[HPFGU-Movie] visual depth
GulPlum
hp at plum.cream.org
Wed Jun 16 12:07:20 UTC 2004
At 06:09 16/06/04 , Trevor wrote:
>I severely dislike POA the movie but I appreciate the stunning visuals and
>stronger acting involved. The visuals and acting however do not make the
>movie. They are important aspects to any movie but hopefully not the
>definitive ones. I felt that the plot was too weakened by lack of detail.
>As I said before, if felt like Cliff notes made into a movie.
I think that's an unfair assessment. If it were a Cliff Notes, it would
have made certain to bash us on the head with all the plot points which
most readers consider the most important, i.e. the back story. The
adaptation took the bold step of recognising that this was a transitional
book, between the fairy-tale first two and the more realistic two to follow
(thus far), and went with it.
Sure, the movie isn't perfect and it could have made some of the back story
points as subtly and as artfully as it made some of the immediate plot
points. But that doesn't negate its value as a movie. Some of the plot
points are made perhaps a little *too* forcefully, such as e.g. constant
reminders about Scabbers, but in fairness the book is even worse in that
respect.
One of the frequent complaints made against it is that it's choppy, and
that is probably the one with which I disagree the most. This is anything
but a choppy movie. The first two HP movies were just collections of scenes
and there was no obvious link between most of them. This one takes pains to
establish some kind of connection between almost every pair of contiguous
scenes, either narratively, or with visuals or sound.
Bear in mind, also, that there was a *lot* more plot to fit into this one
than either of the first two. It would have been easy just to string
together various "highlights" the way CoS (in particular) did, but Cuaron
and his team added in some nice touches and some much-needed respite from
the action which held it all together.
>I searched for a forum to talk about this movie because I felt that it had
>changed the odds of all movies being made.
Why is that? (That's not a rhetorical question.) As Rebecca has already
mentioned, PoA made a better opening than the previous two movies and
whilst it's unlikely to make as much in the North American market over its
run as the previous ones, it will still have made Warner Bros lots of
money. And it is doing astonishingly well outside North America; again,
better than the previous two.
(It should be pointed out that in North America, the movie has some strong
competition from Shrek 2 which is targeted at exactly the same audience;
Shrek 2 is yet to be released anywhere else.)
I get a bit peeved by the pundits and number-crunchers who concentrate so
much on North American takings for movies. As a non-North American, I
constantly would like to remind them that if you look at a table of the
biggest-grossing movies (e.g. http://www.boxofficemojo.com/alltime/world/),
non-US takings account for more than half of the income of almost every
major US movie (notable exceptions are E.T. and the Star Wars movies).
Studios and pundits therefore ignore the non-US market at their peril.
>After the commercial success of the first two movies I, and most others,
>took for granted that all seven movies will be made. I am unsure whether
>I will be seeing the forth movie in theaters or buying POA, I do not think
>I am the only one with this dilemma.
A lot of people said the same thing about PoA. And some HP fans have
refused to see any of the movies. However, as PoA's numbers show, the
nay-sayers are in a distinct minority. Most fans are not only going to see
the movie in droves, but seeing it multiple times. And unless GoF is a
complete hatchet-job, the same will true of that film. the adaptation of
PoA was difficult enough; adapting GoF is going to need some major changes,
which of course a significant proportion of the book's fans will not like.
Furthermore, if made properly, GoF will NOT be "a film for children which
adults might like" but "a film for a mature audience which children might
be able to appreciate". THAT is going to be the big deciding factor as
whether or not further films will be made *on the same scale*. Either way,
as long as the cast remains the same, there are enough people in the world
who will see *any* HP movie regardless of its production values to make it
profitable for Warner Bros and thus they will continue to rake in the
profits, and thus the movies will continue to be made.
--
GulPlum AKA Richard, still catching up....
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