[HPFGU-OTChatter] Re: Actors in HP movies

[bumbledore]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "doddiemoemoe" <doddiemoemoe at yahoo.com>
To: <HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Monday, June 27, 2005 1:08 AM
Subject: [HPFGU-OTChatter] Re: Actors in HP movies


> --- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "bbkkyy55" <bbkkyy55 at y...>
> wrote:
> > Your discussion re Christian Bale/Gary Oldman reminded me of my
> > problems with POA.  BTW "Batman Begins" was good.  The story was
> done
> > thoroughly and well.  Good stories seem to go by the wayside these
> > days.  What are the writers doing?  IMO.
> >
> > Anyway, I had a whole lot of trouble with David Thewlis as Lupin.
>
> (snipety snip-snip)
>
> I agree with you, my daughter too...We were expecting POA movie to
> give us more of the interrelationships between Harry, Ron and
> Hermione, since so much of the wizarding world had been exposed in
> films 1 and 2...and we knew a great deal more of the WW would be
> exposed in movie #4(GOF)...I think this may have been a bigger
> disappointment...(esp. since what they did show of Ron and
> Hermione's relationship was them "grabbing hands etc.) More
> realistic and more likely would be bickering/arguing, or even
> teasing...just makes no sense...
>
> We didn't mind the ticking clock...but if the disagreement had been
> played out between ron and hermione then the entire buckbeack
> scenario would have been more believeable!
>
> I think GOF will probably be the best HP film yet...and OOP will
> most likely be the worse...because in OOP so much is Harry's
> interpersonal relations!
>
> I just think that any director making a HP movie should at the very
> least read the book.. If Alfonso had read the book...I think a movie
> of a slightly different flavor would have been made; and we as avid
> readers see this. HP is a character driven story; because we do not
> know the entire plot until the end..
>
>   Even in a movie one must move forward character development.(hence
> in LOR trilogy the battle scenes were absolutely spectacular in move
> 2 and again before the end of the third movie....but we still see
> excellent character development(not OUTSTANDING...but excellent
> nevertheless)...esp. w/smegol..We didn't get as much from the LOR
> trilogy as the war became worse and more battles occurred! (Yet, we
> had to see the battles to understand what "all the fuss" was about;
> and why Frodo was the only ONE to do what needed to be done...the
> ones who had the least to lose because they lived for hundreds if
> not thousands of years protected by those who protected the Hobbits)
>
> My elder daughter couldn't wait to see POA...she was entirely
> disappointed in it..Her quote was: "I didn't learn anything more
> about Harry and friends...nor even the villains..." She really
> appreciated the fact that in the end Ron, Harry, and Hermione came
> together to help Hagrid out."  I think this is entirely important to
> the plot/theme/characterization of the book and it's characters.
>
> Perhaps the studio/director/JK did this on purpose so more folks
> would read the book...I have five children...only one has read all
> of the books and although I let my children see movies one or two
> w/o reading the books...I do not think that any of them would want
> to read POA after seeing the movie..
>
> My daughter and I read the book again before going to the movie...It
> was very disappointing to us..  I hate going to see a movie and not
> getting at least 1/2 the buzz I had reading the book.  Actually, for
> me, I used to read all of the books in the series all the time...but
> after the movie POA... I skip over POA more often than not...
>
> This means that the movie dampened the book for me...and that's
> pretty bad!!!Extremely bad actually, since I've read all books but
> POA well into double digits..
>
> DD
> (who wishes, at the very least...if they are not hiring non-british
> folk to act in the movie...then they should apply it to the rest of
> the filming staff...I don't want George Lucas, Speilberg, or Spike
> Lee to direct these movies either. I want to see something
> different!)

Well said. Very well said.
 And I think its that "something different", aka the British touch, that has
made Harry Potter the phenomena that it is today.  We don't need touches of
senseless humor, aka Hollywoodization,  in the move. I.E. The fatlady's
breaking of the wine glass in POA. Its a shame that we Americans seem to
celebrate stupidity.

Just look at all the remakes of movies comming out of Hollywood. The only
one that I even think MIGHT be a good remake, is going to be Willy Wonka and
the Choclate factory. Jonny Depp is the only one that I think wcould come
close to the outstanding prior performance of Gene Wilder.