GOF - My View!

[Eustace_Scrubb]

starjackson1 wrote:

> I have read a lot of fan reviews of GOF - and the main complaint 
> seems to be that it did not follow the book - left tons of important 
> stuff out - and made stuff up in some cases.

Eustace_Scrubb:
I don't mind the tons of left-out stuff too much (see below), but I
don't especially like it when they take something out and make up
something else that fills the same function but is no better...in this
movie the "living" maze replacing the sphinx and the spider, for example.

starjackson1:
> My own opinon is that 
> people should enjoy the films for what they are and stop wishing for 
> something else.  I can guarentee you that if you don't try to do 
> that, you are going to be disappointed again and again.
> 
> The films will never do justice to the books. They can only be 
> appoximations to the book, and nothing more.  That is the nature of 
> film making.  Having said that, I am pleased with the way the films 
> have indeed captured the spirit, and to a large extent the intention 
> of the books. 

Eustace_Scrubb:
Hear, hear (for the most part)!  Having now seen three LOTR and four
HP movies, I have come to view the relationship between the books and
the movies as something similar to two manifestations of the same oral
tradition.  I do have to remind myself of that every time I go to the
theatre and will be repeating it regularly as The Lion The Witch and
the Wardrobe's opening approaches.

I don't think that the first two HP movies were as successful as POA
and GOF in capturing the books' spirit.  I think I'd attribute that to
the differing approaches of the directors involved more than anything
else.


starjackson1:
> There are some things I don't like.  I don't like Michael Gambon as 
> Dumbledore.  Richard Harris was wonderful in the role, and Gambon 
> just doesn't get it right.  I think it's a lapse on his part, as an 
> actor, that he did not do some research on his part and at least 
> talked to JKR or read some of the books. 

Eustace_Scrubb:
I have to differ here.  Harris was alright in PS/SS, though a bit too
nice for my taste.  He must already have been quite ill when they were
filming CoS; he seemed frail in a way I never envisioned Dumbledore
until reading HBP this past summer.  Gambon gives the character a
harder edge that definitely appears more in the later
books--Dumbledore hasn't made it to 150 (or whatever) just by being
kindly and slightly wacky, though those are important parts of his
character.  I don't think his performance is definitive...he really
didn't appear enough in POA and the post-selection scene in GOF where
he pounces on Harry is definitely over the top--but I quite like him
overall.  I rather hope that they include the OoP scene in DD's office
where he escapes from Fudge and Umbridge after the D.A. is
discovered--I think Gambon should be able to pull that off well, while
I really couldn't see Harris in that scene.

Just my own 2 cents...

Cheers,

Eustace_Scrubb