Harry Potter (movies)

[Avilan the Grey]

We (wife and I) just sat through somewhat of a Marathon (1-2 movies a night) of all the movies so far. I had watched them up to the Half Blood Prince before and loved them all. I am REALLY impressed with the Deathly Hallows (pt 1) though; it has a very unsettling and creepy feel to it, and I must say the most disturbing scene for me so far in the whole series (even more so than in the books) is Hermione making her parents forget they ever had a daughter. It REALLY hit me hard, for some reason.

Some general thoughts:

1. I definitely prefer the second version of Hogwarts; the first one (first two movies) is beautiful, but the second is both beautiful and at the same time creepy.

2. Emma Watson has really impressed me, seeing her develop through the series. She's a heck of an actress (and the only one of the power trio that REALLY sounds natural in the first movie; she always makes me laugh out loud every time she does the "Charmed." line to Ron when she meets them on the train for the first time).
Daniel and Rupert are very good, but I think she is a head taller, acting wise.

3. It's hard to judge Richard Harris vs Michael Gambon; I do prefer Richard as Dumbledore but on the other hand they play different scenarios; Richard gets to be all quiet but whimsical; Michael plays a Dumbledore that is forced to act quite differently. And he DOES do it brilliantly.

4. Clémence Poésy wasn't in the last one much, and she didn't speak much (except when transforming into Harry, which was worth a chuckle) but either her English as improved a lot, or she was hamming it up in the Goblet Of Fire; there she had a VERY heavy French accent while in the DH1 she had almost none.

5. Speaking of Clémence: I know they cut a LOT of scenes, but not having any real background of her going from accepting Ron's invitation to the ball, to marrying his oldest brother is a little distracting to me (luckily I have read the books, as I said).

6. Shirley Henderson as Moaning Myrtle always makes me laugh, because she is doing a depressed half-crazy teenage girl very well for a 40 year old woman :smallsmile:

Now I can't wait for the last movie!

[Mauve Shirt]

Oh my god this looks so amazing (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NYt1qirBWg&feature=player_embedded) I hope it's as good as part 1!

[Syka]

As someone who has read the books (and also recently marathoned them, with someone who has NOT read the books), I think I figured out the problem. For all the faults of PoA leaving out stuff from the book, none of the changes were vital to the story and the story still flowed. In GoF, they cut out major plot elements (to be fair, some couldn't be foreseen as being AS major as they were), but it also resulted in a story that felt very, very choppy. OotP was similar, and it recovered in HBP.

As for the girl that played Fleur, keep in mind in GoF, she had just come to Britain from France and would have had a heavy accent. In HBP/DH, she has been in Britain for sometime (lampshaded as "to better her English" when she just wanted to get closer to Ron's brother, lol). Makes a bit more sense when you get the background of the book.

I actually prefer Gambon as Dumbledore, to be honest. He has a bit more of an imposing vibe, and I like that.

Alsoalso, not giving away the end to my boyfriend when he'd ask questions in HBP was hard. >> He was definitely asking the right ones.


Can not wait for the last movie. Sad, but looks AMAZING!

[Mauve Shirt]

But in PoA, they DID leave out the most important conversation in the book. The one that explained what the plot was. I will never forgive it for that.

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

But in PoA, they DID leave out the most important conversation in the book. The one that explained what the plot was. I will never forgive it for that.

Which conversation was that? I don't remember...
I do remember thinking that PoA was waaay too short, that it was like "all of a sudden, you're at the end now muhahaha!"

[Mauve Shirt]

The part where they reveal that Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs are Lupin, Peter, Sirius and James. That's pretty important, that they wrote the Marauder's Map, and they just left in Harry going "Oh, Prongs." at his Patronus and assumed that was enough.

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

The part where they reveal that Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs are Lupin, Peter, Sirius and James. That's pretty important, that they wrote the Marauder's Map, and they just left in Harry going "Oh, Prongs." at his Patronus and assumed that was enough.

Ooooh yeah. 'Ooops'. That's a pretty big thing to leave out.

[mangosta71]

As for the girl that played Fleur, keep in mind in GoF, she had just come to Britain from France and would have had a heavy accent. In HBP/DH, she has been in Britain for sometime (lampshaded as "to better her English" when she just wanted to get closer to Ron's brother, lol). Makes a bit more sense when you get the background of the book.
She's been in the country for 2-3 years. I know a girl that came to the US at about the same age that Fleur went to Britain, has been here for 9 years, and still has a distinct Russian accent. My boss is also Russian (coincidence - they're not related) - dunno how old he was when he came to the US but he's been here more than 20 years, and he still has a distinct accent.

As heavy as Fleur's is in GoF, it should still be distinct and recognizable in DH.

[Traab]

She's been in the country for 2-3 years. I know a girl that came to the US at about the same age that Fleur went to Britain, has been here for 9 years, and still has a distinct Russian accent. My boss is also Russian (coincidence - they're not related) - dunno how old he was when he came to the US but he's been here more than 20 years, and he still has a distinct accent.

As heavy as Fleur's is in GoF, it should still be distinct and recognizable in DH.

Meh, some people dont care about losing their accent, some do. Obviously fleur did care and wanted to improve her english. But honestly, I didnt like the movies because of how much had to be cut or changed. I understand why cuts and changes have to happen, but I just cant enjoy them as much. Also, the whole thing with moody in goblet annoyed me. It was like they were TRYING to give it away that he wasnt the real moody with all his twitching and crap. In the book there really wasnt anything that even suggested it until you got to the grand reveal.

[Avilan the Grey]

As heavy as Fleur's is in GoF, it should still be distinct and recognizable in DH.

Besides it's sexy. :smallbiggrin:

[Syka]

Meh, some people dont care about losing their accent, some do. Obviously fleur did care and wanted to improve her english. But honestly, I didnt like the movies because of how much had to be cut or changed. I understand why cuts and changes have to happen, but I just cant enjoy them as much. Also, the whole thing with moody in goblet annoyed me. It was like they were TRYING to give it away that he wasnt the real moody with all his twitching and crap. In the book there really wasnt anything that even suggested it until you got to the grand reveal.

Plus we don't know the environment she was in prior to coming to Britain, although it's implied she's fluent in English (so may have learned English from a young age). It's possible she kept the French accent because those are the people she predominantly spoke to, and once in Britain picked up that accent. I have a number of friends from India. I don't know when they began learning English, but it varies from an extremely heavy accent to moderate (you can easily understand her, but obviously accented) to hardly any trace.

Regional variations can also come into play. Comparing different languages may be a bit of an apples to oranges thing, anyway. There is a good body of research that shows first language, combined with age of learning the second (or whatever) language, plays a part in fluency- which I believe includes accents. Spanish speakers pick up English easier than Chinese speakers, for instance.



That said, for all the faults I love the movies. I just....ignore GoF and OotP.

[Xondoure]

PoA is the worst in my book. The films have never really blown me away until HP7, which did, if only because it did such a remarkable job at playing clean up to the other films and the actors have really come into the roles.

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

Well, I'm apparently going to go see the midnight release with my sister and my mom. The catch: my sister is allowed to dress me up. Yaaay.

They're good at it, though. For HP7, my mum went as a VERY convincing Bellatrix Lestrange, the book version not the movie version, and my sister went as Luna, I think.
I refuse to die my hair red though, or get a scar on my forehead. I might go as Hermione, for kicks.

[mangosta71]

You should go as Voldemort.

[Traab]

Go as hagrid, just strap a rapunzel wig to your chin, and mix some twigs in it. :p