(no subject)
We wnet and saw Harry Potter with plastic_logic and mad_hatter__. I'd forgotten how badly written the book was and the movie is unfortunately faithful to the original work. It's a loose collection of things that happen for no damn reason. People do things and say things and have mood swings that are just incomprehensible.
One of the greatest strengths of the Harry Potter series is that the universe is really well realised. The first couple of books set up a believable set of fantastic wonders, traditions and limitations. By this final instalment, things have gotten so messed up that the actions of the characters make almost no sense.
For example, the opening of the movie involves a desperate flight to get Harry away. He is secretly hidden away in his own home (where nobody would ever think to look for him) and he must be transported to another secret hiding place. The destination is Ron's place (again, very secret) where there'll be a wedding and everybody's invited.
Because of some extraordinary rule about an arbitrary age at which the Ministry can find out about you doing certain kinds of magic and extraordinary coincidence that Harry must be moved just before his birthday, they can't just poof in and out. As if it matters that Harry breaks that particular rule. (Sure, the bad guys already want to kill him, but that would just be uncivilised.)
So instead of using Floo powder (established in the first book as the way to get underage wizards around) or a vehicle with an invisibility cloak (second book) or the Knight Bus (established in the third book as being able to poof in and out of existence to travel great distances) or a portkey (fourth book) they come up with a ridiculously complicated plan that all goes very badly.
The gradual addition of various magics throughout the series allows the plot of the last instalment to slip from deus ex machina to deus ex machina in a really unsatisfying way. The worst offence is randomly finding the sword in a random lake in the middle of a random forrest. I know it's ostensibly explained later but the ridiculous convenience of its appearance really just stretches the suspension of belief too far.
The other big problem is the wangst. The three characters are all grumpy and morose in turns. Wangst is not character development. The interminable camping scenes (and, I'm sorry, but the UK just looks wet, cold and bleak) made me fantasise that I had the remote and could sit in the cinema and fast forward through half the scenes.
There are laugh-out-loud funny parts of the movie, though. There's a scene where George sneaks into the room during an intiment moment between Harry and Ginny. The acting and timing is pitch-perfect.
I also loved the animation sequence for the telling of the tale of the Deathly Hallows. I'd happily watch a whole movie shown in that style.
I probably wouldn't recommend the movie to people. It'd be more fun to watch it on DVD at home before going to see the final part at the cinemas.
We went for afternoon tea and did a bit of shopping, randomly bumping into one of mad_hatter__'s friends who I was fairly proud to have almost remembered the name of. We did some random christmas shopping and parted ways in Minotaur.
One of the greatest strengths of the Harry Potter series is that the universe is really well realised. The first couple of books set up a believable set of fantastic wonders, traditions and limitations. By this final instalment, things have gotten so messed up that the actions of the characters make almost no sense.
For example, the opening of the movie involves a desperate flight to get Harry away. He is secretly hidden away in his own home (where nobody would ever think to look for him) and he must be transported to another secret hiding place. The destination is Ron's place (again, very secret) where there'll be a wedding and everybody's invited.
Because of some extraordinary rule about an arbitrary age at which the Ministry can find out about you doing certain kinds of magic and extraordinary coincidence that Harry must be moved just before his birthday, they can't just poof in and out. As if it matters that Harry breaks that particular rule. (Sure, the bad guys already want to kill him, but that would just be uncivilised.)
So instead of using Floo powder (established in the first book as the way to get underage wizards around) or a vehicle with an invisibility cloak (second book) or the Knight Bus (established in the third book as being able to poof in and out of existence to travel great distances) or a portkey (fourth book) they come up with a ridiculously complicated plan that all goes very badly.
The gradual addition of various magics throughout the series allows the plot of the last instalment to slip from deus ex machina to deus ex machina in a really unsatisfying way. The worst offence is randomly finding the sword in a random lake in the middle of a random forrest. I know it's ostensibly explained later but the ridiculous convenience of its appearance really just stretches the suspension of belief too far.
The other big problem is the wangst. The three characters are all grumpy and morose in turns. Wangst is not character development. The interminable camping scenes (and, I'm sorry, but the UK just looks wet, cold and bleak) made me fantasise that I had the remote and could sit in the cinema and fast forward through half the scenes.
There are laugh-out-loud funny parts of the movie, though. There's a scene where George sneaks into the room during an intiment moment between Harry and Ginny. The acting and timing is pitch-perfect.
I also loved the animation sequence for the telling of the tale of the Deathly Hallows. I'd happily watch a whole movie shown in that style.
I probably wouldn't recommend the movie to people. It'd be more fun to watch it on DVD at home before going to see the final part at the cinemas.
We went for afternoon tea and did a bit of shopping, randomly bumping into one of mad_hatter__'s friends who I was fairly proud to have almost remembered the name of. We did some random christmas shopping and parted ways in Minotaur.