Something Wicked This Way Comes
Jun. 3rd, 2004 10:55 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
olorielSpoilers, namely: Therefore cut for those who want to see the movie unspoiled. Also for those who couldn't care less about Harry Potter.
If neither applies to you:
So. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. My favorite of the books (together with Goblet of Fire), so I was rather expectant. Happy in some point, not quite happy in many other points. I'll try to get them together after three hours in a cinema from midnight on and six hours of sleep:
The Good
It's darker. Much darker. Of course, the book is darker than its predecessors as well, but I'm glad they carried that over to the big screen.
They're older. Well, obviously. And despite all sorrows, they matched the German dubbing voices. Harry now seems to have the voice of Spider-man.
The Marauder's Map. Beautiful thing. Wonderful adaption!
The Time part of the story. All through the movie, you're shown the gigantic pendulum or the turning wheels of a gigantic clockwork that, apparently, is just at the entrance gates to Hogwarts. Strangely it wasn't there before, but Hagrid's hut looks different as well, and there's a bridge I've never seen before. Maybe Dumbledore just felt like a big make-over.
Snape in Neville's grandmother's clothes. Precious.
The Creatures. After the horrible rendering of Firence in film 1, I was really afraid they'd screw up that poor hippogriff, but it's actually quite well done. Same goes for the monster book of monsters, and, eventually, Remus-as-werewolf, who looks definitely better than the beasts in Underworld and what I know from Van Helsing. It's very much hairless, though.
Crookshanks looks a bit like Garfield from the teaser trailer for Garfield - The Movie *cough*. Arrogant, flat face, incredibly cuddly.
Hermione smacks Draco. Yeah, baby.
Sirius. As man and as dog, you just gotta love him. (I also daresay he's probably the most convincing actor in the whole thing.)
Slash. Oh my goodness, this one is slashy. Either I just wasn't aware of it in the first two movies, or this one really just sticks out.
The Bad
The new director is not exactly what you'd call close to the books. Of course, some things have to be left out, others changed. But I think his choices weren't always the best; there were really important parts missing while others could have been cut.
The first half hour or so. Despite of the movie's dark theme and the grown-upness, the first half hour is full of cheap jokes and slapstick, which makes it difficult to get on (especially since it's all very rushed). Yes, I know most of the jokes are in the books as well, but one could have cut them back without damage.
That might have left some time, for example, to freaking explain WHO THE FUCK Moony, Wormtail, Prongs and Padfoot are. BECAUSE WE AREN'T TOLD. We aren't told who made the Marauder's Map, we don't get to know the nicknames - we don't get to know about the Marauders, for Eru's sake! Yes, we get to know that Harry's dad used to hang around with Sirius, and that Wormtail would always follow them around. AND we get to know that Sirius and Lupin were friends. Now, there's a link missing, and being the little Marauders fan I am, I think that's really rather... bad.
The hurry. It's really very, very rushed. Harry's hardly there and fell off his broom during Quidditch when it's already snowing and he sneaks off to Hogsmeade and then the snow melts and he's taught the Patronus Charm and then Scabbers goes missing and then Buckbeak is to be executed but they hide behind giant PUMPKINS although it's SPRING and... yes.
Some unnecessary infodumping. Why should McGonagall and Fudge visit Madam Rosmerta JUST TO TELL HER that Sirius is Harry's godfather and betrayed Harry's parents? That sorta thing.
Snape as laughing stock. There are fewer jokes as we go along after the first half hour, and almost all of them are on Snape. WTF?
Unnecessary flying scenes. Now I know what Freud says about dreams of flying, but in spite of the trio's puberty, I don't know why Harry riding Buckbeak has to be shown at great length if so much else is cut out. (And the very last cut is just... um. WTF?)
Classes, for instance. We get two DADA classes (the first one and the one with Snape) and two Divination classes, and that's it. Not a very busy year at Hogwarts, one might think.
Lupin turning into a werewolf. There has been lots of turning people into werewolves in theatres recently, and none of it was pretty. And I don't mean "beautiful" pretty but "convincingly done" pretty. Also, the ensuing events are shown at great length - AND we're shown the whole thing AGAIN later on, when we're also told that it was three-hours-later Hermione who howled, and that Buckbeak saved three-hours-later Harry and Hermione from Lupin afterwards. And more of the sort. If you have to cut so much important information, why don't you shorten stuff like this, leave the metamorphosis to the audience's imagination and just have the wolf and the dog run off into the forest? Gah. That would have left at least five minuted to explain about the Marauders. Now seriously.
The kitschy scenes. All in all, the film fares well, but when Harry says something like "He asked me to live with him. Maybe we'll go to the countryside. Somewhere one can see the sun, so he can forget the dark years in Azkaban", you might think he's secretly a gay writer of angsty poetry. Nothing against gay writers of angsty poetry, but that's just not Harry.
The Ugly
Aunt Marge. Was that ever disgusting.
Same goes for Peter Pettigrew. Uargh. Convincing. Rat-like. Disgusting.
"Something Wicked This Way Comes" in the German translation. For the posters, they made it "Etwas Böses bahnt sich an", which translates back to "Something Evil Draws Near". You can live with that. But for that song the kids sing, they made it "Was da kommt ist ganz gemein", which would translate back to "What's coming there is really mean". Ow. THAT'S SHAKESPEARE! YOU CAN'T DO THAT TO SHAKESPEARE!
Am sort of disappointed. *sigh* Oh well. I could get used to Two Towers, I'll get used to this. But if that's what the non-Hollywood directors make of it, I want Chris Columbus back, thank you very much.
EDITED to say: Uh. So harsh. And not even true, after seeing it for a second time. *blushes*
If neither applies to you:
So. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. My favorite of the books (together with Goblet of Fire), so I was rather expectant. Happy in some point, not quite happy in many other points. I'll try to get them together after three hours in a cinema from midnight on and six hours of sleep:
The Good
It's darker. Much darker. Of course, the book is darker than its predecessors as well, but I'm glad they carried that over to the big screen.
They're older. Well, obviously. And despite all sorrows, they matched the German dubbing voices. Harry now seems to have the voice of Spider-man.
The Marauder's Map. Beautiful thing. Wonderful adaption!
The Time part of the story. All through the movie, you're shown the gigantic pendulum or the turning wheels of a gigantic clockwork that, apparently, is just at the entrance gates to Hogwarts. Strangely it wasn't there before, but Hagrid's hut looks different as well, and there's a bridge I've never seen before. Maybe Dumbledore just felt like a big make-over.
Snape in Neville's grandmother's clothes. Precious.
The Creatures. After the horrible rendering of Firence in film 1, I was really afraid they'd screw up that poor hippogriff, but it's actually quite well done. Same goes for the monster book of monsters, and, eventually, Remus-as-werewolf, who looks definitely better than the beasts in Underworld and what I know from Van Helsing. It's very much hairless, though.
Crookshanks looks a bit like Garfield from the teaser trailer for Garfield - The Movie *cough*. Arrogant, flat face, incredibly cuddly.
Hermione smacks Draco. Yeah, baby.
Sirius. As man and as dog, you just gotta love him. (I also daresay he's probably the most convincing actor in the whole thing.)
Slash. Oh my goodness, this one is slashy. Either I just wasn't aware of it in the first two movies, or this one really just sticks out.
The Bad
The new director is not exactly what you'd call close to the books. Of course, some things have to be left out, others changed. But I think his choices weren't always the best; there were really important parts missing while others could have been cut.
The first half hour or so. Despite of the movie's dark theme and the grown-upness, the first half hour is full of cheap jokes and slapstick, which makes it difficult to get on (especially since it's all very rushed). Yes, I know most of the jokes are in the books as well, but one could have cut them back without damage.
That might have left some time, for example, to freaking explain WHO THE FUCK Moony, Wormtail, Prongs and Padfoot are. BECAUSE WE AREN'T TOLD. We aren't told who made the Marauder's Map, we don't get to know the nicknames - we don't get to know about the Marauders, for Eru's sake! Yes, we get to know that Harry's dad used to hang around with Sirius, and that Wormtail would always follow them around. AND we get to know that Sirius and Lupin were friends. Now, there's a link missing, and being the little Marauders fan I am, I think that's really rather... bad.
The hurry. It's really very, very rushed. Harry's hardly there and fell off his broom during Quidditch when it's already snowing and he sneaks off to Hogsmeade and then the snow melts and he's taught the Patronus Charm and then Scabbers goes missing and then Buckbeak is to be executed but they hide behind giant PUMPKINS although it's SPRING and... yes.
Some unnecessary infodumping. Why should McGonagall and Fudge visit Madam Rosmerta JUST TO TELL HER that Sirius is Harry's godfather and betrayed Harry's parents? That sorta thing.
Snape as laughing stock. There are fewer jokes as we go along after the first half hour, and almost all of them are on Snape. WTF?
Unnecessary flying scenes. Now I know what Freud says about dreams of flying, but in spite of the trio's puberty, I don't know why Harry riding Buckbeak has to be shown at great length if so much else is cut out. (And the very last cut is just... um. WTF?)
Classes, for instance. We get two DADA classes (the first one and the one with Snape) and two Divination classes, and that's it. Not a very busy year at Hogwarts, one might think.
Lupin turning into a werewolf. There has been lots of turning people into werewolves in theatres recently, and none of it was pretty. And I don't mean "beautiful" pretty but "convincingly done" pretty. Also, the ensuing events are shown at great length - AND we're shown the whole thing AGAIN later on, when we're also told that it was three-hours-later Hermione who howled, and that Buckbeak saved three-hours-later Harry and Hermione from Lupin afterwards. And more of the sort. If you have to cut so much important information, why don't you shorten stuff like this, leave the metamorphosis to the audience's imagination and just have the wolf and the dog run off into the forest? Gah. That would have left at least five minuted to explain about the Marauders. Now seriously.
The kitschy scenes. All in all, the film fares well, but when Harry says something like "He asked me to live with him. Maybe we'll go to the countryside. Somewhere one can see the sun, so he can forget the dark years in Azkaban", you might think he's secretly a gay writer of angsty poetry. Nothing against gay writers of angsty poetry, but that's just not Harry.
The Ugly
Aunt Marge. Was that ever disgusting.
Same goes for Peter Pettigrew. Uargh. Convincing. Rat-like. Disgusting.
"Something Wicked This Way Comes" in the German translation. For the posters, they made it "Etwas Böses bahnt sich an", which translates back to "Something Evil Draws Near". You can live with that. But for that song the kids sing, they made it "Was da kommt ist ganz gemein", which would translate back to "What's coming there is really mean". Ow. THAT'S SHAKESPEARE! YOU CAN'T DO THAT TO SHAKESPEARE!
Am sort of disappointed. *sigh* Oh well. I could get used to Two Towers, I'll get used to this. But if that's what the non-Hollywood directors make of it, I want Chris Columbus back, thank you very much.
EDITED to say: Uh. So harsh. And not even true, after seeing it for a second time. *blushes*
