3rd viewing, some observations, likes & dislikes

[patientx3 at aol.com]

The first two times I saw the movie were on opening night and the next 
morning, both times with nearly a full theater which led to plenty of distractions 
(not to mention I spent half of the first viewing thinking to myself "I can't 
believe I'm *finally* seeing it"), this time the theater was rather quiet and 
empty as it was the middle of the day and its still playing on 3 or 4 screens 
at that theater. I still enjoyed it very much, and the quicker pace makes 
multiple viewers easier, each time I saw the movie I didn't spend the first hour 
and a half anxious for the shrieking shack scene, which I thought I would (at 
least after the first viewing). 

Some likes:
-I am not particularily fond of the inflating Aunt Marge scene (in book or 
movie form), but everything leading up to that was very well done. Others have 
pointed out how Dudley doesn't have a single line in this movie (which is sort 
of odd), and it worked very well. In typical Dudley fashion, he remains rather 
self-centered through the whole scene, first paying attention to the TV and 
food only, and when he does notice what's happening to his aunt, he stops 
caring as soon as she's out of the house again. Pam Ferris was wonderful as Marge 
too.
-I can't help it, I think Crookshanks is cute. I usually hate cats with those 
squished up faces, and he's not nearly as big as I imagined him from the book 
(I expected a huge cat, I think Mrs. Norris is bigger than film Crookshanks), 
but he's somehow just an adorable cat.
-Snape's reaction to the announcement of Professer Lupin was fantastic. He 
sllooowwlllyyy raises his hands, claps twice very quickly, and then stops. 
-Tom Felton's acting improved quite a bit between movies. He was started to 
get under my skin in CoS (that "see you at school" line was just awful), but in 
this one he really felt like a real bully. The shoving people all the time, 
and the "ahh, dementer!" were well-done, as was his discussion with Pansy about 
nearly losing his arm. His reaction at Hogsmeade (with that somehow 
appropriate fur-hat) was completely believable, especially after the third viewing, I 
can understand why he would be freaked out there, Draco is supposed to be a 
little wimpy.
-My favorite visual in the movie? Hedwig flying through the sky as it changes 
from Autumn to Winter, that was breathtaking
-I may be the only one to say this, but I liked the werewolf. The hairless 
idea was sort of interesting, you could see he was a creature, not just a wolf.
-Alan Rickman was perfect in the DADA scene, especially when he said "with 
specific emphasis on RECOGNIZING IT." I think I laughed out loud at that at 
least one of the times i saw PoA.

Some dislikes:
-Sirius the dog. For one thing, did *every* shot of him have to be CGI? Its a 
*dog* for goodness sakes, dogs are one of the easiest animals to train. And 
if it was already CGI, couldn't they have made him to the description in the 
book, rather than the drawing in the US editions. Sirius in dog-form is supposed 
to be "bear-like", that dog wasn't bearlike at all.
-As much I liked Draco more than in Chamber of Secrets, his reaction to being 
put under Hermione's wand was a little two extreme. I can understand him 
getting a little scared, but he was sniveling! It just seemed a little forced. 
-I couldn't stand the shrunken head on the Knight Bus. He *really* got on my 
nerves.
-Why do they always give Mrs. Weasley the worst lines? In CoS she had the 
"where are we going to get all this?...(dramatic pause)...Diagon Alley." and in 
PoA after handing Ron the rat she said "Don't you lose him!" which made no 
sense at all. The phrasing of it doesn't work (its phrased like she's referring to 
a little brother), and the reason behind it (to make it Ron's fault when 
Scabbers disappears and he blames it on Crookshanks) is unneeded as well. Ron 
*wasn't* careless with Scabbers, that's the point, in fact. Scabbers disappeared 
because he faked his death and ran away, not because of something Ron did. 
-I really don't like the freezeframe at the end.  I finally let myself look 
at it (the first two times I closed my eyes in horrified anticipation), and its 
about as bad as I imagined. Of course, I don't like freeze-frames on 
principal...
-Sirius telling Hermione how clever she is felt awkward and out of place. 
Hermione wasn't doing anything particularily clever (unless you count leaving 
Harry and Sirius alone for some male-bonding), so the phrase was completely out 
of left-field. Was there just some rule that every adult had to make some 
mention of Hermione's intelligence?
-What is up with Tom? Why did he go from being a normal looking wizard to 
some strange creature? Isn't he supposed to be the innkeeper? He looked like he 
wasn't all there mentally. On that note, why does Flitwick look like a Nazi 
munchkin? Even if the new look was an improvement, I wouldn't understand why one 
of the characters changed so drastically in appearence for no reason at all.

Some random observations:
-I wonder if there were a bunch of divination outtakes. In the first 
divination scene there's a second where Ron sort of cracks a smile (which is out of 
place with the scene), and then a minute or so later, Hermione cracks one too 
(almost like she's amused by Trelawnley, but a second later she has an angry 
grimace, so a smile wouldn't fit with the scene). It seems very possible that the 
kids found it hard to keep a straight face around Emma Thompson in those huge 
glasses.
-I still have not heard any usage of the Moony or Padfoot or Wormtail 
nicknames. I didn't even hear something that sounds like it could possible be one. 
Sirius only calls Lupin "Remus" and Lupin only calls him "Sirius" and they both 
call Peter, "Peter". Can someone tell me exactly where these are so I can at 
least know where to listen for it when I see the movie a fourth time?
-What took Snape so long to get to the shrieking shack? I assume that was 
just a mistake in the time-turner sequence, but they make it look like Snape went 
into the Willow less than a minute after Lupin, when there's at least two or 
three minutes between their arrivals. 

Sorry for the huge post. 


-Rebecca


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