My first pompous movie review
Jun. 5th, 2004 04:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
matrilSo we saw PoA yesterday, and my feelings are mixed. On the one hand, it had such a number of delightful moments...and on the other hand, there were other moments that made me want to tear my hair out. So I'll just divide it into what I liked, what I disliked, and maybe some other random babblings at the end.
Delightful moments:
-Floating Aunt Marge was visually hilarious, though her flight into the night sky wasn't completely canon...That's a minor quibble, though. ;)
-The Knight Bus scene was fantastic, though I honestly didn't get the shrunken head bit - that came completely out of nowhere. But the fast-paced ride through the night was great fun.
-A scene I wish I could have watched twelve times - when Harry steps downstairs in the Leaky Cauldron, and all the Weasleys are there - just visually a treat. I couldn't take in enough of all the redheads and their various wizarding activities - honestly, I kept trying to look around Mr. Weasely and Harry to the rest of them, even though their conversation was much more important plot-wise.
-The dementor on the train was exceedingly creepy and the trio's various reactions were just right, as was the intro to Lupin (though Ginny was much missed!)
-Lupin, while I've mentioned him, was Wonderful. There were very few scenes in which I didn't love the way he was done - a teacher who was very enthusiastic about teaching as well as talented and knowledgeable. And I'm glad they included his chiding of Harry when he takes the Map from him (though the preceding scene will be in the list below :( ), it felt right and the lines came almost directly from the book.
-Oh, Fred and George. The only problem there was there weren't nearly enough scenes with their antics. When they gave Harry the Marauder's Map, well, they were simply fantastic. Finishing each other's lines, speaking in unison, completely straight-faced as they were at their cheekiest - great stuff. Just wish there'd been more. The Marauder's Map itself was great, and I liked the credit sequence.
-Buckbeak was beautiful - I don't recall ever thinking of him as computer-generated.
-Visually very appealing - though I got tired of the constant scenes with the Whomping Willow doing its Whomping. We get the idea, already! Could have used the time, instead, for more exposition...but again, see below.
-As a John Williams fan, I loved the score, and enjoyed the stylistic departures from the first two as well as the familiar themes.
I'm sure there's more, but I find I really want to get my quibbles out, so on we go...
Hair-tearing episodes
-Waaaay too fast; zipping through (important!) exposition scenes to get on to the action. There is so much meat in this book; to skip through it like it's mere fluff is irritating, not to mention the trouble with continuity in future books.
-HARRY SAW PETER ON THE MAP???? Completely, absolutely, painfully wrong. Don't know why the heck they chose to do that.
-Scenes I dearly missed:
*Sirius's second entrance, with Ron being attacked - hints at the mystery ever so subtly as well as giving Ron a chance to get attention
*Any of the scenes in which Hermione loses control, bursts into tears, whatever - come on, she's really strained in this book! She's not perfectly composed all the time, or even much at all! But knowing Kloves' leanings toward Hermione Sue, this shouldn't surprise me.
*Snape with Fudge, delighted at capturing Sirius, and Snape's fury at Sirius being re-captured - Snape was really cut back in the adaptation, and I think his grudge is important - however unlikable and adolescent.
-What was with Dumbledore spouting off silly little aphorisims about fighting back darkness and what's in your heart? For that matter, what was with the attempt to present a Message about what's in your heart - punctuated by placing a hand on someone's chest? Weird. This isn't about a Message; there are multiple themes in the book but they're not shoved in you face.
-A terrible, terrible half-explanation for the whole great big mystery that drives the entire book - Sirius as the Secret Keeper, the three of them turning into Animagi for Lupin's sake, the meaning of the names on the Marauder's Map, Snape's near brush with a werewolf, and so many, many other details that I was under the impression were quite essential to getting it. So what if you've read the book, you understand it - so the movie doesn't stand on its own! Just admit it - the movie doesn't stand on its own. They could have placed these details easily within scenes of the movie - I was just waiting for Harry to call "Moony!" as Lupin was leaving at the end, but no such luck. Blah.
-Hermione's little interferences with time. Non-canonical, and dumb.
-All right, this shouldn't bother me near as much as the plot-holes and rushed exposition and adbridgements, but somehow, this is my giant pet peeve - the were-monkey. Oh, I'm sorry, was that supposed to be a were-wolf?? Sure could have fooled me with that hairless, partly upright, ridiculous mess. PLEASE! This is not some wolfman from a cheesy 1930's serial!! This is a werewolf, a creature that CLEARLY resembles a wolf, as we know from the book when Hermione is explaining the different between a real wolf and a werewolf - if the differences are so subtle as to cause people to have trouble distinguishing, then OBVIOUSLY the similarities are very strong. It looks like a wolf, people! I can't even begin to express my displeasure, and I can't really say why it bugged me so much. Again, many other more crucial things should have bothered me, but this annoyed me on a deep, aesthetic level that I just can't ignore. this is the memory that stays with me - Lupin begins to transform as I excitedly clutch the armrests of my seat, and I'm waiting, and waiting - and there's nothing more - this is it, he's done transforming, and I'm staring at the result with unalloyed horror. A were-monkey. Ugh, ugh, ugh. Oh, and ugh. And both Sirius and Hermione acting as though he could fight it - oh, COME ON!!
(Incidentally, a little addition I did like was when Snape was discussing the etymological roots for "were-wolf" - I do dearly love my linguistics, particularly Anglo-Saxon! ;)
So...I liked it, and I'd watch it again, but I'm sure I'd want to fast-forward through a bunch of scenes and boo at others. Sigh...why doesn't anyone just ask me to write the screenplays? Hah.
Delightful moments:
-Floating Aunt Marge was visually hilarious, though her flight into the night sky wasn't completely canon...That's a minor quibble, though. ;)
-The Knight Bus scene was fantastic, though I honestly didn't get the shrunken head bit - that came completely out of nowhere. But the fast-paced ride through the night was great fun.
-A scene I wish I could have watched twelve times - when Harry steps downstairs in the Leaky Cauldron, and all the Weasleys are there - just visually a treat. I couldn't take in enough of all the redheads and their various wizarding activities - honestly, I kept trying to look around Mr. Weasely and Harry to the rest of them, even though their conversation was much more important plot-wise.
-The dementor on the train was exceedingly creepy and the trio's various reactions were just right, as was the intro to Lupin (though Ginny was much missed!)
-Lupin, while I've mentioned him, was Wonderful. There were very few scenes in which I didn't love the way he was done - a teacher who was very enthusiastic about teaching as well as talented and knowledgeable. And I'm glad they included his chiding of Harry when he takes the Map from him (though the preceding scene will be in the list below :( ), it felt right and the lines came almost directly from the book.
-Oh, Fred and George. The only problem there was there weren't nearly enough scenes with their antics. When they gave Harry the Marauder's Map, well, they were simply fantastic. Finishing each other's lines, speaking in unison, completely straight-faced as they were at their cheekiest - great stuff. Just wish there'd been more. The Marauder's Map itself was great, and I liked the credit sequence.
-Buckbeak was beautiful - I don't recall ever thinking of him as computer-generated.
-Visually very appealing - though I got tired of the constant scenes with the Whomping Willow doing its Whomping. We get the idea, already! Could have used the time, instead, for more exposition...but again, see below.
-As a John Williams fan, I loved the score, and enjoyed the stylistic departures from the first two as well as the familiar themes.
I'm sure there's more, but I find I really want to get my quibbles out, so on we go...
Hair-tearing episodes
-Waaaay too fast; zipping through (important!) exposition scenes to get on to the action. There is so much meat in this book; to skip through it like it's mere fluff is irritating, not to mention the trouble with continuity in future books.
-HARRY SAW PETER ON THE MAP???? Completely, absolutely, painfully wrong. Don't know why the heck they chose to do that.
-Scenes I dearly missed:
*Sirius's second entrance, with Ron being attacked - hints at the mystery ever so subtly as well as giving Ron a chance to get attention
*Any of the scenes in which Hermione loses control, bursts into tears, whatever - come on, she's really strained in this book! She's not perfectly composed all the time, or even much at all! But knowing Kloves' leanings toward Hermione Sue, this shouldn't surprise me.
*Snape with Fudge, delighted at capturing Sirius, and Snape's fury at Sirius being re-captured - Snape was really cut back in the adaptation, and I think his grudge is important - however unlikable and adolescent.
-What was with Dumbledore spouting off silly little aphorisims about fighting back darkness and what's in your heart? For that matter, what was with the attempt to present a Message about what's in your heart - punctuated by placing a hand on someone's chest? Weird. This isn't about a Message; there are multiple themes in the book but they're not shoved in you face.
-A terrible, terrible half-explanation for the whole great big mystery that drives the entire book - Sirius as the Secret Keeper, the three of them turning into Animagi for Lupin's sake, the meaning of the names on the Marauder's Map, Snape's near brush with a werewolf, and so many, many other details that I was under the impression were quite essential to getting it. So what if you've read the book, you understand it - so the movie doesn't stand on its own! Just admit it - the movie doesn't stand on its own. They could have placed these details easily within scenes of the movie - I was just waiting for Harry to call "Moony!" as Lupin was leaving at the end, but no such luck. Blah.
-Hermione's little interferences with time. Non-canonical, and dumb.
-All right, this shouldn't bother me near as much as the plot-holes and rushed exposition and adbridgements, but somehow, this is my giant pet peeve - the were-monkey. Oh, I'm sorry, was that supposed to be a were-wolf?? Sure could have fooled me with that hairless, partly upright, ridiculous mess. PLEASE! This is not some wolfman from a cheesy 1930's serial!! This is a werewolf, a creature that CLEARLY resembles a wolf, as we know from the book when Hermione is explaining the different between a real wolf and a werewolf - if the differences are so subtle as to cause people to have trouble distinguishing, then OBVIOUSLY the similarities are very strong. It looks like a wolf, people! I can't even begin to express my displeasure, and I can't really say why it bugged me so much. Again, many other more crucial things should have bothered me, but this annoyed me on a deep, aesthetic level that I just can't ignore. this is the memory that stays with me - Lupin begins to transform as I excitedly clutch the armrests of my seat, and I'm waiting, and waiting - and there's nothing more - this is it, he's done transforming, and I'm staring at the result with unalloyed horror. A were-monkey. Ugh, ugh, ugh. Oh, and ugh. And both Sirius and Hermione acting as though he could fight it - oh, COME ON!!
(Incidentally, a little addition I did like was when Snape was discussing the etymological roots for "were-wolf" - I do dearly love my linguistics, particularly Anglo-Saxon! ;)
So...I liked it, and I'd watch it again, but I'm sure I'd want to fast-forward through a bunch of scenes and boo at others. Sigh...why doesn't anyone just ask me to write the screenplays? Hah.
