Comments | shimizu_hitomi: a medley of stuffffff

shimizu_hitomi

a medley of stuffffff

Apr 15, 2011 21:46

Finally watched Harry Potter 7 on DVD (missed it in the theaters, I forget why) -- verdict: underwhelmed. I think the weaknesses of the book are really magnified on film. Too much happening, not enough space to linger.... The scenes that I liked in the book (and yes, I'm one of the folks who did actually like book 7 with caveats) ended up kind of ( Read more... )

movies, lotr, anime, harry potter

Comments 18

raphiael April 16 2011, 05:22:16 UTC

Hnngg man, I'm with you. I really don't like the gray, dank palette every single movie seems to be using these days. It's ugly and near impossible to see, especially when combined with tons happening at once and those weird camera dynamics.
I haven't seen any of the Hp movies past 3, though. I hate long movies. :X

shimizu_hitomi April 16 2011, 05:54:30 UTC

YEAH. It hurts my eyes and makes all the scenes pretty much blur together. Including scenes from different movies.

Aw you aren't missing out on much though. XD I think #3 is still the best of the bunch so far. There are some artistically beautiful shots in movies 5-7, but it seems like each movie gets (literally) darker and darker and more of a pain to watch -- and despite the length each one keeps getting more and more disjointed too. Movie!Luna is pretty awesome though.

xirysa April 16 2011, 06:10:34 UTC

I've always maintained that HP3 is the best in general, both book and movie.

(Loooove movie!Luna, though. Yeah. XD)

xirysa April 16 2011, 05:37:34 UTC

Didn't care much at all for HP7--the first part, really. To be honest I only watched for the Phelps twins.

BUT HOMGHOMGHOMG THE HOBBIT~~~ 8D

shimizu_hitomi April 16 2011, 05:56:18 UTC

The Phelps twins are pretty damn fiiiine. XP

I am SO excited for The Hobbit, I can't even tell you :D

nagasasu April 16 2011, 06:19:33 UTC

No mention of the make out scene? XD

shimizu_hitomi April 16 2011, 17:56:26 UTC

WHAT MAKE OUT SCENE. D:

Seriously, that entire sequence was one of the ones I was struggling to make out what was going on the entire time. I barely got a glimpse of it.

nagasasu April 16 2011, 19:53:14 UTC

WHAT. This is like, all my friends and I could talk about after watching the movie! Having not read the book, this was the most WTF scene ever.

This is the only "decent" quality video I could find of it. Watch it and weep.

shimizu_hitomi April 17 2011, 06:08:57 UTC

LOLOLOL

Now that has me trying to remember if it was that explicit in the book!

angelthorn April 16 2011, 08:09:32 UTC

I'm very much excited for The Hobbit since a large chunk of actors are ones I've seen on British television series that I follow(ed). :)

Er, can you give me a refresher on PJ's interpretation of Denethor? Lately I've been watching Fringe and still call Walter Bishop (John Noble's character in said series) "Denethor". >D I was trying to recall what exactly happened... I really should watch LOTR again but I really need to be in the mood for a long viewing (me and my shrinking attention span!).

mark_asphodel April 16 2011, 13:08:17 UTC

Er, can you give me a refresher on PJ's interpretation of Denethor

Ignoble, power-hungry, deranged. NOT the book character, IMO.

shimizu_hitomi April 16 2011, 18:00:24 UTC

Yeah, book!Denethor I always felt was a more tragically noble figure. Movie!Denethor went the (easier, imo) "crazy" route. I mean he was pretty much an asshole in both versions but in the book he was at least a figure who commanded respect.

angelthorn April 16 2011, 22:57:29 UTC

Yes, I remember that he was a major asshole =_=; Didn't he off himself in the movie though? I keep thinking of this one shot of some guy throwing himself off a cliff in the film...

Thread 5

mark_asphodel April 16 2011, 13:07:16 UTC

I think the weaknesses of the book are really magnified on film

There were things I liked about the book, but the trailer alone made it clear to me that what I liked about the book wasn't gonna be the point of the film.

Movie 6 had emotional power; this one, ehh

Six was pretty good. Five was mostly a disappointment to me. Four is probably my favorite of the films-- both the Britishness and the sense of a genuine other world really came across in that one, for the first time in the series IMO.

I also did like the way they handled Hermione's, uh, one morally ambiguous choice

!

Really?

shimizu_hitomi April 16 2011, 18:11:43 UTC

I hadn't been keeping up on movie news so I think I either missed the trailer or watched it and then forgot about it. It was certainly not the way I would have compressed the book for film if I were in charge of it though.

I also didn't care much for #5 -- four I did enjoy, and it was one of my favorites when it first came out, but it hasn't held up as well for me on rewatch.

re: Hermione -- well, I don't want to say that it was a vast improvement, but her struggle with her guilt over that choice was a subdued but visible thread throughout the movie. The first half of it or so, anyway. Which is more than I can say for the book.