Yeah, sorry – not much of a blog this morning. I had dinner with the girls last night and then I went out to see the new Harry Potter movie, which I have been frothing at the mouth like a twitchy little fangirl to see since it premiered. Consequently, I was up waaaaay past my bedtime, and even then I was dealing with such issues as ant invasions and scary serious heartburn – all of which you’ll get to hear about soon, I’m sure.
So I am tired and a little miserable and about the best thing I can say about the movie was that I didn’t cry. Oh, it wasn’t that bad, I suppose. The acting was pretty good, and there were loads of funny lines. Maggie Smith acted the hell out of McGonnagal’s scenes. There were lots of lovely little bits to it. But that’s sort of the problem: I was left feeling like the movie was comprised of just the funny, fluffy filler from the book with minor nods to the major plot points.
Fidelity to the books is a big deal to me; it’s the reason I adore the first movie so much. And I knew going into it that they would have to throw most of the book overboard to make it fit. Of course, if I had’ve been in charge, I would have extended the movie to the full 3 hours I could have gotten away with, and I would have used every available minute to cram in more plot. I would NOT – giving the circumstances – have wasted precious screen time with a scene absolutely made up out of thin air that did nothing to advance the plot – and in fact contradicts events in the last book! I’m sure it will be easy to work around, but still. Those minutes could have been used to better purpose. Perhaps in keeping the opening of the movie somewhat approximate to what happens in the book. Or perhaps they could have bothered actually having a BATTLE SCENE at the end of the movie! But you know me. An unforgiving stickler for plot points.
Sadly, it seems the director felt more like grabbing minor plot points from the “C” story lines that fangirls would be looking for (Ron’s Quidditch save, Hermione’s Confundus charm, Romilda’s love potion, Sectumsempra, Hermione ditching McLaggan at the party) and strung those together, fitting in major plot points where they could. I knew going in that the trips into the pensieve were scaled down and I could have lived with that…if they had paid attention to any of the remaining material.
I guess I’ll just have to remain hopeful that splitting the seventh book into two movies means they are better adapting the book to fill the big screen.
July 17, 2009 at 7:59 am |
Your review seems to match that of my other friends. Now I know I will wait for the DVD. What a shame . . .
July 17, 2009 at 12:27 pm |
thats exactly what the post said. only you’re writing is better =] they also said that they traded more fluff for horcruxes…so does that mean they didnt even mention them?! just tell me. i like to be disappointed asap so it’s not as sharp when i first see it.
and also, are you sure tergio really worked or did the ants just leave because they were uneasy with living with someone that fanatic ;0]
July 18, 2009 at 10:43 am |
What a disappointment. But, I guess I’m not surprised. I think we’ll just wait for it on DVD.
July 21, 2009 at 9:28 pm |
I must say, I agree with you on what you said… but one of the scenes that touched me most was the scene as they are leaving Hogwarts (the inside…. ) and doing what they are doing after Dumbledore dies. I was so upset at that scene – not in a “You didn’t stick to the book” way… but it just made it … I’m not sure, it was like insult to injury… and made the whole thing that much more emotional for me.
I have been so incredibly upset by basically every movie going “well… but how could they cut that out, it needed to be in the movies!” – of course I also feel (as do most fans who’ve read the books, as far as I know) that starting with either the 3rd or definitely by the 4th, they needed to start doing two movies for each book!
J