Movie similarities to Harry Potter PoA

[artsylynda at aol.com]

We went to see "Fantastic Four" last night (this will become a  Harry Potter 
topic, I promise!  heehee) and it was GREAT fun!  But at  two points in the 
film, I thought, "They stole that from Prisoner of  Azkaban!"  Here's what they 
"stole":  During "Quidditch in the rain"  when Harry falls off of his broom, 
there's one shot where they focus on Harry's  face just as the Dementor 
frightens him off his broom, where Harry's face is a  closeup in the camera, then he 
falls back, spread-eagled, just before he starts  tumbling (I read somewhere 
that Dan did that fall himself, some 30 feet or  so!  Impressive!!  And 
probably a lot of fun for him!   haha).  The guy in "Fantastic 4" who is "Torch" does 
exactly the same thing  when he first tries to fly, having a closeup of him 
looking astonished just  before he starts to fall backward, spreadeagled.  It 
was similar enough to  startle me out of my very happy enjoyment of the film.  
Then near the end  when Torch flies in the air and creates the "circle 4" 
symbol in flame in the  sky, he zooms down low in the lower right hand corner of 
the frame and flies up  toward the upper left hand corner of the frame, EXACTLY 
as Harry did in the last  frame of PoA!  Well, imagine my surprise (and 
thought of, "oh that's why")  when I saw Chris Columubus and Mark Radcliffe (HP 
producers for the first three  films) were the producers for this one!  Looks 
like they've found a  "franchise" film series they can shoot in the US with an 
adult cast (no time  restrictions on filming) so they can stay near their 
families.  The film  was left open-ended, perfectly leading to a sequel. 
 
It's a very fun film -- I was just amazed at the HP similarities  until I saw 
who produced it.  Now I'm wondering, how much of what we see on  film is due 
to the PRODUCER rather than the director or screen writer??  I  honestly don't 
know.  I thought that was interesting, though, that Columbus  copied himself 
that way.
 
Lynda

"The cat's among the pixies now." Mrs. Figg,  OoP


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]