[the_old_crowd] Yet Another Review

[pennylin]

Hey all --

Before I comment some on Debbie and Parker's reviews, I have some OT news to share.  :--)  

I'm expecting baby Linsenmayer #2 on or about New Year's Eve, which is something of a minor medical miracle (according to Western medicine which wrote me off last year).  My fertility accupuncturist is quite pleased with herself otoh.  <g>  We feel very blessed, and I wanted to share with this group.  Elizabeth has already been told what the boy name will be, if it's a boy, and she is now telling anyone who will listen: "My mommy has a baby in her tummy and his name is Harry Potter."  I can't quite convince her that Potter is not our surname.  <g>

So, anyway....... I'll add some substance by commenting on Debbie and Parker reviews:

Debbie: <<<<Though I did enjoy this one much more than CoS (I walked out of CoS very annoyed and vowed never to see it again) it was nevertheless a Kloves script.  As a result, some of the things that irritated me in 
CoS were still there -- the caricature of Ron as a scaredy cat 
(which IMO is inconsistent with the text except insofar as it 
relates to spiders) and giving virtually every line of his that 
shows him to be intelligent or brave to Hermione.  But Kloves seems 
determined to portray Sensitive Hero!Harry, Brilliant and Totally in 
Control!Hermione, and Silly Chicken!Ron.  I think it's to Cuaron's 
credit to have been able to set an overall tone that somewhat 
overcame Kloves script.>>>>>>>>>>

Though I'm not a Ron fan and though I do think that this portrayal of Hermione is very consistent with canon (it's just not PoA canon), I do agree with those thoughts.  It's obvious that Kloves loves Hermione, and while that's wonderful (I do too), I can't quite figure out why everyone is letting him make such drastic changes in the portrayal of Ron.  Granted, I do see a gradual arc beginning in PoA that is reasonably pronounced by OoP wherein Ron is being relegated more and more to the sidelines or the background and Hermione is being increasingly fitted into the role of "heroine."  But, it's so early for that.  Does it give any of you Ron fans pause to think that Rowling has in some way sanctioned this diminishment of his character in the films?  It tells me that it's possible that what I saw in OoP will continue.  

RE: "Sensitive Hero!Harry ------ um, Rowling herself has said in an interview that Harry *is* a sensitive hero.  I'm not understanding why people think he's not sensitive in canon.  

Debbie again: <<<I've been thinking of what the two things from Book 6 and 7 that 
were foreshadowed in the movie could be.  I agree very much that 
Lupin's description of Lily is likely one of the two.  I think that 
possibly the other bit of foreshadowing may derive from Ron's dream 
about the spiders.  Spiders are relevant to basilisk mythology (a 
dead basilisk is said to be a remedy against spiders), and I think 
Ron's fear of spiders, mostly played for laughs in Kloves' scripts, 
is symbolic of his own fear of failure (and of the twins), which as 
of the end of OOP, he has only just begun to master.>>>>>>>>

Yes, but I think those are both clearly Kloves things, while my impression from the Rowling interview was that she believed that Cuaron as director had a good emotional connection with some things that are going to happen in the later books.  I also am not sure either of those moments is particularly "goose-bump inducing"!  So, I'm sticking to the executioner's axe as one of my votes, much as I hate it.  :--)

Parker ----- happy anniversary!

<<<<And when Harry cries after 
finding out everything in Hogsmeade, to me he sounded like a kid 
trying *so* hard not to cry.>>>>>>>>>>>>

Finally, someone else understands!  Yes, exactly.  :--)

<<<<Unlike a lot of you, I liked the flying scene with Harry & Buckbeak-- it's not often that Harry gets to just be a kid, without a worry in 
the world & I thought that scene was rather refreshing & showed that 
for all the weight of the (Wizarding) World on his shoulders, he's 
still a boy.>>>>>>>

Oh, yes ------- definitely!  That's why I loved this scene (though it teeters dangerously close to being over-the-top or cheezy, it isn't).  It's right up there with the boys in the dorm room and the final ride on the Firebolt.  I love seeing Harry happy.  

Agreed with all your other comments too, Parker!

Penny  



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