[Ricardo C]

Actually, Voldemort fleeing looked pretty alright to me. The centaur (which they named Firenze in this one), however... Yikes. I thought they were supposed to look more human. I wonder how they'll portray "pretty boy" Firenze in OotP, if he makes the cut. Hopefully they won't use the same CGI model.

[Ernest Rister]

They'll probably do some serious mo-cap work, I would think. Its a safe bet we'll see improved centaurs by the time Phoenix hits screens.

I have a sneaky feeling the Centaurs are eventually going to play a Gungan-esque role in either Book Six or Seven...the warrior society who loathes the wizards, the outcast who brings them together, the army that rises to fight alongside the wizards...

[andrew markworthy]

Just to elaborate on my 'major director' sarcasm, and then I'll shut up on the topic. I was talking about artistic not commercial merit. E.g. Kurosawa, Welles, Truffaut, Renoir, Columbus?????

I agree with the verdict on CC that he's 'safe'. And I think that's the trouble. However, different strokes and all that.

[Iain Jackson]

I certainly enjoyed the first two films, and don't have much of a problem with Chris Columbus as a director, but Cuaron just managed to bring a freshness and style to Azkaban that clearly benefitted the film.

As for which my favourite of the first 3 books is, I couldn't say right now (I'd have to go back and read them again). My main problem with Azkaban as a book was that the entire Shrieking Shack scene lasted for ever and felt like it was straight out of a Scooby Doo story (to me). The fact that this was cut down in the film was a pleasant surprise.

In fact, there were only a couple of small bits that I felt were missing from the film that actually bothered me - but at least I know that if I ever want the full story, I can just read the books again, it'll only take me a day or two.

As long as they get all the important stuff in the Goblet of Fire movie, then I'll be happy. Of course, there is a LOT of important stuff in that book...

[Mark Walker]

Man!
The way some of you are talking about the widely praised first two films, it makes it sound like they were a chore to even watch in the cinema.

I need say I agree with most of Ernest's comments regarding the probability that many critiques crediting the change in directors for all of the reported improvements to the films seems very overstated.

Uh, the kids in the film now have several films under their belts...Ya don't think that mabe they have improved in their performances of characters they have "lived with" now for several years?

Now that we have been fully immersed in the world of Hogwart's, and how things function there, ya don't think maybe it is much easier to just move the plot forward and skip some exposition?

HP's world is so rich that I really didn't need Columbus to indudge in any auteur impulses
to really enjoy those films. (If his film making approach is fairly generic, well, as has already been stated, that seems to be what WB and Rowling were looking for: at the launch of a new film franchise, a "solid" approach is what the studio is going to want, especially for a product with so much
invested in it.)

Visually, yes, I love The Little Princess and can understand the accolades being heaped on Alfonso Cuarón for
making this film visually appealing.
In fact, I hope that many people who find this HP film to be such an improvement over the last two will, at at minimum, watch Cuarón's The Little Princess, which was released theatrically twice: once as a "family film" and once as an "art house film," and neither time it caught much box office.


Still, while I am not exactly a fan of Columbus's work in general, I don't understand why so many are prone to criticising him for make exactly the films that Rowling and WB wanted the first two HB adaptations to be.

[Kevin Grey]

Still, while I am not exactly a fan of Columbus's work in general, I don't understand why so many are prone to criticising him for make exactly the films that Rowling and WB wanted the first two HB adaptations to be.

The best compliment I can give Columbus is that after watching the first movie I immediately went out and read all of the books.

[Ernest Rister]

"The script is a little light in meaningful character development at the expense of plot and revelations of Harry's past."

Well, that describes every Harry Potter book...they're like Chinese Water Torture - you're hit on the head again and again and again with all of the terciary plot developments that all tie in to some mystery...meanwhile, you're just waiting for the meaningful revelations to drop, and you have to wait until the third act or the third act denoument for that to occur. That structure drove me NUTS in Book Five: Order of the Phoenix - I was tired of the formula, I wanted a straight ahead narrative, already. Instead, like following a geometric theorem, the book proceeds just like all the others. It is almost coming to the point where you don't need to read the first 75% of the Harry Potter books, all you need to do is crack open the last 100 pages and learn all you were getting to get from the book.

[Adam Lenhardt]

Quote:

meanwhile, you're just waiting for the meaningful revelations to drop, and you have to wait until the third act or the third act denoument for that to occur. That structure drove me NUTS in Book Five: Order of the Phoenix - I was tired of the formula, I wanted a straight ahead narrative, already.

The Harry Potter books are first and foremost mysteries. As such, it's no surprise that the big revelations, both in relation to character and in relationship to plot, come in the final act.

Quote:

It is almost coming to the point where you don't need to read the first 75% of the Harry Potter books, all you need to do is crack open the last 100 pages and learn all you were getting to get from the book.

In regards to character shifts, perhaps, but that could be said for most books. I disagree with the assertion that you'll get all there is to get from the last hundred pages. The revelations may not come until the end, but the character shifts and plotting make the rest of the book more than worth the time. Much like a Hitchcock film, Rowling builds plot and tension slowly. Book five was a permutation on this. We knew something big was coming, and the anxiousness about the impending event racheted and waned as neccessarily.

If all you're looking for in a book is the plot twists and revelations, you might as well read the Cliff Notes version.

[Ernest Rister]

Cuaron is not signed for either Potter 4 or Potter 5. The Malfoy's are more prominent in Chamber of Secrets and Order of the Phoenix than Goblet.

[Ernest Rister]

"The Harry Potter books are first and foremost mysteries. As such, it's no surprise that the big revelations, both in relation to character and in relationship to plot, come in the final act."

Well, sure, but must these climactic events always come at the end of the school year? Right before awarding the House Cup? I mean, can't things happen before Christmas? Or before the first six weeks? Why does it always take a solid school year for Harry to figure out the plots of Voldemort or his cronies? That's the formula I'm talking about. You could almost set your watch to the plot of a Harry Potter book by now. That's what left me so disappointed by Book Five. At the end of Book 4, you think all bets are off. Book 5 comes along and *wha-bang!* slams the narrative right back into the standard HP formula.

[Edwin Pereyra]

Quote:

Cuaron is not signed for either Potter 4 or Potter 5.

Mike Newell (Four Weddings and a Funeral, Pushing Tin, Mona Lisa Smile) is directing Potter 4, which started filming in March.

~Edwin