We went to see the new Harry Potter movie this weekend. I'm not gonna worry about spoilers too much. You've either read the books and know what's supposed to happen or you're not likely to see the movie anyway.
All the movies seem rushed. All of 'em. I mean, they ARE rushed. You have one book after another with each one getting longer and longer that need to be crushed down to 90-150 minutes. One page of script is assumed to equal one minute of screen time. In this case it means smashing 704 pages into 153 pages. It's not even fair to compare the page sizes. In a book you get by with a "said Harry" while a script has the speaker's name centered in all caps, a blank line, and then their dialog, then another blank line before getting to the next speaker. And rather healthy margins, too. Gotta have room for notes.
Short stories adapt to screen best. Longer short stories I mean. 30 pages or so adapts to a 90 minute film beautifully.
Right, so, rushed film. And fewer scenes that can readily hit the cutting room floor. The whole thing just felt awkward.
The climax of the story, the recovery of the Horcrux felt largely disconnected from the rest of the movie. There really was no buildup to it. Dumbledore just shows up late in the movie and asks Harry for a big favor. Several minutes could have been spent illustrating the agony and torment that Dumbledore felt while drinking the Horcrux liquid but it came off more like something that was happening in the background. However, the creatures in the water were pretty freaky and Dumbledore got to have a great Gandolf the Grey moment when he destroys them all.
The other climax, in which Dumbledore dies, was altered rather significantly from the book. They did spend much of the movie building up to this moment. But instead of being paralyzed behind a door Harry is just hiding under the floor. Snape even comes and tells him to be quiet before going up to kill Albus. Then, this pissed me off, instead of having to fight their way back out of the castle, the Death Eaters all get out on the lawn and walk out unimpaired.
There's a little bit after that, but the movie ends VERY abruptly. There's no funeral at all.
And, have you heard? Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is gonna be split into two movies. Of all the books that needed breaking up Deathly Hallows is NOT the one that needed it. They could have lost half the book and not missed much. Split Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Split Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Not Deathly Hallows.
I will not be getting this movie on DVD. I haven't gotten any of the Harry Potter books on DVD. I have the audio books which tell a much better story.
4 comments:
This movie was weird on so many levels... It was abrupt and awkward, but even more awkward? That suddenly Harry and Draco had become hot. Like attractive, hot. And also knowing that Harry had been naked on stage in the time between films. One isn't supposed to be thinking of Potter's bits and pieces, if you know what I mean.
I haven't seen any of the movies from beginning to end.
I read the first book and was so unimpressed that I never picked up another one after that.
I have to admit to seeing this movie and really actually liking it
it was done differently then the first of the series
mind you I only saw any of them because of the teenager....yup that's right I'm using the teenage son card LOL
I saw it last week and liked it, but I don't think we're the target audience Doug. For the next 3 days the kids in the beach house ran around playing Harry Potter.
Although my daughter (11) is always pissed off about how much gets left out.
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