OotP revisited (and another thing...)
Aug. 12th, 2007 11:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
trudeI know that others have bitched about this, but...
Many years ago I borrowed a copy of Katherine Paterson's Bridge to Terabithia. The cover depicted a sturdy stone bridge, on which a teen-age (maybe 15-16 years old) couple was sitting. The girl had long hair and wore a pretty dress, and the whole thing was green and lush and romantic like a shampoo commercial.
If you read the book, you know that this is about as WRONG as it could be. Or at least it was, until the trailer for the movie version came along.
Sigh.
(Or maybe they've remade it as a kids' fantasy adventure. Which would be...very wrong, too.)
Yeah, I went to see OotP again last night:
* It's really weird seeing the first half-hour or so, with Remus and Moody and Tonks and the twins (can't tell them apart) and Hedwig all alive, and feel sorry for them for having so little time left - but then again, some of them might get to survive in the movieverse due to time and budget constraints? Anyway, Moody's "we don't break formation for anyone" gave me a little lump in my throat.
* Then again, seeing Sirius (whom I love, love, LOVE here) made me realize emotionally that yes, they are fictional characters and that means I can go back to the point in the story where they are alive whenever I want to. Shouldn't take me three bloody weeks at my age, I know.
* This film is sooo good-looking. I wouldn't want to live in it, but a week-end might be nice.
* Kingsley's robes are the BEST.
* Lupin's hands. They are just amazing. (Lupin's haircut in the old order photo is also rather amazing, but in a very different way.)
* I cannot really dislike Fudge as much as I should. Damn Robert Hardy and early imprinting on All Creatures Great and Small.
* NEVILLE LONGBOTTOM DOES NOT HAVE "HITLER HAIR". HIS HAIRCUT IS CUTE AND FLOPPY, LIKE HUGH GRANT'S IN THE EARLY NINETIES! Well, almost.
* What I love about Evanna Lynch's Luna is that she manages to be so matter of fact in the middle of all her dreaminess.
* Please stop giving Emma Watson all those expositionary lines, she really can't handle them.
* Bonnie Wright has some lovely facial expressions here (I especially like her when she watches Ron eating).
* The "emotional teaspoon"-scene is rather sweet and makes good use of the trio's rather different acting styles.
* I really could have lived without Gwarp, but on the other hand, that would have meant less Robbie Coltrane, and I still think he's adorable as Hagrid.
* And what the heck is Nigel doing here, really?
* Dumbledore's "I don't tell you stuff because I care so much about you" sound quite unpleasant after DH. (Though now I'm interested in seeing how Michael Gambon will handle DH-Dumbledore.)
* The end feels...shallow compared to the books. First of all, Harry's grief, which I really like, gets very truncated. Also, I would have liked to see the Order again after Harry runs after Bellatrix - I get why we didn't get the Kings Cross ending (no, really), but it would have been nice to glimpse them - like we see the kids - in the ministry when Fudge arrives.
* Aunt Petunia's sundress FTW!
Many years ago I borrowed a copy of Katherine Paterson's Bridge to Terabithia. The cover depicted a sturdy stone bridge, on which a teen-age (maybe 15-16 years old) couple was sitting. The girl had long hair and wore a pretty dress, and the whole thing was green and lush and romantic like a shampoo commercial.
If you read the book, you know that this is about as WRONG as it could be. Or at least it was, until the trailer for the movie version came along.
Sigh.
(Or maybe they've remade it as a kids' fantasy adventure. Which would be...very wrong, too.)
Yeah, I went to see OotP again last night:
* It's really weird seeing the first half-hour or so, with Remus and Moody and Tonks and the twins (can't tell them apart) and Hedwig all alive, and feel sorry for them for having so little time left - but then again, some of them might get to survive in the movieverse due to time and budget constraints? Anyway, Moody's "we don't break formation for anyone" gave me a little lump in my throat.
* Then again, seeing Sirius (whom I love, love, LOVE here) made me realize emotionally that yes, they are fictional characters and that means I can go back to the point in the story where they are alive whenever I want to. Shouldn't take me three bloody weeks at my age, I know.
* This film is sooo good-looking. I wouldn't want to live in it, but a week-end might be nice.
* Kingsley's robes are the BEST.
* Lupin's hands. They are just amazing. (Lupin's haircut in the old order photo is also rather amazing, but in a very different way.)
* I cannot really dislike Fudge as much as I should. Damn Robert Hardy and early imprinting on All Creatures Great and Small.
* NEVILLE LONGBOTTOM DOES NOT HAVE "HITLER HAIR". HIS HAIRCUT IS CUTE AND FLOPPY, LIKE HUGH GRANT'S IN THE EARLY NINETIES! Well, almost.
* What I love about Evanna Lynch's Luna is that she manages to be so matter of fact in the middle of all her dreaminess.
* Please stop giving Emma Watson all those expositionary lines, she really can't handle them.
* Bonnie Wright has some lovely facial expressions here (I especially like her when she watches Ron eating).
* The "emotional teaspoon"-scene is rather sweet and makes good use of the trio's rather different acting styles.
* I really could have lived without Gwarp, but on the other hand, that would have meant less Robbie Coltrane, and I still think he's adorable as Hagrid.
* And what the heck is Nigel doing here, really?
* Dumbledore's "I don't tell you stuff because I care so much about you" sound quite unpleasant after DH. (Though now I'm interested in seeing how Michael Gambon will handle DH-Dumbledore.)
* The end feels...shallow compared to the books. First of all, Harry's grief, which I really like, gets very truncated. Also, I would have liked to see the Order again after Harry runs after Bellatrix - I get why we didn't get the Kings Cross ending (no, really), but it would have been nice to glimpse them - like we see the kids - in the ministry when Fudge arrives.
* Aunt Petunia's sundress FTW!
