they'd better not let us down this time.

[zaph]

So, Half-Blood Prince is my favourite of the Harry Potter books, and I really hope they don't screw up the movie. The trailer looks awesome, and they've clearly got some important scenes in there, but I'm just afraid they'll hack and slash this one like they did Order of the Phoenix

Comments

[jjrrutgers]

What do you think about them splitting HP7 into two films? Good move?

[zaph]

Absolutely. I just hope they're both 2 and a half hours and not an hour and 45 minutes.

[talcotts]

I dunno. While I think that OotP was more than a bit choppy, I thought that PoA was the best movie in the series because they cut so much.

I don't really care about it being true to the books as much as I care about it standing on its own as a movie. OotP had problems because of what was cut, not simply because things were cut. Even then, I thought that it was a better movie than the first two. Those followed the books very well, and lagged because of it (and those are the shortest books).

I think it's also telling that Steve Kloves didn't write OotP, but is doing the rest. His version of Wonder Boys is the best book-to-movie adaptation I've ever seen, and I think that he tends to have a good eye for what can be cut while leaving the essence of the story intact.

[zaph]

See, I thought PoA was a lousy adaptation because they added too much extraneous stuff that wasn't in the book at the expense of some scenes that would have been great for say, character development, which has been basically non-existent in the plot and action heavy movies. My favourite part of that book is the entire bit starting when they go into the Shrieking Shack to the end, and they did a horrible job of that in the movie, which really ruined it for me.

I liked GoF the best of the movies, because I thought it actually left in the most important things - if they'd followed the PoA philosophy, the graveyard scene would have lasted for 45 seconds and would have sucked.

[purplebean]

PoA was my favorite of the movies too! I thought it was a great adaptation that had its own point of view and symbolism (and the acting and directing were great). If they're going to go for a literal translation of the book, then I'd like it to be long enough to accommodate that. If they're going to try to do what PoA did, I just hope they can do it as well.

Also, we might not mind length and lots of dialogue, but I understand that they're probably trying to appeal to kids :)

Hmm... off topic, but apparently my newly upgraded computer automatically spell checks everything I type -- and doesn't think 'dialogue' is a word!

[zaph]

Also, we might not mind length and lots of dialogue, but I understand that they're probably trying to appeal to kids

I dunno, with the PG-13 ratings from GoF on (I'm assuming, anyway - there's just no way Inferi and Horcruxes can possibly get a PG rating), there's only so much appealing to kids that's necessary or possible. Teenagers can sit through a longer, less action-packed movie, though.

Hmm... off topic, but apparently my newly upgraded computer automatically spell checks everything I type -- and doesn't think 'dialogue' is a word!

I think in the U.S., it's technically spelled 'dialog'. I installed an en_GB dictionary on my computer, though, so it doesn't complain about -ogue or -ise or -our any more. :)

[jd7a]

As I recall, L isn't a HP fan, though. So it may be divisive anyway ;)

[zaph]

Oh, she's agreed to watch the movies with me, at least. She just doesn't want to read the books. :)

(Though I don't think she'll be there at midnight when I go to see HBP in November.)