I'm a Ravenclaw, Not a Hufflepuff

[slightlyoffaxis]

Comments

[rockmarooned]

I do think that Half-Blood Prince and Order of the Phoenix are easy to sort of run together and confuse as movies, because they were such hefty books that had to be trimmed, understandably, to make it to the screen. So I can tell you that the book of Order of the Phoenix is the one where Harry is pissed off for a lot of it, and the book of Half-Blood Prince has a lot of cool backstory. But both of those things have to be trimmed for the movies, so they feel a lot more like the same movie: a darker version of the Potter story with less emphasis on school, more teenage angst, ending with a battle where someone close to Harry dies at the end. Lots of great details in both, and some memorable sequences, and the color palette helps tell them apart, but not nearly as distinct as those two books are (for example: I like Half-Blood Prince way more as a book; I like the two movies about the same).

But the stories for almost all of the movies have been unwieldy. Order of the Phoenix does a nice job of trimming a lot of fat (maybe just because

[slightlyoffaxis]

I bet all of the movies would've been so much better if they waiting until the book series had ended before starting. This never would have happened, but they could've done something really cool like re-tell the events in chronological order, starting with Dumbledore's life, then having a movie about James/Lily/Snape/Sirius at Hogwarts, etc. Too late for all that now. Although I suppose they could X-Men: First Class the whole thing and make a lower-budget movie about the origin of Dumbledore with younger/hotter/cheaper actors.

[wmetoile]

Otherwise known as the "re-edit of The Godfather" strategy.

I don't know if First Classing it would work, because you know it ends in a hideous tragedy.

[slightlyoffaxis]

Well, you can end it on a note of hope, with Dumbledore becoming headmaster of Hogwarts. So sort of exactly like First Class.

[mushroom_kitty]

"I would've liked it better if Moody was somehow captured and replaced sometime after the start of the school year but before the first trial in the Triwizard Tournament. "

I have thought this so many times. I find it altogether irksome.

[slightlyoffaxis]

I know, right?!

[sparklyfabulous]

i'm sad i had to miss sunday's marathon! i don't remember the OoTP or HBP movies at ALL, really. but i just got home from watching DH part one and man oh man is that a good movie.

unlike every other book in the series, i only read deathly hallows once, so there's a lot in the movie that's fresh and surprising to me; on the other hand, i also discovered tonight that the best way to shut me up and make me stop saying "wait, that's not what happened in the book, right?" is to let me sit on a couch with the book ACTUALLY IN MY HAND so i can ....basically read along as things happen. too bad i can't read in a dark movie theatre this weekend

[slightlyoffaxis]

When Ben watched the movies with us, he kept checking the wikis with his phone. Maybe reading the wikis beforehand will do the trick if you can't re-read the book before the movie?

Harry does say "Accio sword" (because it's one of the four), and it doesn't work. But earlier, when the lady turns into a snake, he's fending it off with a chair. DO MAGIC, HARRY!

[sparklyfabulous]

ah, i missed "accio sword" then. but yes, EXACTLY, with the ladysnake.