Part 2 on DVD this November

[Steve]

--- In HPFGU-Movie at yahoogroups.com, "lkotur" <lkotur at ...> wrote:
>
> ....
> 
> The final chapter was an Oreck, Hoover, and Bissel  Big time!
> 
> lkotur
>

Steve:

There is no denying that the movie, especially the ending was flawed. But let's look at how and why it was flawed.

1.) First there are billions of dollars at stake here, even a delay of a single day can have a monumental cost. That means that every decision carries a heavy weight of responsibility. You simply can not agonize over every little decision, at some point a given decision has to be made, and then you have to move on. All I can say is, I'm glad I wasn't the person in charge of making those decisions. It is easy for us to second guess the producers and director after the fact, but when the weight of those decisions is bearing down on you, they can't be easy to make.

2.) The second aspect is the producers & director's vision of the movie. That is, in the broad and general sense of genre, how did they see the movie? It seems clear they saw it as an Action/Adventure film. But I think most viewers, especially those dissatisfied, would have preferred they saw it as a Suspense/Thriller movie.

How they envisioned the movie colored their choices.  

3.) I'm fond of saying - Time is the enemy that no one ever defeats. The producer/director are in a constant race against time. They need to tell the story, but they need to tell it within a certain acceptable time frame. That means scenes that could have built suspense, viewer involvement, and emotional investment, instead just fly by. They don't want to break the pace of the film, but on the other hand, there are certain bits of information that need to be included, so their hands are somewhat tied. The trick is to get those bit of information in without breaking the pace, and that is not an easy task. 

While I accept the films for what they are, and I enjoyed them, I too can see many flaws and baffling decisions.

SPOILER ALERT - 

For example, Harry not repairing his original wand at the end I think was a big mistake. On one hand, for the visual and story telling perspective of the movie, it doesn't matter that much. But as an emotionally invested reader and viewer, it matters to me. 

I still am not sure exactly what killed Voldemort and feel that just a second or two longer would have made it clear. 

I was disappointed in the Molly/Bellatrix battle. In the books that was an extremely powerful scene. Yet I suspect in the movies such a powerful scene would have only distracted from Harry's story and the final show down. 

Again, the list is long, but in the end, complain as we might, they are not going to remake the movie. What we have is what we get. And to say that is Sucked as a whole is a bit of an overstatement. Certainly it is flawed, certainly I would not have made some of the decisions they made, but then they aren't paying me millions of dollars to make those decisions. That terrible weight and the expectations of countless millions do not fall on me. Again, they are not in a position to agonize over every decision, they need a starting vision, and from then on need to make decisions that support that vision. Their vision was Action/Adventure, and they did their best to support that vision. 

The movies are what they are, and within the limits of what they are, I enjoyed them. But within the limits of what they are not, I didn't enjoy them quite as much. But I accept them. 

There are some aspects that I was sure the simply couldn't do. I couldn't see how they were going to resolve the problem of the Room of Requirements, Snape's book, and the Diadem. I was sure they had painted themselves into a corner and couldn't get out, but they managed to do it. 

I thought the Tale of the Three Brothers was brilliant. 

Again, I can find flaws that are nothing other than poor Director choice in dependent of the story. 

But, again, and finally, this is the movie was have, feel free to complain and vent yourself, but in the end, this is still the movie we have. 

I make a point of NOT reading the books before a movie comes out. If I do, I'm too emotionally invested in the story as it plays out in the books, and enjoy the movie that much less. I find it better if my memory of the books is as lean as possible before watching a movie, that way the two conflict much less in my brain, and I'm more satisifed with the movie. So for me, first see the movie, then read the book. Though of course, by the time the movie comes out I've read the book several times. But I try to NOT read it near the time of the movie as it just creates too much emotional conflict. 

Just a few thoughts. 

Steve/bboyminn