Chris Farmer
Screenwriter
- Joined
- Aug 23, 2002
- Messages
- 1,496
Goblet, Prisoner, Chamber, Sorceror's for me.
The first two books were far too slavish to the books for my taste. Columbus set out to cram as many scenes from the books into the screen as he could, but in so doing the pacing was shot to hell and there was never any sense of progression through the school year. Even when nothing is happening Rowling always puts in a few paragraphs to show that the year is moving on and what Harry is learning so it never feels like we've jumped ahead six months without warning, but Columbus jumped from time to time without any real flow at all.
That and the magic are the two things I thought Cuaron did best. The passing of the seasons at the Womping Willow did a great ob of giving a feel of real time passing over the course of the movie and keeping everything from happening in a few days, and he also got by far the most magic of the four movies. It also has the only portrayal of Dumbledore that comes close to the character as I'e seen him in the books (I'm sorry, I know it's considered fantastic but I always hated HATED HATED Harris' version of the character) Where Prisoner falls short is that it was just too damn short. Unlike Columbus Cuaron knew when to let go of scenes and cut them from the movie, but in the end he cut too much and started trimming muscle and bone and not just literary fat. There were too many key plot points that got cut for me to give it my full approval. That said, it still comes to closest to catching the pure magic of Rowling's books for me.
And that leaves Goblet. It's not as magical as Azkaban nor does it cram in as much plot as the first two, but I think it strikes the best balance between the two of the four movies thus far. It also gets bonus points for doing a pretty good job of adapting by far the toughest of the four stories. Despite its girth, GoF is an incredibly tightly plotted book and even the most vicious editor couldn't trim more than a hundred pages out of its 700+ length. OotP and HBP will be far easier since there's a lot more fat between their covers that can be comfortably trimmed from a movie adaptation.
The first two books were far too slavish to the books for my taste. Columbus set out to cram as many scenes from the books into the screen as he could, but in so doing the pacing was shot to hell and there was never any sense of progression through the school year. Even when nothing is happening Rowling always puts in a few paragraphs to show that the year is moving on and what Harry is learning so it never feels like we've jumped ahead six months without warning, but Columbus jumped from time to time without any real flow at all.
That and the magic are the two things I thought Cuaron did best. The passing of the seasons at the Womping Willow did a great ob of giving a feel of real time passing over the course of the movie and keeping everything from happening in a few days, and he also got by far the most magic of the four movies. It also has the only portrayal of Dumbledore that comes close to the character as I'e seen him in the books (I'm sorry, I know it's considered fantastic but I always hated HATED HATED Harris' version of the character) Where Prisoner falls short is that it was just too damn short. Unlike Columbus Cuaron knew when to let go of scenes and cut them from the movie, but in the end he cut too much and started trimming muscle and bone and not just literary fat. There were too many key plot points that got cut for me to give it my full approval. That said, it still comes to closest to catching the pure magic of Rowling's books for me.
And that leaves Goblet. It's not as magical as Azkaban nor does it cram in as much plot as the first two, but I think it strikes the best balance between the two of the four movies thus far. It also gets bonus points for doing a pretty good job of adapting by far the toughest of the four stories. Despite its girth, GoF is an incredibly tightly plotted book and even the most vicious editor couldn't trim more than a hundred pages out of its 700+ length. OotP and HBP will be far easier since there's a lot more fat between their covers that can be comfortably trimmed from a movie adaptation.