I LIKED IT (bracing for rotton fruit thrown)

[judy_magic333]

> --- In HPFGU-Movie at yahoogroups.com, "serenadust" <jmmears at c...> 
wrote:
> > Still, I suppose I should know by now not to try to understand 
the 
> > movies by using the books ;-).
> > 
> > Jo Serenadust, who is beginning to think that being too into the 
> > books is a real disadvantage in enjoying the movie..

--- In HPFGU-Movie at yahoogroups.com, "moonmint17" <moonmint17 at y...> 
wrote:
> No, I don't think so - I love the books, but I've almost always 
liked 
> books better than any movie that was based upon them.  However, 
just 
> as we have to have suspension of disbelief to enjoy any movie or 
> theatre, we have to be willing to "let go" of the expectations of 
> canon a bit to enjoy the movies.


First of all -- hi, I am a newbie (sort of) and have decided that I 
wanted this to be my first post here.  To introduce myself, my name 
is Judy and I used to subscribe to this egroup when I lived in North 
Carolina about a year ago.  At the end of last November, I moved to 
Scotland to get married and am very happy here (though I miss some 
things about the US, of course).  Now, with POA premiering and me 
having some time to give to the egroups (this one and the Over 40 
one), I was happy to be able to re-subscribe.

Anyway, I am one of the few who have not seen POA yet, even though it 
premiered here eight days ago.  My husband and I decided to wait 
until the theater was less crowded to go see this movie, and I am 
hoping that this Saturday will work out for us.  In the meantime, I 
have been reading all the reviews of the movie, both positive and 
negative, and (unlike others) I am glad I am.  To tell you the truth, 
I am more suspicious of a "I just *love* this movie!" type of review 
than a negative one.  I just love the books, and I do not consider 
comparing the movies to them to be a bad thing, unlike others who 
have posted here.  And, I would like to address this issue in two 
ways.  First -- as imperfect as the SS/PS movie was, I really liked 
it and thought it did somewhat of an affectionate tribute to the 
book.  Harry is my favorite character and I have great sympathy for 
him (knowing what it is like to be in an emotionally abusive family 
situation), and I like the awkward way that DR portrayed him.  Plus, 
I thought Richard Harris was *great* as DD, and so I will be the 
first to admit that I will be going into POA with a definite 
bias . . . for which I will *not* apologize.  

Second, I have seen the Lord of the Rings movies mentioned here, and 
I am glad.  I, myself, saw these movies before reading the trilogy -- 
which I am doing as I speak -- and I love the movies, especially 
RotK.  I am also enjoying the books a lot, though I have no problem 
with the changes Peter Jackson made for the movies.  I thought Peter 
did an excellent job and kept to the spirit of the book trilogy.  I 
have spent time on a LOTR site, reading both positive and negative 
comments about the movies, and it just seems to me that most of the 
negative comments are rather petty and "majoring on minors".

Having said that . . . I must confess that I have great misgivings 
about the POA movie.  Yes -- like many others here, POA is my 
favorite of the HP books.  And, I feel that Cuaron leaving out 
significant parts of the story does the HP universe a great dis-
service.  Okay, so there are the time limits, but I think it is a 
matter of priorities, and I don't agree with Cuaron's/Kloves' 
priorities.  I am entitled to my opinion, though it won't have any 
affect on how the movies are done.  And, I must admit that I am 
baffled that JKR considers this her favorite of the HP movies.  
Unlike others, I am not inclined to show blind faith for JKR, no 
matter how much I admire her books and what she has achieved.  I 
don't intend to go into the theater predisposed to dislike POA, but I 
will be cautious in how I judge it, that's all.  No matter how I end 
up feeling about the movie, I am just glad that I have the POA book 
(as well as the other four) close at hand to reassure me that I don't 
have to accept story revisionism.  

I suppose I will offend the movie lovers by my comments and get some 
rotten fruit thrown at *me*, but I felt that my thoughts about this 
are just as valid  And, I don't think it is fair to label those who 
give the movie a negative review as being not a "true fan" or 
something.  This is a place where we should be free to express all 
range of views, being civil and disagreeing repectfully with those of 
different views . . . even if we can't understand the reason for the 
opposing view.  Having the opportunity to discuss the movies and 
books like this is one of the great things about *being* a Harry 
Potter fan, imo.

Judy