First some background...for a long time this was my favorite of the series. I have fond memories of reading it at the Fairfield University library when I was supposed to be studying for finals. But by the time all the action went down with Sirius Black being a dog and Pettigrew being a rat and Lupin was an omg werewolf - there was no putting it down. (The whole thing with Pettigrew being a rat really surprised me. Totally did not see that coming. But I'm not very good at seeing things coming either.)
This book just has so many good things. Some thoughts:
- I loved Lupin when I first read this. I picked him in my head as this handsome, if tired looking guy. When I saw him in the movie I was kind of disgusted in all honesty. Totally not my vision at all. Definitely never pictured Lupin with a mustache. This book is definitely the best for Lupin...his character kind of goes down hill after this. A shame, really.
- I know it was important for the plot in this book, but who the hell would want to take Divination? Even the other teachers don't take Trelawney seriously! It's such a stupid and pointless subject - I don't even know why Hogwarts would teach it. I would have stomped out with Hermione. Ron and Harry should have dropped it after this year and taken something else.
- Book Snape is usually fairly different from movie Snape, and that's especially true with this book. Man, Snape flips out on Harry at the end - screaming at him right in front of Dumbledore. I can understand why, but nothing even close to that happens in the movie. But I'll get to the movie more in a bit.
- Oh, Crookshanks. You faded into the background big time. In the later books it's easy to forget Hermione even had a cat.
- I'm usually a Draco fan, but he was more whiny and miserable in this book than usual. I would have smacked his ass too.
When I first saw this movie I hated it. I thought it was too short and left too much out - most notably all the stuff with the Marauders - unforgivable to leave out in my opinion. That stuff was just too important. If you wanted to keep the running time short you should have dumped the Quidditch scenes or something instead. Upon seeing the movie a few more times, though, I like it better, though I still think it left too much out, and, well, I'll get to the other big problem in a minute.
Movie thoughts:
- In the movie, Harry sees Pettigrew on the Marauder's map and then tells Lupin that it must be broken. (To which Lupin makes a "wtf" face.) This doesn't happen in the book, but for movie pacing, I really liked this scene. In fact I couldn't even remember that that didn't happen in the book until I got past that part and low and behold...Harry never saw such a thing.
- Hermione outright punches Draco in the movie - in the book she is describes as slapping him. I prefer the punch myself, and her follow-up line: "That felt good."
- I've touched on movie Snape vs. book Snape already, but it's worth mentioning again. Movie Snape is so much less angry. I actually prefer what happens with Snape at the end of the movie than what happens in the book. In the movie he returns to consciousness just after Lupin's transformed into a werewolf - when he sees the werewolf bearing down on him and the trio, he instinctively puts his arms out to protect the children. Shows another side of Snape - an important side.
- Michael Gambon takes over as Dumbledore in this movie, replacing the departed Richard Harris. I'm not a fan of his Dumbledore - especially in Goblet of Fire (but we'll cross that bridge when we get there.) but he was okay in this book. I like his reaction after Harry and Hermione return from freeing Buckbeak and Sirius :
Dumbledore: Well?
Harry: He's free. We did it.
Dumbledore: Did what? Good night.
- There's tons of action that wasn't in the book, of course - most notably the kids being chased by werewolf-Lupin through the Forbidden Forest. What did they actually do in the book? Hide in Hagrid's hut. Not really as exciting.
- My favorite line in the entire series (it's also in the book)
Sirius: I would have died! I would have died rather than betray my friends, as we would have done for you!
- But then there's that ending. Ugh. The ending of the movie shows Harry getting his Firebolt broomstick, which in the book he gets for Christmas and actually starts off a whole bit of plot where Hermione tells a teacher about it and they take it away to make sure it's not jinxed, which gets both Harry and Ron mad. But instead of ending the movie like the book ends (Hogwarts Express and such) he gets the boom instead, jumps on it and flies out the window, and he ends with one of the worst freeze frame shots I have ever seen in my entire life. I couldn't find a photo of the exact moment I'm talking about, so this'll have to do. If I were Daniel Radcliffe, I would not want my face appearing like that on a gigantic movie screen for millions of people around the world to see. But directing choices aside, having a scene in the middle of the book at the end is just not cool in my canon loving mind. I can let a lot of things slide - I understand that they change a lot of things around for time/editing/story/pacing etc., but this was just unnecessary. I would have rather it was left out entirely. Don't make up a whole new ending.
Up next...Goblet of Fire!
No comments:
Post a Comment