Lacktivity / PoS movie / OoP Sirius

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

Carolyn wrote in http://groups.yahoo.com/group/the
_old_crowd/message/834 :

<< since my last post was so tedious that it seems to have stopped all
chat for nearly two months >>

That wasn't because of your post, that is the nature (alas) of this
list.

<< but is there a reason why this list is so quiet? >>

It seems to me that most members are reluctant to START a thread on
this list, so there is silence until someone overcomes that
reluctance. I have two reasons I feel reluctant to post other than a
replay on this list: the chronologically first one was that I (all of
us but the listowner, Neil) am really just a guest in this list, so it
feels rude for me to use it as a soapbox to pontificate. The currently
stronger one is that my pontifications don't get replies.

Neil wrote in http://groups.yahoo.com/group/the_old_crowd/message/841
:

<< after being tied up and robbed at gunpoint in my flat at the end of
October I'm moving into a rented flat this weekend. >>

Oh, Neil, how awful! That is so wrong -- exceptionally nice people
like you should not be subjected to violence.

Kneasy wrote in http://groups.yahoo.com/group/the_
old_crowd/message/833 :

<< I made a terrible mistake a couple of weeks ago. I watched the PoA
DVD. (snip) PS was an enjoyable novelty; CoS - hmn, maybe not quite as
good. But at least there was some continuity between the two. Not so
with the third. >>

Oh, Kneasy, I am part of the crowd that disagrees with you. I found
the first movie *quite* disappointing; the second one somewhat less
disappointing but maybe only because I had lowered my expectations. I
hate Chris Columbus's cutesy AND pedantic recitations of the abridged
plot. I *loved* the PoA movie. 

I could nitpick at great length about things I objected to: what Lupin
turned into wasn't a werewolf, Lupin getting sentimental about Lily
depleted my insulin, Sirius in the book wasn't mentally stable enough
to say DD's line about "the dead whom we loved never really leave us",
etc. Pansy is always described with blonde curls, NOT a dark crop. 
The PLOT of PoA novel was simply left out, and the Alan Rickman fans
were deprived of their longed-for opportunity to watch him chew the
Shrieking Shack set. That last complaint is the ONLY one that won't be
solved by someday someone else will make decent movies of the Potter
oeuvre. (Look how BAD the first several tries of making Lord of the
Rings movies were.)

Meanwhile, this movie was like an illustration, a gloss, Air on a
Theme from PoA ... and I LOVED it. That IS what Hogwarts looks like
(Columbus's moving staircases were just *wrong*. The kids were the
characters so well I didn't notice their Muggle clothes. Cuaron
somehow extracted decent music from John Williams (a miracle!) and
funny jokes from Steven Kloves. The emotions in the story were there:
the love, the hate, the fear, distrust ... filling the air like the
fog. 

Saitaina wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/the_old_crowd/message/847 :

<< Would how much you love the novel version of PoA effect how much
you like the movie? I've seen those that LOVE the book that really
hated the movie, and those that honestly didn't like the book, who
loved the movie...so is it the difference between the media, the way
the story's told, or just really freaky odds? >>

Well, in my case, PoA is my FAVORITE of the books, for the cliched
reason that I'm in love with Remus. 

<< Speaking of Sirius, before OoTP, he didn't seem that unstable to
me, but after OotP I saw more of what Azkaban did to him, am I the
only one? >>

I personally thought he was more unstable in PoA than in OoP, but he
didn't seem unstable at all in GoF. People have already posted the
theories about how he was more stable when he was allowed to be active
and get fresh air, and lost it when he was imprisoned in old bad
memories (12 Grimmauld Place). 

Sirius losing it through OoP (except his temporary improvement when he
had company over Christmas) is obvious enough that some readers have
suggested that he was being poisoned by Kreachur with a potion
actually MENTIONED in OoP: (UK ed p 340) "Midnight came and went while
Harry was reading and re-reading a passage about the uses of
scurvy-grass, lovage, and sneezewort and not taking in a word of it.
'These plantes are moste efficacious in the inflaming of the braine,
and are therefore much used in Confusing and Befuddlement Draughts,
where the wizard is desirous of producing hot-headedness and
recklessness...' Hermone said Sirius was becoming reckless cooped up
in Grimmauld Place." (and his improvement over Christmas co-incided
with Kreachur's absence.)

It has been objected that Sirius's behavior in Grimmauld Place was
enough in-character for him that people who had known him in the old
days, Remus, Dumbledore, and even the paranoid Real!Moody, never
suspected that someone was meddling with him. I don't recall anyone
replying with a suggestion that none of them had ever known anyone who
had survived 12 (nor even 10) years in Azkaban and therefore all
assumed that his personality changes were due to that experience. I do
recall two variants in which Remus didn't have to notice whether
Sirius was in-character, because Remus was the one drugging him. One
is ESE!Lupin and the other is that DD and Moody also knew, because
Remus was acting on DD's orders because it was necessary to DD's plan
that Sirius be killed by LV (APPARENTLY by LV) in the presence of
Harry in order to activate Weapon!Harry.

Sean Dwyer wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/the_old_crowd/message/861 :

<< But face it, the movies needed a change in direction even though
(snip) Harry & Co's idea of fun is getting creepy these days, which
was an interesting point a few viewers noticed. >> 

Creepy? Please explain, so I can know if it is something I noticed. 

Ginger wrote in http://groups.yahoo.com/group/the_
old_crowd/message/866 :

<< I didn't see CoS as I have a dreadful fear of snakes and the CoS
book still gives me nightmares. >>

The CoS movie probably could give you a fear of spiders to match your
fear of snakes. (Cue up a Change Wars joke.)