Harry Potter and shoppin'

[anotheranon]

Yes, I DID go see Harry Potter last night :)

Disclaimer: I've not read the book in at least a year, so while I recognize that the screenplay was cut dramatically for length, I can't cite exactly how it was abbreviated. Having said that, it seemed to me that the first part with Quidditch World Cup and the accompanying camp was squished noticeably. Serious fans can probably point out better what was left out, I defer to them if they want to comment.

On to the good stuff: Acting: I thought that the actors playing Ron and Hermoine were given a lot more to work with in terms of teenage angst expression - Harry seemed, well, harried most of the film, which makes sense given what what he goes through, though his scenes with Cho are utterly sweet in their awkwardness :) Neville finally gets to show that he's good at something (dancing/herbs) - can't help cheering for the underdog! Not enough of Miranda Richardson OR Ralph Feinnes, but there was so much going on that more of them probably would have been just too much. More Snape = very good, especially when he's preparing to whack Harry and Ron- that was somehow very "him".

Costumes: I liked the characterization of the Beau Baton and Durmstrang students - their intro was a bit overdone (especially as it took up time that might have been devoted to furthering the plot) but it served to distinguish them from the Hogwarts students. Costume note: I especially liked the Durmstrang uniforms, but then I love all those long dramatic Russian robes and hats :P Wish that the "Weird Sisters" rock band had been more.. well.. rock star with robes (safety pins! Bright colors! Something!), but they were only on screen 30 seconds, so what can you do?

Overall look/feel: much darker, sweeping, more dramatic, less...fairy tale-like? - than "Azkaban". Speaking of which, do most HP fans hate that movie for some reason? A lot of the reviews of "Goblet Of Fire" seem to include "Much better than POA", so I wonder.

Yesterday I was mostly useless. For some reason getting up with the alarm + no coffee set me on "tired" mode all day - I napped before the movie and was still a bit lethargic during dinner afterwards. I crashed about 11:30 last night when the words in my book started to garble together.

This morning sleeping in + coffee put me in a more alert state of mind, so I did a bit of shopping.

Last weekend I went out to one of the local funky shopping areas with shemhazai. Until last week it had been several years since I'd been out there and I'd forgotten what a fun neighborhood it is - sometimes it takes someone who doesn't live here to drag me out of my routine and remind me of these things :P We'd gone mostly because Shem wanted to see The House of Musical Traditions, but there is so much more there!

Last week I kept my $ in my pocket in an attempt to behave myself, though there were many shiny things to be seen. This week, I decided that I DID want that bag, so I went back to this little shop and found one I liked even better.

I also remembered a red-brown vintage 1940's suit jacket with a velvet collar in a vintage shop across the street that was just beautiful. Given that I was parked right there I decided that if it was still there and fit, it was meant to be. It was, and did, and was only $42 and in excellent shape :)

Gawked at the cute houses on the way home (so CUTE! Small and cottage-like with front porches with rocking chairs. One day, one day...) and did some sewing: D. designed a kind of wallet/cuff to velcro around his upper arm for his walks, and as he so seldom asks for me to make anything for him I thought this might take precedence over my pirate coat which is almost finished... almost..

Also some reading and writing to do tonight. A fair weekend :)

Comments

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

Haven't seen GOF yet, but I, for one, thought POA was the best up to this point - I really like the way Cuaron handled it, visually and story-wise.

[ragdoll.livejournal.com]

There are two camps for PoA:

1. OMG ALFONSO CUARON IZ GOD AND THIS MOVIE ROCKS!11111!!!!

2. OMG ALFONSO CUARON RAPED MY MOVIE!11!!!! WITH HELP FROM STEVE KLOVES!!1!!1!1

I definitely fall into the second camp because it's more style than substance, with 2/3 of the integral plot points having been completely hacked away so that if you look at the story as a whole, it makes absofuckinglutely no sense and most people who haven't seen the film go "huh, what?" and have to get an explanation about the entire reason Sirius escaped Azkaban, how he knew that Pettigrew was still alive etc. Plus Steve Kloves added some unbelievably mawkish pointless scenes between Remus and Harry, made Hermione into a superheroine and Ron into a blithering idiot with a lot of help from the director.

There are some cool bits and some cool visuals (Buckbeak rocks my socks off) but it's more style over substance with incredibly over-long action sequences (the Knight Bus, Harry vs the Monster Book of Monsters, fighting the Whomping Willow) when the time could have been better used to actually given the film an actual plot.

GoF, on the other hand, was unbelievably good. Yes, things were changed between the book and film but they worked so they're not standing out like a sore thumb, distracting you from anything else. There's a coherent plot that you don't need to be an HP aficionado to figure out (there are a few minor things that don't get quite wrapped up but they're really inconsequential) and Harry, Ron and Hermione all get things to do. So do some of the other characters like Neville <3, Fred and George, Hagrid. It's just a far superior film. (Not that I'm opinionated or anything).

[ragdoll.livejournal.com]

PS I love the Durmstrang costumes especially and would love to do a female variation of them but I too have always like the Russian look (ah, if it was only 1971 again...). In the book there's no mention of whether there are female students (whereas Beauxbatons is most defininely co-ed) but who cares, right? :)

I just have to figure out if their uniforms are black or sort of dried blood red/brown.

[anotheranon.livejournal.com]

whereas Beauxbatons is most defininely co-ed

Is it? Again - awhile since I read the books, but the main Beau Baton student mentioned throughout was Fleur, Fleur, Fleur, so maybe I just remember it as all female.

IMHO both guest schools could have been co-ed; so few students from each were pictured that I'm speculating that it wasn't the entire student body.

Do the HP films have "Visual Companions" the way Star Wars/Firefly/LOTR/etc. have? I've looked but not found, and IMHO these would be the place to start re: clarifying the Durmstrang color issue.

[ragdoll.livejournal.com]

In the books, there are several mentions of Beauxbaton boys, in fact, that's who both Parvati and Padma Patil go off to dance with when Ron and Harry both sit there glowering at Hermione/Krum, Cho/Cedric and refuse to pay attention to their dates. There's no mention of female Durmstrang students but there's no indication that it's an all-male school either.

In the film, the decision was made to make both foreign schools single sex for whatever reason.

The HP books don't have visual companion books which is a shame because I'd love to see more details etc. Unfortunately, like the other franchises you mention, these have been marketed to kids, kids, kids so everything is colouring books, sticker books, dolls, etc. and not much on the visuals. I'm hoping that WB might be waking up finally -- the plans for the DVD are already in motion including a director's commentary (!!) and full performances of all three songs by the Weird Sisters plus other scenes cut for time.

I'm also hoping that at some point, there are DVDs of the extended editions of the first two films. They've already been aired on ABC on several occasion so it would be nice to be able to own them ala the LOTRs films. I'm not sure what's available for PoA -- the deleted scenes for that DVD are pretty sparse and it sounds like Cuaron cut things out from script before shooting even started so who knows...

and for the record

[anotheranon.livejournal.com]

I liked POA - I liked the overall look/feel. I think I may not have noticed the plot holes you mention because I HAD read the books and kind of mentally filled in - now that you mention it, someone unfamiliar with the franchise might have wondered what Sirius was doing in Azkaban and how he knew about Wormtail, etc.

I actually enjoyed the scenes between Remus and Harry, because he learned something more about his parents - I thought they were sentimental without being overly so.

Re: and for the record

[ragdoll.livejournal.com]

I like it better than I did the first time I saw it. My first sit through was just "what the hell happened to the plot?" The story should first and foremost be a mystery and it wasn't. Plus I hated (and still hate) the design for werewolf Lupin (more like the were-Mexican Hairless). And exactly, the plot is mostly non-existant.

I find the dialogue in both those scenes really mawkish and painfully bad, about on a par with George Lucas romance scenes. It's just more shit made up by Kloves that doesn't really fit to me but YMMV.

[timcharmorbien.livejournal.com]

"Costumes: I liked the characterization of the Beau Baton and Durmstrang students - their intro was a bit overdone (especially as it took up time that might have been devoted to furthering the plot) but it served to distinguish them from the Hogwarts students."

I supposed both schools wanted to make an impression on their rivals. :) It made me wonder what sort of organized/dramatic entrance Hogwart's would have made if it had been Hogwart's students visiting one of the other schools.