Fred! George! Ron! Hermione's ass!
Jun. 8th, 2004 03:56 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
impyWell, I finally saw PoA. Which means ranting!
First and foremost, it is a very beautiful film. One that you might actually prefer to mute and watch that way. :p I think that kind of sums it all up. The film is fantastically shot for the most part with the possible exception of the Dursleys as that just feels terribly out of place in the movie as well as with the other movies. [to me anyway.] When Harry runs away and he's about to see Snuffles, the feeling and mood is so perfectly captured that I was half tempted to peek outside and see if it was a cold autumn evening. Hopeful too. Likewise, the ending is shot so beautifully that you wish like mad that you could be there with them. It almost transports you there.
Almost.
I'm honestly unsure as to who to blame for the failings in the movie. Cuaron took an awful lot of credit in various interviews for a lot of the changes, like pushing for the story to be hacked and trimmed into what we ended up with. As such, the man will get some serious hissing from me considering no one bothered to point out that his B-story [Buckbeak] is introduced and quickly thrown away with only an ominous "this isn't over" line to give you a clue that it will indeed return. When Buckbeak's death is announced and Hagrid is in the lake, people laughed. The frickin' audience laughed. The scene was supposed to be a downer and people... laughed. I'm not sure if that's because I was in the theatre with people slightly stoned or too young, or who just thought Hagrid looked funny or what, but I was busy at the time trying to figure out if I'd missed something in the movie that explained, movie-wise, why I should care. You are guided through one storyline and then it's like someone remembered that in order to shove the book ending through, you had to have Buckbeak, so well, let's throw it back in.
No one seems to have been able to figure out how exactly to trim the movie down properly. Which is a shame because had they tried a bit harder to nurture that storyline [a few throwaway lines or something instead of just dumping it on you at random moments] as well as the Harry must deal with growing up and face a demon he didn't even know existed... it could have worked remarkably well. Instead it was too much of a jolt. It's like I was skipping down path A and then suddenly some jackass yanks me out of it and puts me on path R and expects me to know what the blue fuzzy is going on.
Then there's the music. Or rather the stuff that wasn't quite the sweeping musical joy, but leading up to it. Like when Harry is on Buckbeak's back, but they aren't flying around the grounds yet, they're just about to take off. The music/background noise hurt to listen to. Personal preference mebbe?
Random things:
La. Poor Tom Felton. He had about ten seconds of screentime and 9 of those seconds was spent whimpering like a girlie girl. Also, what happened to Crabbe? He was there and then this really skinny punk took over and it bugged me. Were the four million shots of Emma Watson's arse intentional, or was I just distracted by her rainbow belt and assumed there were more lingering shots than there actually were? Was I the only one who expected Harry to shout, "I'm the king of the world!" when riding Buckbeak? If so, then I'm planning on suing various people.
There were good things. Trelawny? Brilliant. She may have only had two standout scenes [the Hermione one and the prophecy bit] but they were both really good. Snape in a dress? Woo! In fact, barring the musical choice, that entire scene was great. Ditto for most of the Knight Bus stuff. The kids in the theatre were a giggling up a storm, and that I assume was the point. The twins finally got to shine and that alone might be worth seeing the movie again. The moving potraits? If you ignore the fact that there seemed to be far too many crammed into one space [and the animals. The animals were weird], I nearly did a happy dance at finally getting to see, really see, them in their glory. That was spiffy.
The slashyness of Remus and Sirius? Hee. Good. Which leads to a mini gripe. While I was impressed as hell by Remus in general, he never did manage to look like the Remus I always imagined. That was a bit jarring and I never did fully get over it. Sirius however, was fantastically perfect.
But it was the Sirius/Harry moment of happiness scene that sums up why the movie is merely beautiful on a superficial level and not on a "OMG, I love it!" level.
If I hadn't read the book, I would have absolutely no attachment to anyone in the movie. No one. Maybe Ron just because of the way Rupert uses his voice [or seemed like it], but otherwise nothing. Unlike the book where I freakin' bawled when Harry was denied his happy little home only to get the letter from Sirius which gives him permission to go to Hogsmeade [and Ron gets Pig!], I sat there marveling at the pretty landscape and wishing there was some emotional connection that just didn't seem to be there. Which just about broke my heart. It's the best part of the entire book for me, the connection Harry finally gets with Sirius [the one with Lupin was set up although never fully gelled for me] and the hope that one of these days he'll get that home he's been looking for since his parents died. For a few moments, Harry was offered a home with someone who would help him get to know his parents and wanted to be with him. And it was all yanked away while Harry could do nothing but watch helplessly as it allwas ruined, again. That right there should have done something on an emotional level. And yet it never did. Someone send me the whipping boy!
So I liked the movie, and I think it's gorgeous, but it suffers from a case of being the prettiest girl in school. Nice to look at, but there's nothing really going on beyond that, unfortunately.
Also, am I the only one who got the feeling the movie really wanted to be a horror flick?
Also, I personally didn't take it this way, but the person who spoiled the movie for me at the last possible second [and I mean that quite literally] found Hagrid telling Draco to stroke the spine to be quite kinky. Yet she didn't catch Harry's wand exploration in the middle of the night. Or the Remus/Sirius hugfest. Woe. I have much to teach her.
So there you have it. Though I dug the choir. I'd have traded it for just about anything I bitched about them ditching, but hey. Sometimes you need kids singing ominious songs.
I'm making a friend a CD of nothing but various versions of Hey Jupiter. Realizing this is insane since most are going to be live boots, but will have to deal.
First and foremost, it is a very beautiful film. One that you might actually prefer to mute and watch that way. :p I think that kind of sums it all up. The film is fantastically shot for the most part with the possible exception of the Dursleys as that just feels terribly out of place in the movie as well as with the other movies. [to me anyway.] When Harry runs away and he's about to see Snuffles, the feeling and mood is so perfectly captured that I was half tempted to peek outside and see if it was a cold autumn evening. Hopeful too. Likewise, the ending is shot so beautifully that you wish like mad that you could be there with them. It almost transports you there.
Almost.
I'm honestly unsure as to who to blame for the failings in the movie. Cuaron took an awful lot of credit in various interviews for a lot of the changes, like pushing for the story to be hacked and trimmed into what we ended up with. As such, the man will get some serious hissing from me considering no one bothered to point out that his B-story [Buckbeak] is introduced and quickly thrown away with only an ominous "this isn't over" line to give you a clue that it will indeed return. When Buckbeak's death is announced and Hagrid is in the lake, people laughed. The frickin' audience laughed. The scene was supposed to be a downer and people... laughed. I'm not sure if that's because I was in the theatre with people slightly stoned or too young, or who just thought Hagrid looked funny or what, but I was busy at the time trying to figure out if I'd missed something in the movie that explained, movie-wise, why I should care. You are guided through one storyline and then it's like someone remembered that in order to shove the book ending through, you had to have Buckbeak, so well, let's throw it back in.
No one seems to have been able to figure out how exactly to trim the movie down properly. Which is a shame because had they tried a bit harder to nurture that storyline [a few throwaway lines or something instead of just dumping it on you at random moments] as well as the Harry must deal with growing up and face a demon he didn't even know existed... it could have worked remarkably well. Instead it was too much of a jolt. It's like I was skipping down path A and then suddenly some jackass yanks me out of it and puts me on path R and expects me to know what the blue fuzzy is going on.
Then there's the music. Or rather the stuff that wasn't quite the sweeping musical joy, but leading up to it. Like when Harry is on Buckbeak's back, but they aren't flying around the grounds yet, they're just about to take off. The music/background noise hurt to listen to. Personal preference mebbe?
Random things:
La. Poor Tom Felton. He had about ten seconds of screentime and 9 of those seconds was spent whimpering like a girlie girl. Also, what happened to Crabbe? He was there and then this really skinny punk took over and it bugged me. Were the four million shots of Emma Watson's arse intentional, or was I just distracted by her rainbow belt and assumed there were more lingering shots than there actually were? Was I the only one who expected Harry to shout, "I'm the king of the world!" when riding Buckbeak? If so, then I'm planning on suing various people.
There were good things. Trelawny? Brilliant. She may have only had two standout scenes [the Hermione one and the prophecy bit] but they were both really good. Snape in a dress? Woo! In fact, barring the musical choice, that entire scene was great. Ditto for most of the Knight Bus stuff. The kids in the theatre were a giggling up a storm, and that I assume was the point. The twins finally got to shine and that alone might be worth seeing the movie again. The moving potraits? If you ignore the fact that there seemed to be far too many crammed into one space [and the animals. The animals were weird], I nearly did a happy dance at finally getting to see, really see, them in their glory. That was spiffy.
The slashyness of Remus and Sirius? Hee. Good. Which leads to a mini gripe. While I was impressed as hell by Remus in general, he never did manage to look like the Remus I always imagined. That was a bit jarring and I never did fully get over it. Sirius however, was fantastically perfect.
But it was the Sirius/Harry moment of happiness scene that sums up why the movie is merely beautiful on a superficial level and not on a "OMG, I love it!" level.
If I hadn't read the book, I would have absolutely no attachment to anyone in the movie. No one. Maybe Ron just because of the way Rupert uses his voice [or seemed like it], but otherwise nothing. Unlike the book where I freakin' bawled when Harry was denied his happy little home only to get the letter from Sirius which gives him permission to go to Hogsmeade [and Ron gets Pig!], I sat there marveling at the pretty landscape and wishing there was some emotional connection that just didn't seem to be there. Which just about broke my heart. It's the best part of the entire book for me, the connection Harry finally gets with Sirius [the one with Lupin was set up although never fully gelled for me] and the hope that one of these days he'll get that home he's been looking for since his parents died. For a few moments, Harry was offered a home with someone who would help him get to know his parents and wanted to be with him. And it was all yanked away while Harry could do nothing but watch helplessly as it allwas ruined, again. That right there should have done something on an emotional level. And yet it never did. Someone send me the whipping boy!
So I liked the movie, and I think it's gorgeous, but it suffers from a case of being the prettiest girl in school. Nice to look at, but there's nothing really going on beyond that, unfortunately.
Also, am I the only one who got the feeling the movie really wanted to be a horror flick?
Also, I personally didn't take it this way, but the person who spoiled the movie for me at the last possible second [and I mean that quite literally] found Hagrid telling Draco to stroke the spine to be quite kinky. Yet she didn't catch Harry's wand exploration in the middle of the night. Or the Remus/Sirius hugfest. Woe. I have much to teach her.
So there you have it. Though I dug the choir. I'd have traded it for just about anything I bitched about them ditching, but hey. Sometimes you need kids singing ominious songs.
I'm making a friend a CD of nothing but various versions of Hey Jupiter. Realizing this is insane since most are going to be live boots, but will have to deal.
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(no subject)
Date: 2004-06-08 09:36 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-06-09 06:01 am (UTC)I did try very hard not to laugh when Harry was crying though. *coughs* Tried very hard. Instead I choked on popcorn to cover it up. Worked nicely.