappointed with Lupin.  Why in the world did they have him yell at 
Harry after the Snape incident when Harry was roaming the hall with 
the map?   That was totally unlike Lupin in the book<<
Was it? I thought it was rather close to the book myself:
[PoA, chpt 14, page 289-90, us hb edi]
"We've met," He said shortly. He was looking at Harry more seriously than 
ever before.
"Don't expect me to cover up for you again, Harry. I cannot make you take 
Sirius Black seriously. But I would have thought that what you hear when the 
dementers draw near you wold have had more of an effect on you. Your parents gave 
their lives tokeep you alive, Harry. A poor way to repay them -- gambling 
their sacrifice for a bad of magic tricks."
Maybe he's not yelling in the book, but the meaning is the same, its still 
just as harsh. 

Anyway, as I said above, I thought PoA was a definite improvement over CoS 
and even SS/PS (which doesn't have any major flaws). Although I enjoyed it the 
first few times I saw it, I can hardly stand to watch CoS now. The acting is 
fine, and many of the scenes are done very well, but so much of it is awkward 
and unreal that it makes me cringe to watch it. For example: in the bookstore 
its made very clear that the store is crowded due to Lockhard's book-signing, 
yet later when the kids approach Lucious the background is *dead silent*. The 
store is supposed to be "mad", yet you can't hear anyone talking in the 
background, not even distantly. Add that to the fact that its odd that the kids would 
stand there and let themselves be insulted and the scene is almost unbearable. 
(I could give another example, but this post is long enough as it is). What I 
was most pleased with with PoA is how natural it felt. The kids interact with 
each other like regular teenagers (like Harry's conversation with Seamus 
about the Fat Lady, or Hermione imitating Professor Trewlawny), the movie felt 
less "scripted". I feel sort of bad for Columbus, though. I think with the first 
two movies there was an enormous pressure to make them successful, and he 
probably was told to stay as close to the books as possible. Now that the series 
is established, the studio might have given Cuaron a bit more artistic license. 
I really don't think the lack of imagination in the first two films is 
entirely Columbus' fault, this one was done in more time, with more money, and when 
the kids were settled into their roles (by this logic though, GoF should be 
just as good as PoA and I doubt it will).
Over than above, what I liked:
-The amount of humor, especially the bits that weren't from the book
-Gary Oldman's performance; i knew I was going to like it (being a huge GO 
fan and all), but it exceeded my expectations
-Lupin; about halfway through the film I completely forgot about my 
misgivings about David Thewlis and didn't remember them until the credits. He was 
excellent, especially his last speech to Harry as he's packing up. Very well done.
-The new Fat Lady; I was sure I was going to hate her (since I thought the 
original one was just fine), but she was actually pretty funny
-Arthur. Yes, I know he was barely in the movie, but I thought he had 
improved (not sure how exactly, i just like his "look" better), he came off as too 
goofy in CoS
-Hermione appearing in all her classes; it made for a great running joke with 
Ron

What I didn't like:
-Padfoot. In general he was fine, but I wish they'd had a real dog, at least 
for *some* of the scenes. He looked a little too fake, and he wasn't big 
enough (the book clearly states a "bear-like" dog, this one looked too much like 
the drawings in the US books, which I've never liked)
-Hermione's punch. Maybe I'd just seen it too many times in the trailer and 
in clips and all that, but it just seemed out of place. There wasn't enough 
provacation, and Draco turned snively far too fast. I know he's a wimp, but he's 
not *that* much of a wimp
-I was sorely disappointed that Harry never looked up Sirius' photo in his 
album. That was one of my favorite parts of the book since it really brought 
home the fact that Sirius was James' friend. It would have been nice to see the 
contrast between the Sirius screaming in the posters and a laughing, normal 
looking Sirius in the album
-Harry's reaction to the dementers; the first time on the train was done 
well, but after that we never hear more of his parents screaming, and I didn't buy 
that Harry would stay on the broom that long with dementer's swooping around 
him.


-Rebecca (sorry for the length)


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