Post by mlm828 on Jul 18, 2007 0:20:18 GMT -5
Warning: Minor spoilers may follow.
I finally had a chance to see the movie this evening, and overall I liked it very much. I intentionally didn't re-read the book before seeing the movie, because I wanted to experience the movie as a movie and focus on what was there, not what wasn't included. If everything from the book had been included, the movie would have been ten hours long!
There seemed to be a lot more emotion in this film than in the preceding ones, and I felt the movie did a good job of capturing the overall emotional tone of the book. I especially liked the scenes between Harry and Sirius. In one interview, Daniel Radcliffe mentioned how much he liked working with Gary Oldman, and it definitely showed. Luna was great, and Imelda Staunton was perfect as Dolores Umbridge.
I totally agree with shmeep that a major shortcoming in all of the movies is the way Dumbledore is portrayed. Ian McKellen was much better as Gandalf than either Richard Harris or Michael Gambon has been as Dumbledore. I'm not sure why that is. Of course we didn't see much of Dumbledore in this movie anyway, since part of the story is Dumbledore distancing himself from Harry. He plays a much larger role in Half-Blood Prince, however. I certainly hope they get the character right in the next movie.
One scene that I didn't particularly like was the scene where Harry turns over the prophecy to Lucius Malfoy. It seemed like too big a departure from the book, where they fought like crazy to keep it from falling into the Death Eaters' hands. I suppose the scene was intended to show that Harry chose his friends over protecting the prophecy. But it just didn't feel right to me.
On the other hand, I thought the scene where Voldemort attempts to possess Harry at the end was very well done.
I was a little baffled by the scene where Harry takes the globe containing the prophecy and hears the prophecy. It wasn't entirely clear to me whether only Harry heard it, or everyone who was there heard it.
Edited to add: According to Ian McKellen's entry at IMDB, he was offered the role of Dumbledore in Prisoner of Azkaban but turned it down.
I finally had a chance to see the movie this evening, and overall I liked it very much. I intentionally didn't re-read the book before seeing the movie, because I wanted to experience the movie as a movie and focus on what was there, not what wasn't included. If everything from the book had been included, the movie would have been ten hours long!
There seemed to be a lot more emotion in this film than in the preceding ones, and I felt the movie did a good job of capturing the overall emotional tone of the book. I especially liked the scenes between Harry and Sirius. In one interview, Daniel Radcliffe mentioned how much he liked working with Gary Oldman, and it definitely showed. Luna was great, and Imelda Staunton was perfect as Dolores Umbridge.
I totally agree with shmeep that a major shortcoming in all of the movies is the way Dumbledore is portrayed. Ian McKellen was much better as Gandalf than either Richard Harris or Michael Gambon has been as Dumbledore. I'm not sure why that is. Of course we didn't see much of Dumbledore in this movie anyway, since part of the story is Dumbledore distancing himself from Harry. He plays a much larger role in Half-Blood Prince, however. I certainly hope they get the character right in the next movie.
One scene that I didn't particularly like was the scene where Harry turns over the prophecy to Lucius Malfoy. It seemed like too big a departure from the book, where they fought like crazy to keep it from falling into the Death Eaters' hands. I suppose the scene was intended to show that Harry chose his friends over protecting the prophecy. But it just didn't feel right to me.
On the other hand, I thought the scene where Voldemort attempts to possess Harry at the end was very well done.
I was a little baffled by the scene where Harry takes the globe containing the prophecy and hears the prophecy. It wasn't entirely clear to me whether only Harry heard it, or everyone who was there heard it.
Edited to add: According to Ian McKellen's entry at IMDB, he was offered the role of Dumbledore in Prisoner of Azkaban but turned it down.
