This Friday, the newest Harry Potter movie opens, and I know I'm really looking forward to it. But just as much as I'm looking forward to the movie, I'm looking forward to hearing the reaction to it from two of my sisters.
Almost everyone in my family is a Harry Potter fan and has read all the books. That's both parents, and all the siblings (except, I think, for the one brother that doesn't really do much reading). This is an impressive testament to the quality of the books (a quality I doubt very much I have to convince you of), as two of my sisters are among the harshest critics imaginable. (Some of you right now may be thinking of my emerging "pot"-like qualities as I speak of my "kettle"-like sisters and just where they might fall on the color spectrum. All I can say is, they put me to shame.)
The first two Harry Potter film adaptations thrilled the both of them. But then came movie three. Of course, a great many people regarded this as the best of the three Potter films so far, but not my sisters. And not, in my opinion, for any rational reason. They were simply horrified (I think that not too strong a word) at some of the changes that had been made in adapting Prisoner of Azkaban into a movie.
I tried to point out that to cut a 435-page book down to a movie of reasonable length, some cuts were going to have to be made. The spirit of the book, I argued, was present intact.
Oh no! groused one sister. Some of their changes were totally unacceptable.
Such as?
And her example (I kid you not), is that in the movie, Harry receives his gift of a new Firebolt broom at the end of the story, rather than in the middle, as in the original book.
Big fat Harry deal, I thought. But I knew there was no point in continuing the discussion.
Now we're facing down Goblet of Fire, which in print weighed in at almost 300 pages longer than Prisoner of Azkaban. So basically, cut all 300 of those pages out, on top of the type of trimming made to get Azkaban down to a shorter-than-a-Peter-Jackson-film length. I expect a total fit from my sisters. Should be fun to watch.
I love you two!
5 comments:
While the first film was dangerously close to being too well-adapted to be an entertaining film, the adaptation of Chamber of Secrets is too slow and too boring in parts. The slow drama that worked in the book did not work in the film.
I've read a bunch of spoilers about the adaptation. Between you, me, and the lamppost, they'll probably hate it.
I only really liked #3. Who are the (older?) characters in all the promo posters? And who's Barty Crouch Jr? The new lead actor in Doctor Who plays him in the movie.
What Marcus said. The first two just seemed like special effects extravaganzas to me, without the entertainment values of the books (okay, book - I've only read the first one).
I should note that I think Alfonso Cuarón's direction makes the movie. The blocking in several of the scenes (I love the scene of Harry and Lupin talking on the bridge) and the way he used the sets were both extremely effective. PoA is my least favorite of all the books and it is by far my most favorite of the movies so far.
We'll have to see if the movie on Friday (perhaps our last big carefree date out on the town before The Event and babysitters and whatnot) surpasses, but I can't help wishing Cuarón had been contracted for this movie as well.
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