Movie Length - (was: Re: Another casting for HBP)

[stephab67]

> bboyminn:
> 
> I'm conflicted on the issue of the length and quality of the
> latest (OotP) movie.
> 
> I often wonder if people who haven't read the books can make
> any sense of the movies at all. Whenever one of the older
> HP movies appears on TV, my brother, who has not read the books,
> he more into history than fiction, invariably call me up during
> the commercial break to ask me to explain something. Though I
> must say that sometimes the TV versions are cut even thinner
> than the theater versions.
> 
> I think 'whats his name', the guy who directed OotP, showed that
> he can craft an excellent movie. I thought the look and flow
> of OotP was much better than the other movies, but with out
> a doubt, it was cut too short. 
> 
> Why should I care about any given situation or person when 
> that situation or person is so poorly developed? More important
> than 'why should I care' is 'how can I care' about a person
> or situation that is so remote and foreign to me? 
> 
> I mean, why should I even care about Harry, other than he 
> provides a nice distraction every couple of years? Ron had
> been reduced to a 'tag along'. Hermione is an annoying 
> super hero, though not a very good one. Neville, who I dearly
> love, has been reduced to a shadow moving around in the 
> background. 
> 
> Further, without a doubt, there are many aspects necessary for
> the final book that have been very short changed or eliminated
> in the previous movies. They are running out of time and
> movies to get thing back on track. Now that the series is
> finished, it should be clear what is important and what is 
> not. Even more so, it should be clear to them WHO IS 
> IMPORTANT and who is not. Neville, Kreacher, and Mundungus
> do seem important.
> 
> Each adventure in the final book, while on the surface may
> seem a waste, actually bring the Trio closer to the truth,
> and to the resolution of the plot. I think they need to edit
> with extreme caution from this point on. 
> 
> One of the reasons some fantasy movies work and some don't is
> because some writer/directors believe they need to tell the
> story faithfully. Those movie work - Narnia, Potter, LotR, 
> though they just barely manage to tell the story. Yet, movie
> like Eragon that I thought had great potential were a flop
> simply because they couldn't be bother to actually tell the
> story. By not telling the story, the failed to make the heroes
> in any way sympathetic. In the books, I very much DO care 
> about Eragon, but his character and the story were do poorly
> developed in the movie that I didn't care because I didn't 
> know him.
> 
> The Eragon series had great actors in it, and had great 
> potential, but the writer/producer/director failed miserably
> to realize that potential. The worst part is for both the
> faithful readers and the movie producers is that by failing
> in the first movie, they have in essence doom an entire
> series of movies. Eragon could have been a big franchise
> worth several billion dollars, if only they could have been
> bothered to use the talent they had, and created a decent
> introduction to the series.
> 
> The Harry Potter series just barely realizes that potential.
> I'm not sure if I would care about these characters or movies
> at all if I hadn't read the books. But since I have read
> the books I am more than happy to support the movies. But
> again, they are running out of time, things need to happen for
> the final movie to work, and things need to happen IN the 
> final movie for it to work. It would be a shame to bring the
> franchise this far only to cut the heart out of it in the
> final chapter.
> 
> Just a bit of rambling.
> 
> Steve/bboyminn
>
Steph:
We're now seeing the problem of creating films from a series that
wasn't yet completed.  The movies would have been so much better had
the filmmakers known from the beginning what was going to happen.  I'm
thinking that perhaps they should have waited until JKR was finished
before starting to film them.  I know that JKR knew what she had
planned for Harry, Ron, Hermione, Snape, Voldie, and Dumbledore, but
whether she had the details is unknown, so I don't think it would have
been possible for her to tell the filmmakers more details than what
she did at the time, leading to our current dilemma.  I too hope that
they can shoehorn in some of the stuff that was missing.  

I've noticed that since GoF came out there hasn't been much in the way
of bowing to non-book readers.  I think they might have decided at
some point that to try to explain some of the stuff would be
confusing, and to just assume that people know what really is going
on.  It doesn't seem to have stopped non-book readers from seeing the
films.  I also agree that, while I did like OotP, mostly due to the
fact that Goldenberg and Yates got the characters right (especially
Ron and Hermione), it could have been 10-15 minutes longer.  I don't
necessarily think that SPEW or quidditch should have been put back in,
but the editing was a bit too surgical this time.

Going back to my first paragraph, if they had waited until JKR was
finished to start the films, I'm not sure they would have found more
appropriate people to play Harry, Ron and Hermione, not to mention
casting Alan Rickman, Maggie Smith, Robbie Coltrane, etc, all of whom
I think are perfect for their roles.  Well, I'm on the fence about
Emma.  The fact that she's prettier than Hermione never bothered me,
but I don't think her acting is quite up to the level of the others,
although that was hard to predict when she was 10.  Dan has just
gotten better and better, and he nailed Harry in OotP. Rupert has been
the perfect Ron from the start.  Obviously he's not tall and gangly
like Ron, but aside from that he nails it.  He's only gotten better as
well, and I expect he's going to be great in HBP.  I'm still waiting
for a great performance from Emma.