Ok. This is officially a rant. I just saw the latest Harry Potter movie-film yesterday and while I enjoyed it, I cannot help but be super frustrated. Here I will list several of my key problems with the movie franchise. This accounts for only the things that have happened in the films as I have no knowledge of the books.
1. I understand that Voldemort wants to rule the world or whatever, but I never really felt any sense in the movies that anyone was actually scared of him. In the last two movies, Voldemort's forces seem to have simply just taken over everything. How did this happen? How did people let this happen? I never ever felt that the world was in danger.
2. Why were the only people who could use any magic Dumbledore, Voldemort, Snape, and Hermione? Harry and Ron only used those damn stupify spells the entire time. You have Death Eaters throwing out killing curses like they were going out of style, but these guys aren't willing to fight back. Also, the impact of using the killing curse isn't very well explained in the movies. I would have loved just a little bit more dialogue stating that using the curse definitely kills a part of you and also that the curse is very difficult to use and that you risk it backfiring on you if you do it wrong. This would have put some emphasis on how skilled the Death Eaters are and how everyone of Voldemort's minions were soulless. Also, if I was Harry Potter and I knew from age 11 that I had to kill the most evil enemy in the world of all time, I would have been reading all the books and learning as much as I could about magic and new spells and stuff. Did he really ever try and get better outside of that one time when he assembled Dumbledore's army?
3. Back to Harry. Obviously part of Voldemort' soul latched itself to Harry, but the way it was explained/developed in the movie meant that Harry really wasn't special at all at that it was only luck/circumstance that he be tied to Voldemort and not fate. This makes for a less compelling story to me.
4. The movies themselves lost their magic. I was talking with RyDub about how the first few films had this energy and aura about them. They were scored by John Williams and, to me anyway, literally felt magical. I hardly ever noticed the score in any subsequent films. Things I missed were the ghosts in Hogwarts, the paintings (finally showed up in the last movie), and the staircases (which didn't move in the last movie I believe nor the books I have heard). All of these little details set the first couple of movies apart.
5. How the hell is Quidditch scored? What are the official rules? It seems that the game is played until someone catches the snitch. Why are they throwing the balls through the hoops if the only thing that matters is the snitch being caught? Again, just a few lines of dialog explaining the rules would be have been amazing.
6. Why did the Death Eaters just disappear when Harry revealed that he wasn't dead? What were they scared of? Pretty weak if you ask me.
7. The coolest thing about the movie were the giants that stormed Hogwarts.
8. As RyDub already stated: why didn't they use the magic they did know? When Harry and Voldemort fall to the ground I was half expecting a momentum interuptus (sp?) spell or something similar. Come on. Again, an explanation saying "Most magic is very difficult to perform and only a wizard/witch who can maintain extreme focus and who has enough will power can perform magic. Harder magic requires more inner strength and concentration." Something like that. Jesus.
9. I felt I could have written the scripts to the last 5 or so films myself without having read the books and been more accurate to the source material. I then would have revised the script to make the source material pale in comparison to the story I would tell. I would do this all by just discussing the origin of magic and how one becomes good at it.
10. I still loved it though.
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1. They definitely went into more detail in the books.
ReplyDelete2. The books do explain more about the killing curse.
The whole Harry doing basically nothing is what bugs me the most about the stories. Even when he had one simple task (to keep Voldemort out of his mind), he couldn't even do that (now, it would've made some things tougher in the long run, but it definitely could've made some things easier too) It's like he couldn't give two shits. Just like you said, i would've been reading every goddamn book i could get my hands on, paying attention in every class, etc. Even just learning to do spells without speaking them would've been a world of help.
3. But it was the fact that it did latch onto him that made him special.
4. Agreed.
5. Rules are explained in the movies, i believe, pretty well. You get points for throwing the quaffle through hoops. You get 10 points every time you do this. The game is just over when someone catches the snitch; that team isn't necessarily the winner. (Let's say my team has 200 points and your team has 25 when you catch the snitch. The snitch is only worth 150 so my team still wins 200-175)
6. No idea. Pussies.
7. Disagree. I thought the coolest part was when the group fell from the tracks in Gringotts and Hermione levitated them off the ground and the camera froze looking down her cleavage for about 4 seconds. Tell me that wasn't on purpose.
8. I believe they do say this in the movies, but still. The spells they could've used weren't all that powerful.
9. You probably could've.
10. Eh.
1. May have to finally read them, but they should have said more in the movies.
ReplyDelete3. I guess I just wanted him to be special because he worked so hard to be the best wizard in the world.
5. I just watched the first movie last night and all I recall is that you win when you catch the snitch. Anyway, it seems like an unbalanced scoring system.
7. Agreed. I thought about that when I saw the movie, but forgot about it until you mentioned it. Definitely intentional.
9. Thanks.
10. Respect.
I feel like he took the whole "chosen one" and ran with it. He didn't do shit. He gave up a lot. Got lucky tons of times. Had friends who could bail him out. Snape looked after him. He barely did anything for himself.
ReplyDeleteSnape is definitely the most interesting and compelling character in the whole series. He sacrificed more than anyone and seemed to be the only one who felt any real emotion.
ReplyDeleteQuiditch is unnecessary filler. It does nothing to advance the plot. As soon as something like Quidditch appears in a movie or book I'm out. I get instantly bored and quit.
ReplyDeleteYou could have written Harry's Potter because you have seen the same G-- D--- movie a thousand times in your lifetime. Its an archetype. Same story, new graphics, new setting. You have been buying new tickets to the same movie your whole miserable life.