The cast was good. The new dumbledore wasn't any replacement for the old one... but since we can't have the old one anymore... Malfoy sure as hell did age a lot...

I didn't like how the movie went. It didn't seem to flow together as well as the other two. The amount of stuff that was missing sort of boggled my mind.

The entire deal between Moonie, Padfoot, Wormtail, and Prongs, was missing. There was no explanation about why Sirius was an animagus. There was no explanation of how Lupin knew how the map works, and that it was, in fact, a map. There was no explanation of why the image of the stag was important. Hell, when harry summoned the Patronus at the end, it didn't look even remotely like it did the first time when he saw it summoned. There was a vague image of a patronus in the huge, swirling shield thing, but...

The firebolt was supposed to have been obtained in the middle, not the end, but that I can understand, to meet time constraints.

The entire castle felt TOTALLY different. From the giant clock motif, to the big bridge where Harry and Lupin were talking, to Hagrid's hut being right on the slope and not further down as it was in the previous movies. It didn't feel like hogwards did, except in a couple scenes.

Overall, I didn't like it anywhere near as much as the other two. The entire deal with Lupin and Sirius being the creators of the Map (With Harry's father, and Pettigrew), and the significance of the stag appearing, were all completely AWOL.

EDIT - Goddamn it, Dumbledorf is from Sluggy, Dumbledore is from HP.

Khyron fucked around with this message on 06-06-2004 at 06:25 PM.

Sometimes, not reading the books works out well.

I read the books, and while yes, I admit, I'd have liked to see the explanation of the Marauder's Map, and a little more background on a few other things, the changes didn't bother me in the slightest. I enjoyed the redesign of Hogwarts and the grounds, and I thought the director did a great job with it overall. This is a magical world, and it makes sense to me that things such as the bridge and the clock tower could be added very easily over summer break.

The previous director seemed to be more interested in making sure every little gadget mentioned in the books were introduced, and often got too bogged down in the little things, to a point where it seemed the story would stall during certain scenes.

The story has to be streamlined to survive the transition from paper to the screen. The books only get more and more complex as they go on, and it's a given that some things will have to be sacrificed to keep the plot moving ahead in a visual meduim. I'd venture to guess that 80% of the audience could care less about the internal politics of the Ministry of Magic, for example. These movies are, for their main demographic, already incredibly long. This isn't LoTR, so a three plus hour screen time would end up ultimately sinking the franchise. Kids don't have the attention span to sit still for that long.

Yes, a lot of the detail was missing, but in my opinion, you have to take the books and the movies as separate entities. A full scale adaption would be next to impossible, given time and budget constraints.

Xyrra fucked around with this message on 06-06-2004 at 08:20 PM.

I'm hoping they'll have an extended version DVD that'll have the bits they left out, like LOTR...

Khyron fucked around with this message on 06-06-2004 at 10:23 PM.

quote:

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Khyron had this to say about dark elf butts:
I'm hoping they'll have an extended version DVD that'll have the bits they left out, like LOTR...

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Sorry to say, but I wouldn't bet on it. From recent reports I've read, there's less than 30 minutes worth of footage that was cut from the film. The script was cut down with JK Rowling's approval, and she did have final ok on the production.

Xyrra fucked around with this message on 06-06-2004 at 10:30 PM.

You could deffinately tell this was a different director.. the other movies although loved by all seemed more geared to the children that the book was orginally intended for. This one seemed older and darker... I really liked that, though some parts did feel a little confusing and lacking, on the whole very well done.

Malfoy is still very cute but such a wimp... and they all seemed to have aged several more years then they actually have. Over all I like the semi new feel of it.

but other than that, i liked the redesign of hogwarts...

and goddamn draco's hot. Thank god he has two older brothers.

In any case, I liked the different director...by and large. I agree with JR2.0 that it did have a somewhat more mature feel, which was necessary. The novels aren't all written for eleven year olds. One of Rowling's most formidable literary abilities is to scale up the maturity level of the books from year to year. The movie just expanded on that.