Nagini

[John]

No: HPFGUIDX 192410





--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Sandra Lynn <cresorchid at ...> wrote:
>
> John wrote:
> However when it comes to the utterly unrecognisable mutation of the
> storyline in DH2 that's where Kloves and I part company. As I always say it
> is a total 'dogs breakfast' of a movie and so AU (Alternate Universe), it
> has little in common with the canon text, or Jo's intent when she wrote it.
> :o(
>
> Crescent:
> Actually, Jo had approval of everything that they did in the movies. That
> was the only way she would agree to allow them to film HP. So she either
> didn't care about the changes or was fine with them. I don't think anything
> was included, excluded or changed without her express permission.


Hi Crescent and All.

Yes, I was aware Jo had approval rights, but the exact terms of the contract and the relative 'balance of power' involved is impossible for an outsider to know. I stick by what I wrote in that I dislike what all the changes did to the plot of DH2 which completely destroyed the movie for me from the moment the trio arrived at Hogwarts.

Not that it was utterly awful, for instance I loved Harry's encounter with Helena Ravenclaws ghost so much and the way she was portrayed it inspired me to write a post battle fan fic featuring her Called The Ghost and the Machine. All taken into consideraion it was a pretty good 'action movie' for the most part, other than the interminable wand battle (parts 1&2!) between Lord Voldemort and Harry which, after a glacial age eventually results in Voldemort's non canon death.

Some parts of the film, particularly those involving Neville were great. The scene where he stood defying Scaboir and a horde of Death Eaters charging down the mountain at him, like 'Horatius at the bridge', yelling the classic line "Yeah! You and who's army" was almost enough in itself to 'redeem' the film's ending for me, that and his declaration about Luna confessing being "Mad for her", was a major boost for Luna/Neville 'shippers' in the fan fiction community like me, who see the two together as a pair, maybe not life partners but certainly together for a while in a passionate romance, before eventually finding their more canon spouses.It seems Steve Kloves is also a bit of a Neville/Luna 'shipper' on the sly. ;o)

The scene where Neville defies Voldemort to his face was well done but then he does not cut off Nagini's head at the same time. Why mess about with such a fantastic book scene? All a bit odd and yet another of the many uneeded changes that are all a bit annoying and certainly non canon. All in all I don't like this movie as a Harry Potter film as such, indeed Neville almost entirely steals it from the moment he emerges from the passageway at the Hogs Head, with the best lines and the best scenes. As an action film it's not too bad, but how it got Jo's approval with all it's changes, omissions and additions is a mystery.

Many Blessings.
John, (Oriondruid).