Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

[Jedi Master Carr]

This has to do with the movie version which won't be out till 2007 but they have decided on a director and had to change writers becuase Kloves decided to leave here is the report

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/variety/20041118/va_fi_ne/tyro_in__potter__brew_1

He seems kind of the young director who has a lot of potetial. That would be very different which could be a good thing. Maybe having unknowns is best for the Potter franchise. Now they just need to get the trio resigned for the film.

[darth_mcbain]

Re-signed? or resigned? :lol

[Jedi Master Carr]

lol I mean re-signed I rather not lose those three kids. I think they do a great job in there roles.

[jjwr]

I thought the PoA director was going to be back? I liked him.

[Jedi Master Carr]

He said he might come back for 5 or 6. So maybe he will do the sixth movie. And speaking of the Half-Blood Prince. Various Harry Potter sites are saying it will come out for sale June of next year. I hope that is true.

[Lady Vader]

I senserely hope they get the trio again. They really do play the roles fantastically.

[Jedi Master Carr]

For continuity I would love to see the same three kids all the way through. They do a great job and I think it be great to see the same kids. The ages aren't a problem. Heck Michael J. Fox was in his late 20's to early 30's as he did the BTTF trilogy and he was suppose to be 18 in that series.

[jjwr]

They have to get the same characters through, a few minor characters changing aren't a big deal but Harry, Rom & Hermoine have to be played by those 3 all the way through.

[Jedi Master Carr]

I think so too. I would like to see the same actors play Snape and Hagrid too along with the twins and Dumbledore. Not sure about Ginny as her character gets more important can this actress they got now play her?

[Hart]

YES!!! NEW DIRECTOR!! THANK GOODNESS! MY CAPSLOCK IS BROKEN!!!

[Jedi Master Carr]

I am guessing you didn't like Cuaron? I was personally hoping he was going to do this one but maybe he will do Half Blood Prince instead.

[jjwr]

Good points on Ginny. Then again Harry has done quiet well considering he hadn't really done much before he took the part.

Parts they need to keep the same
Harry, Ron, Hermoine, Dursleys, Weasleys(parents that is), Snape, Hagrid, maybe Dumbledore, McGonagcle, Sirius, Lupin, Lucious

The rest....the twins were good, but like Ginny their parts will be expanding, as long as the actors can do the parts then thats fine.

[Loki Ahmrah]

I think all the faces need to be kept the same, personally.

[Dasquian Belargic]

Originally posted by Loki Ahmrah
I think all the faces need to be kept the same, personally.

Agreed. To me, the actors they currently have in place are the characters. I can't picture them any other way.

...

Except for Lupin.

[Loki Ahmrah]

He's made the role his own now. He's got such a warmth about him in that character and then he portrays the complexity very well. We can't change Lupin, now.

I got the DVD yesterday and at the end, when he's walking away, I think he needs a hug. =(

[Hart]

Originally posted by Jedi Master Carr
I am guessing you didn't like Cuaron? I was personally hoping he was going to do this one but maybe he will do Half Blood Prince instead.


Yeah, I really didn't like the style of the movie. I HATED that they were walking about in jeans for most of the movie instead of their Hogwarts outfits, I don't think things were explained well (I don't even think the director read the book), and I really didn't like how everything was made to be weird and freaky. Why did we need a shrunken head on the knightbus? Or for the knightbus driver to be a psycho? And what was up with Malfoy's hair? *shiver* Also, the soundtrack was criminally subpar. And this is probably less his fault, but I didn't like who they got to play Lupin, Sirius, or Peter Pettigrew, and I was sad to see that a lot of the other great Hogwarts characters got virtually no screen time.

In general, I would like the HP movies to be more faithful to the books. I didn't go to the theater just to watch a second-rate Harry Potter-knockoff movie where the director seemed to want to take the creative authority away from the actual book.

[darth_mcbain]

I really didn't like what Cuaron did with PoA. I realize I'm probably in the minority on that one, but a guy's entitled to his opinion. To me it felt like I was watching a Cliff's Notes version of the book - there was so much richness and depth in the book that I didn't think they really went into. I'm hopeful for what this new director might bring to the movies...

[Jedi Master Carr]

You see I disagree with you. I think the first two films were way too faithful. We have the books, movies aren't suppose to be audio versions of them. That would be very very boring. The first two films fell into that trap a lot. And there were times which the movie dragged in both of them. I felt that the director did a brilliant job in adapating the story. I like the normal clothes. You think they wear robes when they aren't in class? They were faithful to the plot too, IMO. The point is to make a movie not copy the books. Heck LOTR films did that. Jackson cut a lot out of those books and it was good thing too, the movies would never had worked if he left a lot of that stuff in.

[darth_mcbain]

I agree with you in that there was no way they could have included everything that was in the book. To do so would have been a mistake, because you're right - some things that work well in print don't necessarily work well on the screen. Especially from the pacing point of view, it would have been too long.

But, I still feel that what they did put into the movie was too briefly touched upon. It was like they would introduce one theme or idea and next thing you know they're onto the next thing, because they had a lot they needed to fit into 2 1/2 hours.

I'll have to watch it again, because this is only from what I remember from the theater - who knows, maybe a second viewing may give me different impressions.

[Atreyu]

Originally posted by Darth McBain
Who knows, maybe a second viewing may give me different impressions.
The first time I saw HP3, I hated it.

The second time, I loved it.

I think the reason I reacted so negatively to it in the first place was because, as had been pointed out, Cuaron really did take a number of liberties with the book when he made the film that I wasn't expecting when I went to see it. So as you can imagine, I spent most of the film thinking "Where's that scene gone?" "Why's that there?" "Why is Hermione stealing all of Ron's lines?" "Why is Ron such a whimp?" etc etc etc.

By the time I came around to the second viewing though, I was already aware of the changes that were made and as a result was able to accept the film for what it was and have a good time with it.

Looking back at the 3 films so far, I have to say that HP3 is the best, followed backwards with 2 and then 1. Like JMC, the earlier films were perhaps too-overly faithful for my liking, and I remember feeling that I was watching a primary school stage production of the books (albeit one with a Hollywood budget :)) as opposed to a film in its own right.

Not that the 3rd film was perfect - the insistence on having all the students wearing Muggle clothing is way out of sync with the books (remember how in GOF how many wizards that were attending the Quidditch World Cup didn't know how to wear Muggle clothing properly). Also having 'Super Hermione' taking all of Ron's lines made Ron seem even more of a whimp than normal. And Malfoy too for that matter.

As for HP5, I dunno - it's an awfully long way off and the books are just getting longer and longer (though OOTP can probabbly afford to lose some stuff, especially whiney Harry parts in the earlier parts of the book).

[Hart]

Originally posted by Jedi Master Carr
You see I disagree with you. I think the first two films were way too faithful. We have the books, movies aren't suppose to be audio versions of them. That would be very very boring. The first two films fell into that trap a lot. And there were times which the movie dragged in both of them. I felt that the director did a brilliant job in adapating the story. I like the normal clothes. You think they wear robes when they aren't in class? They were faithful to the plot too, IMO. The point is to make a movie not copy the books. Heck LOTR films did that. Jackson cut a lot out of those books and it was good thing too, the movies would never had worked if he left a lot of that stuff in.

I don't share that opinion of HP3. I went to the movie theater to watch a movie about Rowling's Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. What I ended up watching might as well have been a dull, poorly made movie that was only loosely based on the creator's story. It might as well have been called something else. Now, if I thought Cauron was more imaginative than Rowling, it might have not been that bad, but all the changes were for the worse.

[Jedi Master Carr]

Originally posted by Champion of the Force
The first time I saw HP3, I hated it.

The second time, I loved it.

I think the reason I reacted so negatively to it in the first place was because, as had been pointed out, Cuaron really did take a number of liberties with the book when he made the film that I wasn't expecting when I went to see it. So as you can imagine, I spent most of the film thinking "Where's that scene gone?" "Why's that there?" "Why is Hermione stealing all of Ron's lines?" "Why is Ron such a whimp?" etc etc etc.

By the time I came around to the second viewing though, I was already aware of the changes that were made and as a result was able to accept the film for what it was and have a good time with it.

Looking back at the 3 films so far, I have to say that HP3 is the best, followed backwards with 2 and then 1. Like JMC, the earlier films were perhaps too-overly faithful for my liking, and I remember feeling that I was watching a primary school stage production of the books (albeit one with a Hollywood budget :)) as opposed to a film in its own right.

Not that the 3rd film was perfect - the insistence on having all the students wearing Muggle clothing is way out of sync with the books (remember how in GOF how many wizards that were attending the Quidditch World Cup didn't know how to wear Muggle clothing properly). Also having 'Super Hermione' taking all of Ron's lines made Ron seem even more of a whimp than normal. And Malfoy too for that matter.

As for HP5, I dunno - it's an awfully long way off and the books are just getting longer and longer (though OOTP can probabbly afford to lose some stuff, especially whiney Harry parts in the earlier parts of the book).

I went to the movie with a very open mind actually I knew there were going to be changes and accepted. I don't mind it it worked, IMO. To me this is the best Harry Potter film. Now GOF might be the best (the way the films are going it wouldn't shock me to see this pattern continue) The clothing I still disagree with you I think another reason they don't include "wizard clothing" is they felt it wouldn't work in film. The question would be what do ordinary wizards wear?? And so far they have show just about all wizards even in the first two films wearing regular clothes. Sure old fasion clothes but the men were wearing suits, even snape, except for Dumbledore, and the women dresses. We don't need everybody dressing like Merlin and confuse everybody. Second, Hart what is funny is I hear that line from a lot of Harry Potter fans about Rowling's world, the ironic thing is Rowling loved the movie saying it was the best one of the films. She does approve every change so if she likes it why argue with her.

[Loki Ahmrah]

Originally posted by Hart
I don't share that opinion of HP3. I went to the movie theater to watch a movie about Rowling's Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. What I ended up watching might as well have been a dull, poorly made movie that was only loosely based on the creator's story. It might as well have been called something else. Now, if I thought Cauron was more imaginative than Rowling, it might have not been that bad, but all the changes were for the worse.

You were watching a different film to me. As far as the quality of film is concerned, Cuaróns film is far superior to both of Columbus's two previous and utterly mediochre films. It wasn't 'loosely' based on the story at all, Cuarón simply skimmed the fat so that the storyline was smooth and well-narrated. Baring in mind the plot was convoluted enough for the average viewer without all the extra bits you wanted to see.

The fact that you're complaining about them wearing regular clothes, of all things, shows that you have to have missed the point behind Cuaróns efforts here. He wanted to make the Potter world a little more humanly accessible, it was a story about growing up, not just wizards and wizardry. Rowling herself has said that she believes this film to be the best of the three. It is exactly as what Jackson did with the LOTR trilogy; he trimmed certain story elements and kept what was needed so his films didn't feel bloated and in doing so remained true to the essence of the books they're based upon. The same is true with POA.

Prizoner of Azkaban has a style of its own and breaks away from the mold of mediochrity thanks to Colombus stepping aside. Even John Williams broke away from his frankly underwhelming last efforts in the Potter soundtracks and tried something new and fresh. His score for the film was experimental and innovative. Loved it.

Prizoner of Azkaban was the first real Potter movie. The others, in comparison, are slavish yet lavish translations of the books. This time, the director took the plot and feelings from the book and translated them correctly into film language. As such, Cuaróns film stands alone from the previous two instalments and stands above them too.

[Jedi Master Carr]

Good post Loki I agree with everything you just said.