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Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban We got to the theater 40 minutes early and I'm glad we did. There was already a long line. We had just enough time to get our tickets, buy the overpriced - but oh so good - buttery popcorn, and grab a row of seats way down front. The next words would be in really big letters, if I knew how to make them appear that way, but I'll settle for all caps. HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN MOVIE SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!!!! " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " First the good points: 1) I LOVED how they did Buckbeak! They did such a beautiful job. The hippogriff never really meshed in my imagination as a beautiful creature. The best my imagination could ever do was a bad cut and paste job. The creative visualization of Buckbeak was extraoridinary. 2) Remus was exactly as I had pictured him. (Very unusual for a book character to translate so well into a movie character for my tastes.) 3) Trelawney was fabulous! Emma did such a great job with that character. She wasn't exactly as I had pictured the character in my head, but this version is oh-so-much-better. 4) The boys who played Fred and George (I forget their names) had a bit of a bigger part in this movie and they played them so true to the book. 5) Hermione's character was wonderful. I think Emma stole the show this time around. She has grown so much in her acting skills. As much as Daniel grew between the first and second movies, Emma did between the second and this one. The Hermione character was so natural this time and very well played. 6) The Dementors were spectacular. I have never encountered anything in the fantasy/sci-fi realm that was translated so beautifully and artistically from book to movie form. They couldn't have been done any better. Now the bad bits: 1) The werewolf was horrible! It had no fur. It was a naked werewolf. It was also very different from the way it was described in the book, that's not taking into account that the scene played out differently than the book, that's just the visual part. It was different than ANY portrayal of a werewolf I had ever seen. So different that it made you stop and ponder the transition and took away the momentum that the story had been building. It was a rather rude and sudden STOP, right when it should have been picking up speed. I have to say, THAT was the biggest dissapointment in the movie. 2) The visual of Sirius as the BIG, black, bad dog. The grim. It was just too small. It was black and it was bad, but it was not the BIG animagus that was supposed to be able to keep a werewolf in check. It was not the BIG apparition of a death omen. It was a feral dog, not even an overly big feral dog. 3) The Quidditch scene was a joke. To me, the purpose of the quidditch matches were a) for Harry to view Sirius, in his animagus form, watching him, furthering along the notion of the Grim b) to smash his Nimbus 2000 into tiny bits, so that the Firebolt could be introduced c)to perpetrate Harry's incapacitation when the Dementors are around d) to show Oliver Wood's desperation to win the cup that year. The only thing accomplished with the match was Harry's incapacitation, wich was shown quite well in other parts of the movie. The whole Qudditch match could have been deleted and it wouldn't have made a difference to the movie. (It also would have freed up time and money to add more important scenes) 4) The movie was just too choppy. There was too many things that were left out. Now I understand that time constraints and budgets have a lot to do with that, but some parts that seemed integral to the story line were not in the movie. They completely failed to mention ANY history between Snape and the Maruaders. Actually, they failed to mention WHO the Marauders were! They never even mention the prank that was played on Snape. It took away from the intensity of betrayal by Pettigrew. The conclusion of the movie was so hurried that I think anyone who hasn't read the book but watched the movie would be lost. There just wasn't enough explanation to form the drawing of conclusions. I imagine that those who only watched the movie were left pondering WHO is Peter Pettigrew and WHY was it such a big deal that he, and not Sirius Black, was the one that betrayed the Potters, to which they would also be asking themselves, just HOW did he betray them? That was a point that wasn't explained either. And the Firebolt? That was an after thought that was quickly shoved into the last five minutes of the movie. Again, people not reading the books would not get the importance of the gift and it would seem superflous. Just an, "Oh, how nice," type thing. The third book was a normal, averaged sized book. Apparently, so packed with imformation that the movie had to make signifigant sacrifices just to get the general storyline told. I don't see how they are going to get the Goblet of Fire into movie form, even if it is a four hour movie. I think, for the first time, I'm not looking forward to the next movie. They apparently have decided to drop all the storylines that do not directly impact Harry in his cuurent life. To me, it's all the sub-storylines and information that make the tale one to be told.
Most recent entries Something New - 2009-06-04 Lunch for Breakfast - 2009-05-18 Jeans and a T-shirt - 2009-05-13 Lost Weeks - 2009-05-11 Happy Birthday to Me! - 2009-04-22 |
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