Harry Potter, Books and Movies
LaserWolf
Portland Oregon 11,517 Posts
I recently read all the books back to back.
Then saw all the movies, except the last 2 which aren't released yet.
Thing that struck me about the books this time was how funny they are.
Especially Dumbledore. I had remembered him as mysterious and inscrutable, like he is portrayed in the movies. Actually he is funny and playful most of the time. Also Hagrid is always crying.
The movies can't have much meaning to people who haven't read the books and don't already know what is going on.
They are, of course, easy to criticize for what they leave out.
Since, most of the plot and character development have to be left out for the movie to fit under 3 hours, it is really choices we criticize.
Like in The Half Blood Prince, all the studying and school pressures are left out, yet to scenes of houses being burned down are conjured out of thin air. Strange choices.
Anyway, anyone who is a fan and wants to talk about them here is the spot.
Haters who have not read the books or seen the movies are also welcomed.
Then saw all the movies, except the last 2 which aren't released yet.
Thing that struck me about the books this time was how funny they are.
Especially Dumbledore. I had remembered him as mysterious and inscrutable, like he is portrayed in the movies. Actually he is funny and playful most of the time. Also Hagrid is always crying.
The movies can't have much meaning to people who haven't read the books and don't already know what is going on.
They are, of course, easy to criticize for what they leave out.
Since, most of the plot and character development have to be left out for the movie to fit under 3 hours, it is really choices we criticize.
Like in The Half Blood Prince, all the studying and school pressures are left out, yet to scenes of houses being burned down are conjured out of thin air. Strange choices.
Anyway, anyone who is a fan and wants to talk about them here is the spot.
Haters who have not read the books or seen the movies are also welcomed.
Comments
I had never read them all back to back before.
I am much more impressed with her as a storyteller after reading them that way.
I first read HP when I was 12-ish, which was a little more than half my life ago. My younger brother and I would take turns reading from the same book. Book 3 (Prisoner of Azkaban) was my least favorite, and books 5 (Order of the Phoenix) and 6 (Half-Blood Prince) were my favorites. I didn't find the later books to be "funny," as LaserWolf mentioned (I don't laugh easy), but they did develop in terms of the storyline and there definitely was humor in them. The books' characters and content matured as the series progressed, and you can really see that in the later novels, which is probably why the series appeals to older readers as well. When I saw Half-Blood Prince, there was not a single child in the theater. The movies have gotten better, too, though I haven't seen them all.
I love how starting from book 4 (Goblet of Fire), the books got so much darker. And in 5 and 6, Harry is such an annoying, angst-y bitch, which is exactly how most teenagers are. He breaks rules and sticks to his guns and people actually die and stuff.
BUT TELL ME, HP FANS, WHAT DID YOU THINK OF THE EPILOGUE???
Harry and Ron becoming Aurors makes complete sense. Albus Severus is a ridiculous name, but I can live with that. Harry getting with Ginny was ehhh. But how did Hermione, the greatest student Hogwarts has seen in years and even decades, end up working a job at the Ministry of Magic lobbying for house elves or some ish? She was supposed to be the next Headmaster or something! I'm still mad at J.K. for putting her brilliant mind to waste.
Did you two also mix potions in the break room with ketchup and mustard packets while discussing your latest footwear finds?
You know me all too well, Almond!
Of course flatulento causes flatulence! I wish we would've wrote down all the curses we made up.
BTW, this thread should have a spoiler alert. Some of us haven't read all the books, you know.
This is when Harry starts hooking up with random Asian girls in the Forbidden Forest and then Snape takes like 200 points away from Griyffindor because they didn't use protection. Then his boyfriend Ron starts getting all pissy about Harry not being honest about who took the last cookie out of the Pimp Cup (or Goblet, as the Brits like to say), and that he thought he liked redheads better than Asians. And then Ron's hormones go into whack when some blonde genetic mutant French slut starts dancing her booty dance in the dining hall. Hermione has to be the in-between, until she finds some Eurotrash who can barely speak English but can appreciate her developing assets. Harry discovers a heated jacuzzi in the school and lures all the girls in with a big, golden egg. Then he becomes some type of fish with gills and pulls some baby genetic mutant French slut out of the water.
In related news, is there anyone else who wants to try this (if just for novelties sake):
:beerbang:
Oh DEFINITELY. I think I'll wait 'til sometime next year to visit though. That place is gonna be crazy busy for a loooooong time.
Definitely. That beverage she's holding looks pretty good too.
That sounds a whole lot better than I remember it.
"HP IS FOR THE CHILDREN!!!!"
Batmon: My childhood wasn't over until I finished the 7th book. It was the 7th and final horcrux of my youth.
:killinit:
Your Goblet Of Fire recap is one of the best posts ever.
Spoiler alert:
The epilogue is universally hated I think.
My feeling this time was, they are JKR's characters and she can do what ever she wants with them, but...
Harry should have ended up with Luna, or, they should have grown up and married people they didn't have a thing for in school.
The first impression is that JKR created strong and brilliant women who brave heroes. I think a more careful reading will show that the women in the book were for the most part stuck in traditional female roles, including tripping and falling down when the great big monster comes at them, just like a 50s SF flick.
While we are hating on the last book, the final battle bugged me in a number of ways; 1) ever person or creature ever introduced in the books at some point runs pass and says, "Hi Harry Potter", 2) Harry spent most of the battle under the invisibility cloak or pretending to be dead, even as his friends were dying.
After reading the last book a second time, I really liked the camping trip, reminds me of when I used to go camping with friends in high school and we would get all cold and wet and and hungry and not talk to each other, then hug and kiss and pledge that we would be friends for ever. And there was a lot of funny stuff.
I feel like J.K. put all the feminism into Hermione by making her uber smart. The other main females, Prof. McGonagall and Mrs. Weasley, are strong women, but more so because they are a teacher and parent, and not because they are female. But still, it's always the boys who are the "strongest," and Fleur is such a ditz in the Goblet of Fire and performs embarrassingly poorly in the competition.
In terms of Harry playing dead and stuff while his friends were dying, I forgive him. He's only human and so many times in the series he's "done what was right" in order to prevent deaths and such. I think his survival instincts came into play and maybe he got scared, but that makes him seem human and believable. The battle got messy and some parts were hard to keep track of, but that's probably how it felt to be in it. Not that it really happened.
Since the Trio basically left school at the end, I wonder if they got honorary degrees or had to make up the missed curriculum during summer school.
I'm glad you mentioned Luna, LaserWolf, because she suddenly became one of the secondary characters at the end of the series, and I thought there would be more in store for her. I thought she'd end up with Neville. If they went to college, Luna would have been high on magic mushrooms the whole time and then we really wouldn't have known if she was hallucinating or not. But she's a Ravenclaw so Harry would never seriously have considered her.
All the people who were praising the books trying to make me read them were actually older than me.
I was showing my wife how she was learning a long distance sit. My wife said it looked like a HArry Potter thing.
She (Happy Puppy, not my wife) now knows, Accio Puppy=Come, Stupefy=lay down, Expelliarmus=drop, Expecto Patronum=scoot, leave me alone.
These are very powerful because you can't help but say them with authority.
Speaking of charms, how weird is it that in the movies Prof. Flitwick is changed from charms teacher to choir director? In the movies, actual school work and classes are nearly eliminated from the story. In the books the history professor is a minor but important character, with a very funny history of his own. He is not in the movies at all. Of course the movies have to make those kind of choices to condense the story into 3- hours.
This doesn't happen to be your Pup, does it?
Really.
Oh no, it was, she still keeps in touch with him.
Liked it.
My first 3d movie. Yawn.
Not true, in the 80s I saw the 1950s Creature From The Black Lagoon in 3d.
3d makes for great effects, but only once or twice did it add to the story.
I don't mind where it deviates from the book, much.
But. I am sure Harry has a big speech where he explains to Tom Riddle that the reason he can't kill him and can never win is because he doesn't have love, love, love. Seems weird to leave that out.
The movie did put the epic battle in the background while Harry did a bunch of boring stuff, like go to Kings Cross and visit Dumbledore, which was in keeping with the book.
Anyway, there you are, my .02c.
The best part of the show was actually seeing the preview for the new Batman movie. It was sort of half assed because they haven't finished it yet. But it got me excited.
is the 3d worth anything or should i just go IMAX
batmon preview has me excited though
''Confundus!''