Movie Review Update, Part 2

[jpskewedthrone]

I remember what movie I saw that I couldn't remember in the previous post! The reason I couldn't remember it (I think) is because I didn't actually attend this one with Patricia Bray. Nope, I sent to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part I with my mom over the Thanksgiving weekend.

My main thought going into the movie was that I hoped they didn't spend SO MUCH FREAKING TIME with Harry, Hermoine, and Ron wandering from place to place doing nothing, which was the incredibly boring part of the book. Just do a quick sequence indicating that they're spending lots of time hiding in various places, and then get to the real plot, where things happen and move forward.

No such luck. They spend as much time in the movie going from place to place as in the book. In fact, my biggest complaint about the movie overall is that they stuck so close to the book I wasn't really surprised or awed by anything. But the worst was the jumping around and doing nothing parts.

That said, and ignoring those parts of the movie, the rest of the movie was rather good. I really like the invasion of the Ministry section, probably the best part in the movie. I also liked the beginning, with Voldemort meeting with the other Death Eaters. This was suitably dark and deadly and gave me great hope for the rest of the movie. The section later on, when Harry, Hermoine, and Ron are captured and taken to the same house . . . didn't quite live up to this opening, however. They did push the limits with Bellatrix torturing Hermoine; THAT part was great, because it wasn't shown on screen, but still made me wriggle in my seat. They needed to go darker with Harry and Ron's reaction and actions after that though. They could have gone darker with other scenes as well, and they should have.

But all of the actual action scenes were good (revisiting Harry's birthplace, going to see Luna's father, etc) individually. The problem was the balance between those scenes as the other parts. And that's the issue I had with the previous movie. The director doesn't seem to have the right balance between the lulls and building the tension to that final moment. There's too much time spent on the lulls, some great buildup, and then not enough time spent on the action scenes. He builds you up to something much greater than what actually happens, in my opinion. Maybe this is just my own internal sense of pacing that's taken control here, but I don't think so.

In any case, in the overall ratings of the HP movies so far, this one ranks up there as one of the better ones, although not the best. I like the more adult nature and themes of the laster movies, but the pacing balance is off and the follow-through of the action skewed. With the earlier movies, the magic and sense of wonder is great and the pacing better, but they were targeting an audience much younger than me. So far, the movie that balanced everything the best for me--both age of the audience, content, and pacing--has been the third movie, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.

We'll see how this director handles the second part of this last book this summer, I guess. I'm hoping that he treats the action/pacing balance well. I don't remember any long, boring parts in the book for this last part.

Comments

[misunderstruck.livejournal.com]

I loved the third Harry Potter movie. At the time, I had only read the first book in the series, and I'm pretty sure at least 5 if not 6 of the books were published. The third movie was good enough to convince me to go back and read the entire series.

[jpsorrow.livejournal.com]

Yeah, when I read the first book, I was mostly "meh." But I read the second and there was a huge jump in the quality of the writing. The third convinced me there was something good here. The later books . . . weren't as good, got a little too long perhaps (for the story involved), but were still of a good quality of writing. The peak was still book 3, both in movies and in novels.

[sabotabby]

I thought this was one of the stronger offerings. But then, I am a sucker for scenery porn.

[jpsorrow.livejournal.com]

I agree it was one of the stronger offerings, and the scenery porn was great! They did have a sequence of quick little shots of places they were camping and such at one point, which was spectacular. It showed some of the variety of settings available in England. Great stuff.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

I agree with you that Azkaban was the best of the movies. What I liked was that it was a complete story in and of itself *and* it ended on an upbeat note--I so wanted Harry to have some happiness and break free of the Dursleys, and I really liked Sirius--*and* the stakes were sufficiently high and the payoff sufficient as well. As part of the overall arc as well as in and of itself, a good story.

I thought Pt 1 was about as good as could be expected given the source material. I am really hoping that Pt 2 spends a lot of time showing the Battle of Hogwarts, because I think it got pretty short shrift in the book.

[jpsorrow.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the individual scenes were great here, I just thought the "in between" sections could have been trimmed back or cut or merged in some way to make that part shorter (while still getting across the fact they were spending a lot of time doing nothing, while the pendant affected them all in bad ways).

And the Battle of Hogwarts had better be spectacular, especially after he gipped us of the battle at the end of the sixth movie. That was SUCH a disappointment. I went into the movie WAITING for this battle, and he cut it out completely, having Harry chase them out and Snape stop him, blech! I wanted the actual battle as they escaped! The director claimed he didn't want that battle to take away from the battle at the end of 7 . . . which is a total cop out.

[libwitch.livejournal.com]

I was disappointed we did not see Luna's room....I will have to admit, when I went back and re-read the book recently, the amount of time they spent in the tent did not strike me as so dull or out of whack as it did the first time I read the book.

I am not sure why, but it was simply less annoying the second time through.

[jpsorrow.livejournal.com]

Hmm . . . maybe I'll have to reread the books at some point. I've only read them once. Maybe it wouldn't bother me as much.

[thelauderdale.livejournal.com]

#7part1 is the first HP movie to honestly thrill me on the first viewing. My initial response to the others (including HP3) has always been "meh," with somewhat more liking when I've seen them again on DVD. Of course, I went into this one expecting it to be dull and slow, but I really didn't find it so: leisurely, but never dull. I think that halving the book did favorably by this first movie, so far as the pacing was concerned. (And it could be that, like sabotabby, I'm a sucker for scenery porn.)

[jpsorrow.livejournal.com]

I'm certainly a sucker for scenery porn, but I felt it could have been edited to be less . . . leisurely and more succinct, while still getting across that they were spending lots of time doing nothing while the pendant affected them in bad ways. I think the same could have be done in the book as well.

[mizkit.livejournal.com]

I thought it was a good 20 minute introduction to the second half of the book, stretched into a 2.5 hour movie. Really, it could've been very exciting: OMG! HEDWIG! Eee! Ministry! Ack! Hide in woods! Ron and Harry fight! Ron stomps off! O NOES A SNAKE! Find the sword! Ron saves the day! Rescue Luna! AUGH DOBBY! And then the rest of the book. But no, they had to follow it slavishly and thus we have Harry Potter Is Deathly Boring.

Except wasn't the Ron and Harry "It's never been like that with Hermione" scene *immediately* after the find the sword scene? It was the only goddamned scene in the entire first half of the book I was looking forward to seeing on screen and it wasn't *there*.

[jpsorrow.livejournal.com]

Awww . . . cute icon. *grin*

I've only read the books once, so am not an expert on what order the scenes appeared in the book, but I wouldn't be surprised if they shifted that scene around or edited it out. But yeah, my main complaint is that they spent so much time on all of those other scenes.

Of course, they know there are no more books after this one, so why not soak the viewers as much as possible while they can? And now I hear The Hobbit will be split into two movies. Out of all of Tolkein's novels, The Hobbit is NOT the one that should have been split.

[clarentine]

So far, the movie that balanced everything the best for me--both age of the audience, content, and pacing--has been the third movie, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.

Agreed - but then, my favorite character has always been Sirius.

I'm looking forward to seeing the new movie.

[jpsorrow.livejournal.com]

Everyone seems to love Sirius. *grin*

This coming summer should be chock full of good movies.

[clarentine]

Bad boy comes good, and then has the grace to die so he can't be bad anymore. What's not to love? >:-)

[elizabeth-welsh.livejournal.com]

How odd that you list Prizoner of Azkaban as the best movie, when that one burned me on seeing the movies. I detested the pacing of that movie. In fact, in the dialogue where Lupin and Black are explaining things, their words are so unnaturally rushed as to leave you feeling like someone was standing at the edge of the scene tapping their watch.

Now admittedly, I haven't seen the latest Harry Potter. I stopped wanting to see them after four when he killed the dragon. Dude! that's just so wrong. Having loved the books (especially Deathly Hallows) I couldn't quite stomach the mangling of them (I tend to be that way with all books I love, avoiding the movies like the plague). I just had to comment because my mind was blown by the movie you list as the best balance. It seems like one Harry Potter or another is on cable all the time, and my hubby always flips to them and jokingly says, "Wow! You never see this on cable." Somehow, though he's rarely on them for longer than 30 seconds, I've caught that dialogue exchange enough times that I could almost quote it. It never fails to irritate me. No one talks like that. If they're in a hurry, they'd all be in a hurry. They wouldn't use big words or detailed explanations if time is of the essence. You don't (for example) say, "This skyscraper, which was built in 1928, is on fire, and as it is lacking in proper firestopping features, due to its completion date, everyone could burn up. We should probably vacate." No, you'd say, "There's a fire! Get out! Hurry!"

For reasons that escape me, Prisoner of Azkaban was also the first movie to provide a major misdirection from the book. Lupin tells Harry that it wasn't Harry's father who was Lupin's dear friend, but rather his mother. The exchange is done to make you think that Lupin was actually sweet on her. Nothing could have been further from the storyline Rowling invented. Lupin was part of the group -- the four mischief makers. Lily was not really part of his circle until pulled in by James.

Prisoner of Azkaban also perpetuated "Super Hermoine" to a ridiculous degree. This is, of course, the tendancy of the movies to make Hermoine even more of a superior person in everyway. The screenwriter admits to having a literary crush on the character. He assigned her knowledge that she should not have possessed, diminishing every character around her to make her more "super". This really started in Chamber of Secrets. There, she explains "mudblood" rather than Ron. She repairs Harry's glasses, rather than Arthur (outside of school, I might add). In Prisoner of Azkaban she is making leaps that Harry makes in the books and even pulling off the best joke of the movie (a very un-Hermoineish feat).

All in all, I've long thought that that director spent too much time adding in scenery (he was the first to shoot on a location) and clipped time where it was necessary for a natural feel. It is difficult to make an actor the callibur of Gary Oldman look amateurish, but that movie did it.

[swimtech.livejournal.com]

Well, I had the same hope as you--that there wouldn't be so much hanging out in the wildness, bickering. On the flip side, in the movie, you got to actually SEE the various places where they were bickering, and they were beautiful. Made me want to go hiking in the UK.

[sodyera.livejournal.com]

Having seen HP7 but not read the book yet:

Favourite HP Book: The Order of the Phoenix
Favourite HP Movie: TIE among The Sourcerer's Stone, The Prisoner of Azkaban and The Goblet of Fire.