Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2

[alexandral]

I have just came back from watching "Harry Potter" with my daughter. She insisted on watching it in 3D , so I had to pay 20 pounds for the tickets. ** sigh ** What would you not do for your kids. You see, I am not a huge fan of the franchise. As far as the cultural impact goes, I applaud "Harry Potter", but if anyone tried to prove any literature value of the books, I would discuss the following to my death: from the top of my mind, I can name at least 5 young adult book series that are more original and better written. A school of wizardry? I have been reading books about schools of wizardry since I was 10 and this was a long time ago. And the main character, Harry Potter, a special boy with a special destiny, cannot be killed? What can I do but to roll my eyes?

Ok, I am still grumpy after having to pay 20 pounds (I am such a pirate at heart).

As far as the film goes, this was one of the best in the series. My favourite is still Prisoner of Azkaban (filmed beautifully by Alfonso Cuarón) which I think is the only film in the series that has other value than to be a part of the series, but I liked both parts of "Deathly Hallows", mostly because both of these films didn't feel as rushed as Order of the Phoenix or Half-Blood Prince. There was more time to stop and show the character interactions, and there was more time to show spectacular special effects. The special effects were spectacular, by the way, they had made me giddy with the sensory delight.

I remembered again how much I do not care for Harry and how much I love Ron, who made me laugh during all the inappropriate moments again, with his well-placed "Blimey" and "This is unfortunate". But overall, I think my actor love goes to Ralph Fiennes for his portrayal of Voldermot (gosh, so scary, I had goosebumps!).

Also, the favourite quote from the film. Dumbledore:
Of course it's all in your head, Harry, but why should that mean it isn't real?

Comments

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

Lol, Do you mean specifically Prizoner of Azkaban (the only one directed by Cuaron), or the films in general? They all are filmed by different directors, apart from the last few directed by Yates.

I am not at all a huge fan of films neither, but the special effects are great. And Ralph Fiennes. :D

[lydzi.livejournal.com]

Well let's just say that I blame Cuaron about the three quarter of what went wrong after in the franchise. Kloves and him can go diaf for all I care.

I wonder what went wrong with Ralph Fiennes. The man is a brilliant actor but he's just one of the most pitiful Voldemort ever :/. Well at least to me ^^.

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

Well let's just say that I blame Cuaron about the three quarter of what went wrong after in the franchise. Kloves and him can go diaf for all I care.

How so? I personally thought the first too films were in the worst possble Disney tradition "Home Alone" cross "Harry Potter", "Prizoner of Azkaban" was great, but after that it was all so-so. I just want to understand.

lol. I like Fiennes as Voldermort. It is Harry i am less fond of. he looks on a creepy side to me.

[lydzi.livejournal.com]

The number of grief I have to Cuaron's movie are endless. I could speak about the characters being completely ootc, the fact that apparently shooting a movie with a grey filter makes it "dark" (sorry no) or that the acting was just all in all frankly terrible (you can argue that it always was but this one has some scenes that just takes the cake to me, I still don't get how a director can let this happen).

More or so I can, when I'm in a very good mood, do understand that POA is the easiest movie to like when you're not a compelling readers of the books but that's where I just basically rage.

POA was just a filmmaker more concerned with looking cool than staying faithful to the books. That's how I took the all thing. It has the name Harry Potter on it but that's pretty much it. I don't even find the movie that beautiful or anything. Just grey. It never touched me. At all. I felt disconnected. Worse, I felt it like a joke. Like Cuaron could tell everyone "hey look I did an HP movie lol". Cool bro.

Colombus movies were not particularly grandiose. They were just the paper translated on screen but for the first two ones, it was actually enough. If he had continued the movies, I wouldn't have been happy about it but he making n°1 was great. At least for me.
And Voldemort was actually creepy in there at least.

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

You see, I think we disagre on the main point - you do have a strong emotinal attachment to the books, and I don't. During my best days (most of the days. :D) I think Harry Potter books are all right, in my worst (rare days) I think of it as "chewing gum for the masses".

So I do not care for the accuaracy to the books wahsoever, as I do not care with True Blood. But I understand you - I do care for the accuracy with the books I do love (ASOIF), so this might be hard for you.

And yes, i do agree that in "Prizoner of Azkaban" the director was more concerned with making a good film, something that is a work of art on it's own right rather than to be faithful to the books. But I hear you here, btw. it is just I see it differently.

The other aspect is the accesibility. I read the books just after I have watched the forth film (I think :D), because I stopped understanding "What a heck is going on". And I don't think a person not familiar with the books can understand ANYTHING after Prizoner of Azkaban (my daughter always asks me what is going on, movie after move :D). Which to me is a BIG MINUS (to you, minght be a plus). Why the films have to be just an illustration to the books? Surely they have to be understandable? Surely you don't HAVE TO read the books?

But yes, from someone like you who thinks books are great this all must look totally diferent.

[lydzi.livejournal.com]

Most of the things that were hard to understand in the next movies (namely 4,5,6 and even the two last ones) was because they didn't were explain at all in POA and GOF. And yet, they managed to have some really no-one-cares scenes.

It really does look different. Nothing will ever make me love this movie or the all HP movies franchise. I enjoy certain things and I grew quite attached in a way with the cast because I'm just sentimental like that. But it's only something that has the name but is only related to the books from far away.

I'm not sure that I make complete sense. I would be a lot more convincing if I was using french I have to admit. In discussions, I always find the language barrier to be painful to me ^^.

All in all, I'm glad I'm not finding those errors in Games of Thrones adaptation. Even with the changes, I still recognize completely the characters and the storyline. And that's the most important imo.

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

Most of the things that were hard to understand in the next movies (namely 4,5,6 and even the two last ones) was because they didn't were explain at all in POA and GOF.

Don't think this is possible, bb. Think of this logically - everything was understandable in the film 3, but after that it started to deteriorate. And not immediately, actually, I was wrong. "Goblet of Fire" was also a good and easy to understand film (this was the one where Cedric died). I was wrong in the previous comment - I read the books after Goblet of Fire. This was the time when the last book was released , so I read the complete series as I could not understand "Order of phoenix".

If you want to blame anyone for the difficulty to understand the latest movies, blame Yates, who directed "Order of Phoenix", the worst and the most difficult to understand harry potter movie.

I always forget you are French, BTW, your language is flawless.

[lydzi.livejournal.com]

You have no idea how pink I turned at the last sentence lol! Made me really happy I have to admit which is a bit ridiculous but I'll live through it :p.

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

** loves ** I am so glad I met you. And after that - all the ASOIF fandom stuff makes me so happy.

[lydzi.livejournal.com]

fjgsdfsghjkd Me too (http://s126.photobucket.com/albums/p113/Lydzi_de_Galles/smileys%20pr%20lj/?action=view&current=233.gif). I'm practically creeping on your lj ^^. The ASOIAF fandom is flawfree. Everyone can talk freely, everyone has so many interesting things to say. It's really a very awesome place to be :).

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

Me too.

Yes, so far it has been so refreshingly sane.