2nd Viewing Review of PoA (long)

[Diana]

After seeing the movie for the second time today I have come to the 
conclusion that you MUST SEE THE MOVIE TWICE before you decide you 
dislike the movie.  I'm going to skip around a bit, so forgive the 
rambling.  I just don't want to forget anything I want to say about 
the movie so I'm writing it as I think of it.

  When I saw the movie on Friday, I came away from the theater a 
little bit dispirited.  It was mostly because of the huge changes in 
the look of Hogwarts.  I had a tough time truly concentrating on the 
movie when I was mentally going "...but, Hagrid's Hut doesn't look 
like that...how'd Ron and Harry EVER drag their trunks up to 
Hogwarts in CoS if the whomping willow was THAT far away from the 
castle?" etc., etc..  
   But the second viewing on Sunday was so much more enjoyable that 
it changed my view of the movie in several ways.  First, I stopped 
caring about the changes in scenery and just enjoyed the movie.  
Second, I was able to appreciate the performances of the main actors 
more.  And third, I was able to really tune into the dialog in 
important scenes and realize that not quite as much detail was left 
out, especially in the shrieking shack scene, as I had originally 
thought.  
   To me, the overall look of the film reflected Harry's darkening 
mood - much darker than year 1 or year 2.  There are moments of 
happiness for Harry in this movie (and the book), to be sure, but 
Harry goes through an emotional wringer throughout this year at 
Hogwarts.  If you look at the book (which I'm in the midst of re-
reading yet again), Harry rides a rollercoaster of emotion 
throughout the school year.  He jumps from anger to fear to sadness 
to happiness to embarassment and back again faster than the blink of 
an eye - not just once but in several cycles throughout the year.   
   Let's face it, Harry's pysche takes a beating and I saw that 
expressed in the film by the shabbier and less 'golden' appearance 
of everything to do with the wizarding world.  The color scheme was 
bleaker, with rain more often and more prominent than in previous 
films.  The Knight Bus was undoubtedly shabby looking inside, 
chandelier or not.  Hogwarts was rockier, hillier and looked much 
older and in crumbling condition than in the two earlier movies.  
The great hall looked smaller to us because it would look less 
grandiose to Harry, whose beginning to fully understand that the 
Wizarding World has serious problems of it's own.  And Harry's mood 
is gloomy under the surface on many occasions because he is hurting 
badly.  He misses his parents deeply because as he becomes a 
teenager, he realizes how much he needs them.  Harry truly values 
his two best friends as they are the biggest reason he loves being 
at Hogwarts, and to hear that his parents' best friend betrayed them 
to their deaths at the hand of Voldemort shakes him up badly.  His 
running away from The Leaky Cauldron and crying on the rock was a 
believable behavior to me and I thought Daniel Radcliffe's 
performance of it was excellent.  His anger and hatred of this false 
friend that killed his parents was spot on for Harry's deepening 
emotional turmoil over the death of his parents.      
   Several scenes in the movie were downright invigorating.  Harry's 
ride on Buckbeak was exciting and, IMO, an example of one of Harry's 
all-to-brief highs in a year full of so many low points.  Another 
such scene was where Harry ran after the werewolf!Lupin and Sirius; 
exciting for us and very brave...and very stupid...of Harry, but it 
is just SO Harry in behavior.  
   The attack on Harry and Sirius by the Dementors at the lake was 
thrilling...and quite frightening as it should be.  The way the 
scene was played out with the Dementors taking turns in sucking the 
life out of each of them was truly horrifying.  The way Harry's POV 
on both sides of the lake were filmed were also very well done.  
Harry's sudden realization that he himself had cast the Patronus to 
save his past self and Sirius could be seen in Dan Radcliffe's face -
 a great performance!  And Emma Watson's facial reaction and 
comments while she watched Harry and Sirius being attacked was also 
very well done.  I was very pleased and touched by this scene, even 
more so on the second viewing.    
   Some of the scenes that were considered throwaway I considered a 
fleshing out of important, previously missing details in earlier 
movies.  Such as the scene with the animal-sound candies in Harry's 
dorm room.  That was a great way to show Harry and Ron familiarly 
interacting with other students beyond just the trio.  Harry's 
talking back to Snape by asking Snape to lower his wand in the 
hallway, refuting his father's strutting behavior, and the way he 
read the insults of Snape off the Marauder's Map finally showed some 
of that backbone and feistiness evident with his interactions with 
Snape in the books.  Harry is not a doormat and is not actually 
afraid of Snape and this scene displays those qualities quite well.  
    As for the Shrieking Shack scene...it was much better on the 
second viewing.  To be honest, there is a lot of movement during the 
scene that makes it hard to concentrate on exactly what is being 
said by Lupin and Black.  I ignored the movement of the shack itself 
and Pettigrew's scrambling to conentrate on the dialog the second 
time.  A lot of the details of Pettigrew's betrayal and Black's 
closeness to Lily and James is revealed.  Black does say that he 
would have died rather than deliver the Potters to Voldemort.  And 
several other shorthand clues are in the scene that reveal how close 
Lupin, Black and James must have been.  Lupin's and Black's 
brotherly hug revealed their closeness, along with Snape's 
comment "an old married couple".  Lupin's efforts to stop Black from 
from saying things to incite Snape to kill him and Lupin's quick 
abandonement of those efforts definitely imply that Lupin knows 
Black and Snape well enough to know that their animosity toward each 
other can't be settled reasonably with conversation.  The body 
language of Snape, Black, Lupin and Pettigrew implied an intense 
familiarity with each other.  Harry is very observant and could read 
that body language quite easily - he read Pettigrew's quite easily 
in the book.  I think the director felt the audience could read it 
as well.  Snape's comment about revenge and Black's insult of 
Snape's deduction skills imply a lengthy past history.  While the 
nitty-gritty details weren't given, we know from what is in the 
scene that their history (and bad blood) with each other is quite 
deep yet still fresh in their minds.  Much was cut, but so much is 
still in there, just not spelled out so obviously with lengthy 
dialog.  
   I LOVED the way the Maraurder's Map was potrayed in the movie!  
It seemed so perfect.  I stayed through the end credits twice and 
really looked at the Marauder's Map.  The walls of the castle are 
actually written latin words, which to me ARE the written-out spells 
that the marauders wrote to make the map work.  And the way it 
folded up and out with different flaps and little paper staircases 
for different floors was a great way to turn a 2-D piece-of-paper 
into a realistic 3-D magical item.  
   I admit I didn't love the werewolf, as I found it a quite bizarre 
looking thing that looked nothing like a wolf.  But, since Sirius 
was portrayed as looking like a big black wolf-dog (not like the 
enormous black Lab I'd imagined while reading the books), a fight 
between two similar looking wolves would have been hard to follow 
for many movie-goers.  It did the job just fine nonetheless as there 
was nothing remotely cuddly about this werewolf.  Harry's comment 
about "Lupin's having a really rough night." was perfectly placed as 
it reminded everyone that that terrifying creature is actually a 
very kindly man most of the time.   
     Who wouldn't be happy with all the touchy-feely scenes amongst 
the trio?  Harry leans on Herimone, who leans on Ron when they think 
Buckbeak's been killed (reportedly an homage to Curaon's previous 
movie, "Y tu mamá también".)  Harry shields Hermione from the 
werewolf when he believes they're about to be killed in the forest.  
Hermione tends to Ron's leg (while he plays it up to get her 
attention and sympathy) outside the whomping willow.  Ron and 
Hermione hold hands during a frightful moment when they fear for 
Harry as he approaches Buckbeak.  Hermione and Harry hold hands 
while they run through the forest on the way to save Sirius (and his 
past self) from the Dementors.  Hermione grabs onto and steps in 
front of Harry after Harry steps in front of Ron in the Shrieking 
Shack.  These scenes showing the closeness, physical and emotional, 
of the trio were a nice touch and, for me, explained and emphasized 
Harry's deep feeling of anger toward the close friend that had 
betrayed his parents.  I also LOVED Ron's reaction when Hermione 
asked "Would you like to move a bit closer?" and Ron at first 
thought she meant move closer to each other instead of to the 
Shrieking Shack.  It was priceless and emphasized Ron's increasing 
crush on Hermione and how befuddled he'd actually be if they both 
acknowledged their crushes and, goodness forbid!, acted upon it.  A 
great foreshadowing to Ron's inept handling of Hermione's feelings 
with regards to the Yuletide Ball in GoF.  I must also add it was a 
very nice change from the physical remoteness between the characters 
in previous movies.  Harry only touching Ginny's hand inside the 
Chamber of Secrets instead of shaking her and then lifting her up to 
lean on his shoulder like in the book is the most glaring example I 
can think of.  
   The new Dumbledore was not Richard Harris, that's true, but I 
though Gambon did a great job with the part.  His Dumbledore is 
sprightly and smart with a bit of an unexpected edge, like I 
imagined the Dumbledore in the books.  By the next movie, I know I 
will like this new Dumbledore even more.
   Emma Thompson as Trelawney did a great job with a diffult part.  
Trelawney is a fraud, but she had to be presented as though she's 
just a bit overeager in her efforts to succeed at everyday 
divination so that everyone in the audience would not hate her 
instantly.  I think Thompson achieved that balance nicely.  I do 
have a quibble in that the prophecy was not word for word from the 
book.  It really should have been, with no excuses being acceptable, 
IMO.  Daniel Radcliffe's reaction to the prophecy was very well done 
as well - very close to Harry's reaction in the book.  As for why 
they cut Harry telling Dumbledore about it later, we may find out in 
a future movie, I hope.   
   I did think that Malfoy was portrayed as too much of wimp in this 
movie.  Granted, he did back away from Hermione's wand in the book, 
but he did not back down from her slap, nor was he crying as he 
left.  The fact they substituted a punch (with his heading hitting 
the stone behind him for extra punishment) was an interesting 
choice, but I felt it was overdoing it.  Just a slap first with 
Hermione then pulling her wand out like in the book would have been 
the better choice, in my opinion.  Malfoy is a git, but if he's 
reduced to a cowardly, quivering mass too easily, it takes away from 
Harry's triumphs over him in later movies.  That said, Malfoy's 
reaction to the invisible!Harry's attacks on Malfoy and his cronies 
at the Shrieking Shack was very funny, even without the accidental 
exposure of Harry's floating head as in the book. 
   Other things I liked was the whomping willow with attitude.  It 
doesn't like birds, dead leaves, melting snow, people...or anything 
actually.  A great protective device for a hidden tunnel, for sure.  
I also liked the larger Hagrid - he looks more like a part giant in 
this movie.  And I liked the rich, moving backgrounds in nearly 
every scene, flying birds/bats, detailed moving paintings, very 
active ghosts, magic in action everywhere - and all of it almost 
completely ignored by the characters because it's part of their 
everyday world.  I also liked the time-turner sequence with the 
blurred images of past events whizzing around Harry and Hermione in 
the infirmary.  And Dumbledore's last line "Did what?  Goodnight!" 
is just priceless!  Exactly like the Dumbledore described in the 
books, IMO.  Buckbeak was rendered terrifically in the movie - for 
an all CGI creature it looked amazingly real!  Buckbeak was an 
endearing character in his own right, which was an unexpected 
treat.  
   There were some things I didn't like, though, which I must 
mention.  Where was the sneakascope?  Harry has it in his hand as he 
goes up the stairs just before the Fat Lady's painting is discovered 
slashed.  The sneakascope is pictured and named in a deluxe sticker 
book tied to the movie, but not explained/shown in the movie.  Where 
were the additional arguments between Ron and Hermione about 
Crookshanks and Scabbers?  I know a scene with Hermione in pigtails 
and pjs and Ron in a sleepshirt arguing over the cat and the rat was 
filmed in the Gryffindor common room, but it was not in the movie.  
Where was the Quidditch Cup?  That same sticker book has a Quidditch 
Cup pictured (not drawn, but PHOTOGRAPHED and described), but no 
sign of it, not even a passing mention, in the movie.  Perhaps these 
are deleted scenes on the DVD?  One can only hope.   
    I wish the scene with Sirius attacking Ron's bed in the dorm 
room was also included, as it was quite startling in the book and 
reinforced the characters' (and the reader's) view of Black as 
guilty of the crimes for which he was imprisoned.  At the same time 
it also presented the first flaw in the story of Black's crimes 
because if he was really a lunatic murderer out to kill Harry why 
didn't he just kill Ron, then kill Harry and whoever else stood in 
his way?   
    I also wished that Harry had told Stan Shunpike his name was 
Neville Longbottom, like in the book.  Another part I missed was the 
evidence of Hermione's increasing stress from her over-the-top 
school work.  In the book, Hermione was humbled and made human by 
her biting off more than she could chew, like everyone has done at 
least once in their lives.  
    As for the Firebolt's introduction at the end of the 
movie....I'm divided about it.  I can understand WHY they did that, 
I really can as it was unimportant to the main story revolving 
around Black, Lupin, Harry and his parents, but still...in the book, 
it was a joyful moment for Harry followed quickly by anger, 
resentment and sadness when it was confiscated.  And I liked the 
mystery surrounding who had sent him the Firebolt in the book, 
whereas in the movie, Harry knows right away who'd sent it to him.  
The Firebolt had to be in the movie because it's important for the 
fourth movie, so it was tacked on at the end.  Ultimately, I guess 
all I can really say is that at least it's IN the movie.   
    All in all I liked the movie very much.  It had verve and 
movement that fit in nicely with the amped up pacing.  It was 
different from the book, but I can accept it as a unique 
interpretation of PoA that stays true to the spirit of the book.  In 
time, after multiple viewings, I'll probably find even more hidden 
treasures (and hidden annoyances) like in the other movies, but it 
will always be a movie I'll watch over and over again with 
pleasure.    

Diana L.
dianasdolls