[HPFGU-Movie] visual depth

Wed Jun 16 17:07:53 UTC 2004

Just to clarify, choppy refers to the film editing and camera movements.
The scenes are plot linked but the filming has a cheap artistic recreation
feel.  It jumped from plot point to plot point with random filler vistas
interspersed.  It made up plot irrelevant scenes to make the audience laugh
while cutting back-story and plot detail.  And it ended in a freeze frame-
the weakest of movie endings.  There is virtually no way it could have not
been a better plot than the first two.  The first story was handicapped by
introductions to the WW, the second story is a weak plot with little
character arc.  A good film is more than the sum of its parts, its movie
magic.  This film was weak because it failed to be a complete movie.  It was
disjointed and relied on a built in fan base who knew the details of the
plot prior to screening (book readers).

Trevor

-----Original Message-----
From: GulPlum [mailto:hp at plum.cream.org] 
Sent: Wednesday, June 16, 2004 5:07 AM
To: HPFGU-Movie at yahoogroups.com
Subject: RE: [HPFGU-Movie] visual depth

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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