POA - Movie Review - Does Contain Spoilers

[a_reader2003]

--- In HPFGU-Movie at yahoogroups.com, "junediamanti" 
<june.diamanti at b...> wrote:
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> (snip big chunk)
> I liked Gary Oldman as Sirius. I thought he worked well, and acted
> well, however see below...

Carolyn:
But the moving poster of Sirius the murderer - what were they 
thinking of ? Really awful..didn't look remotely sinister, just 
silly - looked as though he was yapping on a talk show. And although 
he ended up with a suitably romantic Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves 
appearance, what happened to his skeletal thinness and long matted 
hair? I also thought he could have brought much more emotional 
intensity to all his scenes - I got no sense of 12 years pent-up 
anger.
> 

(more snips)
> Pettigrew - very well done. Looks very rat-like and acts that way
> too. Spot on.

Carolyn:
But surely far too old? He looked as though he was in his 50s..

(big snip) 
> The Shrieking Shack Scene and other Annoyances.
> 
I thought this was where the movie really fell down big time. Its one 
of Jo's best scenes IMO, both from emotional and plot POV, but no one 
watching it could have had a clue what was going on unless they knew 
the books. And as neither Lupin or Sirius had been given enough 
screen time up to this point to build up the depth of their 
characters, and Snape was only allowed a fleeting intervention, it 
just became a series of action shots rather than the very tense, and 
deeply involving psychological episode it is in the books.

(more snip)
> Oh, hell, lets just say Snape fans will not feel they have got their
> moneys worth.

Carolyn:
Too right, he was reduced to a walk on part throughout. Losing the 
row with Fudge at the end was very unfortunate. It could have been a 
dramatic closure, leading in to the next movie as it does in the 
books.

> 
> My final verdict?
> 
> Sack Kloves. Everything else is fixable for Movie 4.

Carolyn:
Yes, on the whole, I was fairly disappointed. Although the special 
effects are as good as before, I thought it really creaked with the 
difficulty of beginning to handle deeper, darker stuff. WB are 
obviously under huge pressure to make something acceptable to a 
global kids market, and I think the conflict is really beginning to 
show.

Noticeably, in the cinema I was in, the majority kids audience did 
not watch in rapt attention as they did at the other two films. I got 
the impression they were a bit bored with a lot of the dialogue, and 
a bit blase about the special effects. Those that were paying 
attention kept up a steady chorus of 'that's wrong' !

I posted on OT earlier, and repeat the comment here, that I just hope 
that one day we get a series of films about the books aimed largely 
at an adult audience, replete with all the complexity, wit and nuance 
that we see so much of in the books. What slightly worries me is that 
Jo is apparently very pleased with the way this film stays close to 
the emotional truth of POA, when it seemed to me to skim very lightly 
over the top of it. Granted, Harry is a bit more lippy, but otherwise 
still very wooden in his 'big' scenes, and Lupin...what a wasted 
opportunity. Aargh.. and Hermione, especially being swung around by 
the Whomping willow...definitely surplus to requirements.

I'm due to see it again next weekend..hope it improves on second 
viewing (and in the company of the HPfGU London Group!).

Carolyn