caerula's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- a ride on the Hogwarts Express Like dichroic, I'm back from seeing the Harry Potter movie, and I pretty much agree with her assessment. The movie felt right, with its Dickensian Diagon Alley, fairy tale Hogwarts castle, and gorgeous Quidditch pitch. Most of the characters felt right as well; I thought Hagrid was spot on, but then I'd never pictured him with anything but masses of black hair. They really should have given Hermione buck teeth, but her attitude was certainly right. McGonagall, Snape and Dumbledore all seemed good, although I would have like to have seen more of them. I agree, however, that it did feel rushed, despite the nearly-three-hours running time. There was a feeling of shoving it all into the second half of the movie to make sure all the plot-related details were there. The first half lingered over wonderful bits like Gringotts (although I wish they'd shown the ride down to the vaults), the Hogwarts ceiling, Seamus's difficulty with his wand, and Harry's broom prowess, but after the Quidditch scene many of the lovely bits that made the book so delightful went missing -- Christmas was nearly non-existent, and I really missed Harry and -- was it Ron or Hermione? -- sending Norbert off to Rumania and getting in trouble that way. That was also important because it set up the animosity between Harry and Draco much more strongly than comes through in the movis, and gives Neville motivation for his attempt to stop the three at the end, which seemed to come out of nowhere in the movie. We saw next to nothing of the classes, and really, to get the full benefit of Snape's malevolence, we needed to see more of Potions. And not seeing a Defence Against the Dark Arts hurt the story, I think. We knew nothing of Quirrell in the movie, really, so it wasn't so much of shocker at the end. The Quidditch match was spectacular, but they only showed the one, and the Quidditch cup didn't come into it at all. Like dichroic, I was disturbed at the missing Peeves, although I'd heard before that they'd filmed some with him and then ended up cutting it for length. I suppose that's what happened with the potion challenge, which I also missed. I know they made the Devil's Snare Hermione's chance to shine, but that was just knowing stuff. I loved the logic and how it's just as important as the magic there at the end. They copped out on that in the movie by having Hermione tell Harry that he's a better wizard, as she's just clever and knows stuff. I expect a lot of things were cut; the movie will make an incredible DVD. All the same, I did enjoy it. They caught the feel of the book, and that was the important thing. I hope they don't blow it in future movies. It should help that the next books have tighter plots; there was so much introductory material in the first book that it couldn't help but go all over the place. And YMB enjoyed it tremendously, although he grabbed my hand to cover his eyes during the bit in the Dark Forest and at the end when Voldemort was revealed. He loved it, and I suppose he's the target audience, so there you go. He was most disappointed that the Sorting Hat didn't get to sing. We saw about a zillion previous, including the ubiquitous LotR, and the new Star Wars one (which YMB identified less than one second in). And now I'm back at work, where I will be for the next couple of hours. Boo. But since I took a three hour lunch (is that like a three hour tour?) I suppose I shouldn't complain. 5:11 p.m. - 2001-11-16 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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