|
|
Post by N3B on Jul 29, 2009 23:36:28 GMT -5
Meh.
Ignoring the fact that entire climax went missing in action (I seriously want to know who's bright idea it was to leave that out? how in the world could the writer justify not putting the epic battle sequence at the end of the movie?), the overall feel of it all came off as rather bland.
HP5 had a lot of moments in it which simply irritated me; lots of cliched dialogue and cinematography and a general lack of direction (of course, it didn't have much good source material to work off of. As I recall the book had virtually zero plot for a majority of the "meat."), but HP6 managed to avoid many of the irritating pitfalls.
It's completely understandable that screenwriters can't fit the entirety of what happens in the book on screen, and I come to expect this in movie adaptations; a movie is supposed to be more visually engaging and "in the moment" for the audience. Something I think may have happened, especially in the first half of the movie, is that the writers were trying perhaps a little too difficult to incorporate as much stuff from the book to at least claim that they got some of it in.
The scenes didn't cut and flow very well until near the very end, they seemed more like random montages of unrelated things happening. Fair amount of character development I suppose, but a lot of it seemed to be done through the simple tactic of LOVE/LUST, which in truth, was laid on a little too thick in some places.
THERE WAS ABSOLUTELY NOT ENOUGH LUNA LOVEGOOD
The presentation and general cinematography (ignoring the indescribably mediocre writing) was probably a high point in the series -- very enjoyable to look at and didn't go overboard with the "cheese" effects like the series has been wont to do.
All-in-all, I think HP6 merely got the job done of connecting us to what will eventually happen in both HP7A and 7B, though granted it did a rather poor job of even getting the job done -- a whole lot of detail about Voldemort's past and his Horcruxes was left out, which added to the general "meh" feeling of it not really getting the point across.
|
|
|
|
Post by Draxas on Jul 30, 2009 9:03:44 GMT -5
Did you watch the same movie I did? I'm fairly certain what final climactic battle there was played out pretty much the same. What was missing? For that matter, I'm not sure which parts of Voldy's history were left out either. I'm pretty sure the film managed to convey most or all of the important stuff (which is more than I can say for 3-5).
Granted, the love and relationships vehicle did get somewhat overused, but this also happens in the book. I'm not sure why you say there was not enough Luna; she was featured more heavily in this film than any of the others (though did not quite seem spacey enough, I think). The only things that could have really been better explored was Harry's obsession with his Potions book, and just how much of his success through the course of the year hinged on what he picked up from it. They also didn't really explore just how deep Harry's obsession with pusuing Malfoy was during the book; while that certainly did get some screen time, I remember it being a much more pervasive theme in the book than the film.
Overall, though, I think this movie was one of the better ones in the series as of lately. For once, it didn't feel like major parts of the plot went MIA and had to be repaired with plothole-grade duct tape later when the writers figured out that important concepts had been missed.
|
|
|
|
Post by N3B on Jul 30, 2009 11:28:43 GMT -5
In the book, there's a big epic battle scene in Hogwarts, just as Bellatrix and the rest of the Death Eaters arrive. I forget if they kill Dumbledore first and then the battle starts, or if there was any resistance prior to his death, but there was supposed to be a major fight.
There were rogue groups of students running through the halls fighting off Death Eaters with professors whom we all assume were pathetic old farts were kicking some serious butt, and it was made all the more exciting because it was in Hogwarts (home base) and displayed a strong sense of unity among the main characters after Dumbledore's death.
As it happened, Snape kills Voldemort and then they walk away unchallenged.
I think Luna actually had a bigger role in HP5 than in this one; she got some fair amount of screen time in 6 but it was a majority of peripheral shots, where they were showing her sitting next to Hermione or something like that. Fifth movie she got her quirky intro scene, her major strong scene in the forest with those invisi-deaders, fair amount of screentime in the DA, the fight at the Ministry, and her outro scene (where her shoes are missing).
I really don't remember her at all from 6, aside from walking around on the train offering Quibbler, finding Harry paralyzed under the cloak, and sporting a really peculiar dress for the Slug Club social. This, as I recall from the book, was supposed to be her big moment where she gets to play her "strong silent type" role like she did in book 5, but she may as well not have even been included in the scene.
Then again, perhaps my memory is fuzzy because I haven't read the books in so long, but I'd say she's my favorite character and it really seemed like she wasn't used to her full potential this time around.
|
|
|
|
Post by Draxas on Jul 30, 2009 12:26:30 GMT -5
In all honesty, I don't think her role in book 6 was much bigger than that. In fact, they added her in to the cloak scene for the movie; Tonks is supposed to find Harry and escort him to the gates.
I also don't recall a big battle in book 6 either; that happens in 7. The Death Eaters sneak in through the Vanishing Cabinet, join Malfoy atop the tower, Snape assassinates Dumbledore, and they leg it before anyone can do anything about it. Only Harry tries to stop them, and as we all know, Snape shuts him down and reveals the identity of the Half-Blood Prince.
To be honest, though, I don't remember book 6 that well anymore. I was surprised how many of the scenes in the film I wound up saying "Oh yeah, now I remember this" to.
|
|
|
|
Post by N3B on Jul 30, 2009 17:06:14 GMT -5
I am definitely certain that epic fight scene was at the end of the book. I might even try to scan through the last 100 pages if I can locate the thing.
Like I said for Luna, she's the strong silent type, which seems more natural to include in a book than in a fast-paced movie. In a movie it would seem like it would detract from the momentum to slow things down to her pace in order to include this so prominently as I would like. Might not make for an effective movie.
In general I think the quality of the sixth movie was much better than in previous ones, be it a combination of extended schedule for filming, editing and production, increased budget, or having more mature actors capable of expressing more complex actions. It had the same director as the fifth one, though, which makes me curious why it felt so subtly different in execution. I would assume they had the same producer, but they had a different writer -- and usually writers don't have the effect on the visual outcome of the movie as much as a producer and director would.
Like I said, there were few parts where I was really irritated by the movie (which is a vast improvement from the fifth), and it featured quite a few LOL or silent snicker moments. For some reason that I've yet to place my finger exactly on, though, the individual scenes didn't rivet me as much as I would have liked. Maybe I was spoiled by The Dark Knight last summer being such an awesome summer movie -- this is pretty much the first big budget, big hype movie I've seen since then.
Do you remember any scenes (at least one) which blatantly were not in the book?
|
|
|
|
Post by Draxas on Jul 30, 2009 17:42:06 GMT -5
The burning of the burrow definitely elicited an "oh, that's new" from me.
The change in writers probably had a huge impact on this film: In this case, the writers decide which portions of the book to include in their entirety, gloss over or alter, or eliminate completely. This is probably why 3-5 felt so rushed to me (despite being 3 hours long each), they glossed over or cut so much content.
I defintely have to say, this one was a good deal funnier than the last several, maybe all of the ones before. I couldn't help but laugh at times, which was refreshing; this is about when the books were bogging down in some really severe angst.
This was the first movie I had seen in the theater since the first Transformers move back in 2007. Yeah, it's been a long time.
|
|
|
|
Post by Altl on Jul 30, 2009 19:20:10 GMT -5
At the end of the sixth book pretty much Harry and Dumbledor arrived back in Hogsmeade from getting the locket. The dark mark is above the tower so they quickly fly back on brooms while harry is under the invisibility cloak . They land on one of the towers and hear some commotion, Malfoy shows up and Dumbledor binds Harry with some spell. After the big death scene all the attackers that were on the tower depart and Harry becomes unbound. He charges after them through the halls where a bunch of brawls are going on; Hermione, Ron and Ginny are alright because they drank some of the left over half of the luck potion.
edit: where not were
|
|
