PoA film: my rambling comments (long)

[Neil Ward]

S
P
O
I
L
E
R
S
P
A
C
E
S
P
O
I
L
E
R
S
P
A
C
E
I saw the film for the first time last night and give it a thumbs up. 
It's a vast improvement on the first two and quite a clever 
adaptation.

My completely random, mostly positive, thoughts: -

With the first two films, I made the mistake of expecting too much. I 
was irritated by the changes that had been made. This time round, I 
set my sights lower, as Ali had advised, and I was pleasantly 
surprised. I also let the film work by itself, without worrying about 
variance from the book (although it would be essential to have read 
the book, I think).  

I agree with Amanda to some extent about the pace - at times it 
seemed like an onslaught of highlights rather than a well-paced 
story. There were additional flourishes that must have displaced 
entire canon scenes to the cutting room floor; but rather than leave 
those additions out, I would have added about 30 mins to the film and 
allowed more time for some scenes from the book. Penny mentioned the 
Christmas dinner and the interaction between Sybill and Minerva, 
which I was also very sad to see excluded. That scene would have been 
a relatively easy way to give more screen time to the teachers, some 
of whom did little more than nod at Dumbledore. Not enough Snape or 
Minerva! Boo!

Generally, the look of the thing was an improvement. Hogwarts seemed 
more mysterious, windswept and 'alive' than the previous incarnation, 
but not so changed that it looked totally different. Good use of 
angled shots and nice touches, like the pupil sitting on the wall 
playing the recorder (or some instrument or other) in one random 
scene.  The use of the pendulum and clock movements to tie in with 
the time-turner plot was obvious, but extremely effective. The change 
of clothing style for the children worked well too  - I adored Ron's 
pigtails hat!

The music was more interesting and off-the-wall - the jazz and 
mediaeval elements spiced things up and toned down the typical 
Williams orchestral stuff, which always makes me think "you are 
watching one of those expensive family blockbuster movies that has 
scored by the famous composer John Williams". I thought the frog 
chorus was genius, but it would have been nice to have seen a few 
more canon elements in the opening scenes at Hogwarts.

The trio: The acting is getting better. Ron was underused and 
Hermione was overused, but it was fine overall. The fact that Dan was 
crying under the invisibility cloak was quite funny. If he could do 
half his scenes under that cloak, perhaps we wouldn't notice how 
wooden and expressionless he is.  

Lupin: I like David Thewlis as an actor and thought he was great in 
this, if not my mind's image of the character. To address Rita's 
point about the accent, he has a northern accent (Manchester, I 
think), but assumed a more middle-class one in this film. I thought 
the playing of old jazz records on the gramophone player conjured up 
Lupin's shabby warmth perfectly. I loved the Boggart scene with all 
the kids and the final 'Mary Poppins' one where he's packing up to 
leave Hogwarts. I didn't like the werewolf though.  

Sirius: I thought Gary was good, but with too little time to develop 
the character fully (same in the book though). Some of us commented 
on his height: Gary Oldman isn't very tall and this was quite 
noticeable against David Thewlis. For me, Sirius would be taller than 
that. I hated the "find them in your heart" crap with Harry - that's 
more Dumbledore's bag, so it didn't work for me.  Padfoot was 
convincing.

Dumbledore: I liked Michael Gambon, but thought his hair needed to be 
whiter. I was pondering on whether he'd left the elastic band on his 
beard in make-up and Cuaron had walked in and said, "Michael - 
sweetie! - that looks so pretty. Leave it on!"  Actually, on second 
thoughts, Cuaron is Mexican, so he wouldn't have called 
him "sweetie".  

Trelawney: Brilliant. Emma Thompson practically stole the show with 
that performance - excellent comic timing. I don't like her much as 
an actress, but she is a very good actress nevertheless.  I also see 
Trelawney as much older for some reason, but I was totally sold on 
Emma's version.  

Buckbeak: As Amanda said, it was a real one, wasn't it? He seemed 
more 'horsey' than I'd imagined though. As I said to someone at the 
dinner after our showing, he might have been called Horsebutt. Not 
sure about Harry doing the "whoo-hoo!" stuff when flying over the 
lake, but this was redeemed by Buckbeak dragging his claws in the 
water: a tiny detail, but one that reinforced the reality of the 
creature. Yes, it was a real one... 

Aunt Marge scene: Another one of my favourite bits. Pam Ferris made 
the most of this cameo role and she really did look like Vernon's 
sister, I thought. I had so wanted her to play Molly, but now I'm 
happy she did this, albeit a brief appearance.   

The Whomping Willow interludes: Those external shots were quite cute, 
but it was the sort of humour you would see in "Shrek" or something 
like that - wasn't too keen.

The Shrieking Shack scene: Erk. This was a bit messy and messed-
around and thus lacked the impact it needed to have. I think they 
should have established clearly that this was where Lupin hid out 
when he had transformed. It was just like they were standing in a 
shed, rehearsing the scene for later.  

The map: I liked the map, but thought it was weird that everyone's 
names were written on fairly large scrolls of parchment. If there 
were 100 people in one room, they'd all be on top of each other like 
windows on a computer. Hey, there's a thought: perhaps there's a 
technique to minimise the scrolls to a more compact version?

The Fat Lady: Several of us didn't think much of Dawn French in this 
role. She was just Dawn French in a costume. Elizabeth Spriggs is a 
much better actress and they should have stuck with her, imo. Also, 
what was with Dawn's husband - Lenny Henry - playing the shrunken 
head on the Knight Bus?  Did they come as a package? Dawn: "Okay, 
I'll say the Fat Lady lines if you let Lenny be a shrunken head or 
something."

Talking of which, I really enjoyed the Knight Bus scene. Stan 
Shunpike was another excellent cameo. I hadn't heard of Lee Ingleby 
before, but he looked familiar (having checked IMDB, I think I saw 
him as Smike in Nicholas Nickleby on TV). 

Tim Spall was okay, but too big for Pettigrew.

I think Robbie Coltrane is getting bored with playing Hagrid.  I 
think anyone would get bored with playing Hagrid, or reading about 
Hagrid, or writing about Hagrid.  You catch my drift.

Did anyone notice that Goyle vanished part way through the film? In 
several scenes, Draco was flanked by Crabbe and 'a boy from the 
Slytherin Quidditch team'.  At our dinner, someone suggested that the 
actor was doing his GCSEs (year 5 exams). Possibly, but it's not as 
if he was carrying the film, is it?  "Mr Goyle - it's time for your 
close-up!"  "With you in a moment love.  Just having my nails done!"

I'm with Penny on that boys' dormitory scene. That was wonderful and 
engaging and did so much to represent the house bonding. I also liked 
the drama of the Quidditch scene and Harry's flight into the camera 
on his spanking new broom at the very end of the film. That freeze-
frame on his face was the perfect way to say "to be continued".

Okay, that's it for now!

Neil