happy vesak day!
Jun. 2nd, 2004 11:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ununoriginalaka the only real holiday that my family celebrates. and i sorta like it - this kinda family tradition. it's like we can be totally blase bt the other holidays, or bitch bt the inconvenience of getting together for the other events, but for this day, everyone jus comes together, no questions asked. it's a day for the family, period.
or more of a morning plus early noon :p my evening was devoted to harry potter & the PoA!! and of course, as with every major movie event, i've got to have a post-movie rehash entry! ^_~
first off, let me jus say that ALFONSO CUARON TOTALLY ROCKS!! i was totally a fan of 'y tu mama tambien', but it IS very different from PoA, and it was so raunchy and chock full of sex (not that i'm complaining) and i'm going off on a tangent - this ain't a 'y tu' post, it's a PoA post!!
so onwards!
WARNING: big-ass essay ahead!
the thing that first struck me bt the movie was that it was much darker than the previous two, which does reflect the tone of the book. but i think that cuaron did push it that little bit further. the last 2 movies were quite bright and shiny - they felt very new, while the atmosphere here was rather more aged, tarnished, as if there were reluctant secrets lurking behind every wall.
and everything is so much more cryptic. quite a bit of the movie assumes that one is already aware of the story. of course, there's a bit of exposition here and there, but most of the time, he jus lets the details tell their own story. and it's def here that the difference betwn the 2 directors' visions of harry potter become evident.
the thing i adore most bt PoA the movie is the subtle approach cuaron takes in describing harry's world. the fine details that jus furnish out the background, that makes the wizarding world less fantastical and more down-to-earth - it's sorta like the rose-tinted glasses falling off one's eyes as one gets older and becomes more exposed to the wider community. not everything is amazing anymore. magic isn't as extraordinary as it was first presented. it's become more matter-of-fact, mundane-ified. the director doesn't hold ur hand and walk u thru all the things, doesn't hold up a placard that says 'look at that! they use magic for that!' - he expects the viewer to find out by themselves. which, for me, means i could do with repeated viewings, jus to finagle out all the little bits of clues and trails i'm sure are scattered thruout the movie ^_^
the sets have changed - even hogwarts looks different, but that's understandable since each director sees things in a different way. i like how everything's jus sorta off-kilter. the cinematography is EXCELLENT - he loves to use these broad sweeps which show off the scenery to really cool effect. and the things he does with the plants! and the hippogriff!! ^__^ tho imo the dementors were so a la ringwraiths :p
emma watson was quite the star. harry wouldn't have gotten far without hermione in the movie. and i love how she's concerned bt her hair when they're on a MOST URGENT MISSION. it's so teenage girl ^_~ and so human. and i ADORE the way she says 'ronald' :p daniel radcliffe is growing up to be a rather handsome bishounen. even tom felton doesn't look half as bad as i thot judging from the trailers. i've always had a soft spot for rupert grint, tho it's a pity ron's left as pretty much the comic relief. the new dumbledore was oookaay, but emma thompson was hilarious as trelawney! hilarious! and alan rickman - ah, alan rickman - i WORSHIP the ground he walks upon :p
the score was incredible as well, but the only grouch i have bt PoA the movie is the script. which is quite an unfortunate place to have the grouch since a script is fairly fundamental to a movie - well, most movies :p i thot the 1st half of the movie was rather rushed, presenting only the bare bones of the facts before moving on the next Event, leaving the viewer in a sorta 'what the fuck happened' kinda feeling. major bookplot deviations start surfacing in the middle, and unfortunately, not really for the better.
a lot of the tension btwn hermione and harry&ron have been cut out, while crookshanks is practically non-existent. what it's replaced with are hints of hermione/ron (which is sorta cute imho :p) and a 'kinda incestuous' relationship btwn the three of them (acc to my movie buddy, go figure). with it went all the fights which might have been rather good emotional scenes for the actors and a chance to flesh out their characters more.
the wolfsbane scene (one of my fav scenes in the book) was not even there, a cut that had repercussions further down the movie. some of the other things that were missing, like draco pretending to be a dementor to scare harry, even harry getting the firebolt, can be overlooked, cuz they dun exactly push the plot forward. but the wolfsbane was a plot-setter, plus it had snape in it, but that's not the main point :p cuz of that, and another plot change involving how peter pettigrew was discovered, there were quite a bit of holes/blanks in the canvas of the movie-story. in retrospect, the shrieking shack scene was frankly a mess. it felt like the actors were jus saying the words - they were projecting all this emotion and angst, but without the complex plot to back it up, they were jus that, words that had no power, no true meaning.
'course, once u reach the 2nd half of the movie, u sorta understand why they had to rush thru the 1st half. they did remain quite faithful to the plot once harry and co left the shrieking shack and harry&sirius were set upon by dementors. the scene where we see harry's patronus has to be the best scene in the movie ^___^ and to stick to the book, the scenes actually took up quite a bit of time, which was prob why the initial parts were so rushed.
which is the reason why, i think, u never really get completely into the movie. the entire first half feels like one extended prologue and b4 u noe it, u're already at the end of the movie, and when it seems like u're jus settling in, suddenly harry gets a firebolt and we're zipping off into the ether, mischief managed.
but that is, truly, more or less, my only gripe (well, that, and lupin not being played by ewan mcgregor >_<). it is still a good movie, a very good one, i guess, if u view it from a movie's standpoint alone, and not with half the book's plot cluttering ur brain. some of the things in it were really cool, like the ongoing theme of time & clocks and how it is all interlinked. there were references to time and clocks scattered thruout the scenes and sets. i loved the way he showed the changes of the seasons. the way the scenes were edited were also cool - i liked the fast-slow-fast interchange of the pace. the off-hand way that magic and the fantastical was portrayed is beyond cool. and, last but not least, without a doubt, stan shunpike. he's def the man :p
and that's it: mischief managed ^_~
nox! ^_^
or more of a morning plus early noon :p my evening was devoted to harry potter & the PoA!! and of course, as with every major movie event, i've got to have a post-movie rehash entry! ^_~
first off, let me jus say that ALFONSO CUARON TOTALLY ROCKS!! i was totally a fan of 'y tu mama tambien', but it IS very different from PoA, and it was so raunchy and chock full of sex (not that i'm complaining) and i'm going off on a tangent - this ain't a 'y tu' post, it's a PoA post!!
so onwards!
WARNING: big-ass essay ahead!
the thing that first struck me bt the movie was that it was much darker than the previous two, which does reflect the tone of the book. but i think that cuaron did push it that little bit further. the last 2 movies were quite bright and shiny - they felt very new, while the atmosphere here was rather more aged, tarnished, as if there were reluctant secrets lurking behind every wall.
and everything is so much more cryptic. quite a bit of the movie assumes that one is already aware of the story. of course, there's a bit of exposition here and there, but most of the time, he jus lets the details tell their own story. and it's def here that the difference betwn the 2 directors' visions of harry potter become evident.
the thing i adore most bt PoA the movie is the subtle approach cuaron takes in describing harry's world. the fine details that jus furnish out the background, that makes the wizarding world less fantastical and more down-to-earth - it's sorta like the rose-tinted glasses falling off one's eyes as one gets older and becomes more exposed to the wider community. not everything is amazing anymore. magic isn't as extraordinary as it was first presented. it's become more matter-of-fact, mundane-ified. the director doesn't hold ur hand and walk u thru all the things, doesn't hold up a placard that says 'look at that! they use magic for that!' - he expects the viewer to find out by themselves. which, for me, means i could do with repeated viewings, jus to finagle out all the little bits of clues and trails i'm sure are scattered thruout the movie ^_^
the sets have changed - even hogwarts looks different, but that's understandable since each director sees things in a different way. i like how everything's jus sorta off-kilter. the cinematography is EXCELLENT - he loves to use these broad sweeps which show off the scenery to really cool effect. and the things he does with the plants! and the hippogriff!! ^__^ tho imo the dementors were so a la ringwraiths :p
emma watson was quite the star. harry wouldn't have gotten far without hermione in the movie. and i love how she's concerned bt her hair when they're on a MOST URGENT MISSION. it's so teenage girl ^_~ and so human. and i ADORE the way she says 'ronald' :p daniel radcliffe is growing up to be a rather handsome bishounen. even tom felton doesn't look half as bad as i thot judging from the trailers. i've always had a soft spot for rupert grint, tho it's a pity ron's left as pretty much the comic relief. the new dumbledore was oookaay, but emma thompson was hilarious as trelawney! hilarious! and alan rickman - ah, alan rickman - i WORSHIP the ground he walks upon :p
the score was incredible as well, but the only grouch i have bt PoA the movie is the script. which is quite an unfortunate place to have the grouch since a script is fairly fundamental to a movie - well, most movies :p i thot the 1st half of the movie was rather rushed, presenting only the bare bones of the facts before moving on the next Event, leaving the viewer in a sorta 'what the fuck happened' kinda feeling. major bookplot deviations start surfacing in the middle, and unfortunately, not really for the better.
a lot of the tension btwn hermione and harry&ron have been cut out, while crookshanks is practically non-existent. what it's replaced with are hints of hermione/ron (which is sorta cute imho :p) and a 'kinda incestuous' relationship btwn the three of them (acc to my movie buddy, go figure). with it went all the fights which might have been rather good emotional scenes for the actors and a chance to flesh out their characters more.
the wolfsbane scene (one of my fav scenes in the book) was not even there, a cut that had repercussions further down the movie. some of the other things that were missing, like draco pretending to be a dementor to scare harry, even harry getting the firebolt, can be overlooked, cuz they dun exactly push the plot forward. but the wolfsbane was a plot-setter, plus it had snape in it, but that's not the main point :p cuz of that, and another plot change involving how peter pettigrew was discovered, there were quite a bit of holes/blanks in the canvas of the movie-story. in retrospect, the shrieking shack scene was frankly a mess. it felt like the actors were jus saying the words - they were projecting all this emotion and angst, but without the complex plot to back it up, they were jus that, words that had no power, no true meaning.
'course, once u reach the 2nd half of the movie, u sorta understand why they had to rush thru the 1st half. they did remain quite faithful to the plot once harry and co left the shrieking shack and harry&sirius were set upon by dementors. the scene where we see harry's patronus has to be the best scene in the movie ^___^ and to stick to the book, the scenes actually took up quite a bit of time, which was prob why the initial parts were so rushed.
which is the reason why, i think, u never really get completely into the movie. the entire first half feels like one extended prologue and b4 u noe it, u're already at the end of the movie, and when it seems like u're jus settling in, suddenly harry gets a firebolt and we're zipping off into the ether, mischief managed.
but that is, truly, more or less, my only gripe (well, that, and lupin not being played by ewan mcgregor >_<). it is still a good movie, a very good one, i guess, if u view it from a movie's standpoint alone, and not with half the book's plot cluttering ur brain. some of the things in it were really cool, like the ongoing theme of time & clocks and how it is all interlinked. there were references to time and clocks scattered thruout the scenes and sets. i loved the way he showed the changes of the seasons. the way the scenes were edited were also cool - i liked the fast-slow-fast interchange of the pace. the off-hand way that magic and the fantastical was portrayed is beyond cool. and, last but not least, without a doubt, stan shunpike. he's def the man :p
and that's it: mischief managed ^_~
nox! ^_^
