*** Official HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN Discussion Thread (1 Viewer)

[Patrick Sun]

You mean like when ... Hmm.. lemme check...
(edited - oops, read that spoiler elsewhere). Okay, I take back most of my grumpiness on future book spoilers.

But I do think alluding to character's development in future books constitutes a spoiler. Or how something in HP3 sets up something in book 4 or 5. However I do realize a lot of people have read the HP books and just have all these details in their heads, it's just part of their take on the HP world, and make comments about future developments and don't think it's spoiling it for those who only watch the HP films. Let's just be more careful (and probably most of these details will be excised from the screenplays for future HP films anyway, no?)

 

[Kevin Grey]

Patrick I see where you're coming from. As far as general themes or certain issues I think it can be valid for discussion when they relate directly to what was included or removed from Azbakan and how it could affect the later films.

One thing I have noticed on other forums is that some people will get details of certain events jumbled in their heads and will reveal scenes from later novels thinking they were in the Azbakan book and removed from the film. I don't think I've seen that here, though.

 

[Ernest Rister]

[voice_Homer -- walking out of Harry Potter VII: Return of the Wizard] "I can't believe Voldemort is Harry Potter's father!" [/voice_Homer]

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Before I get banned, that's a joke, by the way. Voldemort is not HP's dad.

 

[Patrick Sun]

No problems with discussing later development in the books, just try to spoiler the comments or make them really really vague...

 

[Andrew Bunk]

Just saw this last night. I am a big fan of the first two films, probably giving my preference to the first over the second. I enjoyed PoA, but it definitely doesn't feel like it's a part of the same series started by the first two.

I liked some of the stylistic changes, but I thought the changing of a lot of the locations (Hagrid's, the Womping Willow, the Leaky Cauldron) were disorienting. The first thing I thought to myself was "Is there a second live tree on the grounds"? I'm not sure why this needed to be changed.

I also felt like the editing was too abrupt in many cases-the pace felt rushed to me, moreso than the first two films which never felt long to me.

Couple questions here: did anyone find the film to be almost out of focus and soft throughout? The screening I saw seemed to be pretty low quality, especially during the Dursley's scene. It was bad to the point that between the low picture quality and the handheld stuff, I was almost expecting them to cut to a shot of someone taking home video in the Dursley's house.

Another question-did anyone else find the score to be very sparse? I was amazed at how seldom the music played a factor in a lot of scenes, especially since John Williams' scores of the first two films helped make them so much more magical IMO. This film definitely felt less magical, no pun intended. Although I did love the Buckbeak scenes with Harry flying over the water.

I also agree that should have explained more about the origins of the Marauder's map and the nature of the 4 animagi.

Overall I still enjoyed the film, and I'm very interested to see how it looks on DVD. I liked it more than CoS, but Sorcerer's Stone is still my favorite.

 

[Ernest Rister]

"[Ron] was always touchy about the fact that Harry, who had inherited a small fortune from his parents, had much more money than he did."

Yeah, but Harry has never told Ron he had inherited a fortune from his parents. Harry has kept his family fortune a secret, like someone who has won the lottery and doesn't tell anyone so that money never factors into their relations with people. The only other person who knows Harry has a vault full of gold is Hagrid (I suspect Dumbledore knows). From Ron's perspective, Harry always has a bit of money, but isn't filthy rich.

If Harry wanted to buy a Ron a new wand, he has proven himself so sneaky and wiley, he could have figured out a way. The truth is, Ron's wand had to stay broken, because of the fate of Professor Lockhart in the second movie and second book Chamber of Secrets.

 

[Kevin Grey]

Remember- Williams didn't score most of the second film. He created a few new themes but William Ross did most of the scoring and overall I thought Chamber of Secrets was a bit overscored.

I didn't think the Azbakan score was sparse but its definitely very low key in places so you probably didn't notice it nearly as much. I thought it was much more effective and one of Williams' best scores in years.

 

[Ricardo C]

Mrs. Weasley has been into Harry's vault before, retrieving money for him. It's not beyond reason to think Ron knows about it.

 

[Ernest Rister]

Well, you're right - everyone in the Order of the Phoenix (Sirius, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, Lupin, Dumbledore, Snape, Mad-Eye, etc.)
probably knows Harry has a personal fortune. There's no evidence Ron and Hermione have a clue.

 

[Andrew Bunk]

Kevin,

I didn't know that about the CoS score-thanks for the info. When I think of the HP film music in my mind I'm sure it's the score from Sorcerer's Stone I'm remembering, which I loved.

 

[Kirk Tsai]

Okay, so I'm slow. I'm missing something from the film, why does Lupin and Black say they want to kill Potter during the confrontation scene?

This was the scene that I leaned forward and expected the ball to be hit out of the park, but it never did. Everyone's attitudes changed so swiftly that I could not understand the fundamental threat of the movie: Black is back to kill Harry. The time traveling bit after this scene showed immense skill, but my head kept on going back to that issue.

So someone help me out here.

 

[Evan S]

They aren't talking about Potter, it just seems that way. They are referring to Peter Pettigrew, who is in the corner as a rat, still unknown to the audience that he is an animangus as well. Pettigrew is the one that Black wanted to kill and Lupin holds him back, wanting to save Pettigrew for the Dementors, which is the exact same thing Harry decides on later in the scene.

 

[Kirk Tsai]

Yes, I just had a friend clear this up for me. Thanks.

Later when Black and Lupin wanted to destroy the rat/Pettigrew, I understood why. But I guess I was confused from the shift of focus when the tension clearly existed between Harry and Black. Harry's attitudes also shifted enormously fast I thought. I'll give the scene another try later, but it still feels rushed to me.

 

[Matt Stone]

The only tension is from Harry's perspective. Black isn't trying to hurt Harry, but Harry wants to kill Black. It may happen fast, but there are a lot of revelations packed into a short amount of time.

 

[Sean Laughter]

I felt the first two had rather generic scores, and just screamed John Willaims to me, so I was pleasantly surprised with this one and really enjoyed it - went out and bought the CD even (though listening to the CD some tracks still do scream Williams outside the context of the film).

As for William Ross, did he actually have anything to do with the score to PoA??? On the Soundtrack for Chamber of Secrets he's listed as: "Music Adapted and Conducted by William Ross." But he's not listed anywhere that I can find on the soundtrack for PoA.

I never understood that "music adapted" thing though on the CoS CD. Was he doing the job of the orchestrator or what? On the IMDB the blurb says something about him adapting Williams' score from the first film for CoS, so is Williams' music credit on CoS merely because the themes used are from the first film and he didn't do any actual scoring?

 

[Andrew Bunk]

I guess my point was that I didn't necessarily think the geography was better in the first two films, but they left an impression since they were first, and that's why I felt like I was seeing an entirely different school.

 

[Galen_V]

Yeah, I think it's the equivalent of a "story by" credit that they would give to a writer of a rejected script (provided that some of his ideas were used in the final version).

 

[Ernest Rister]

"I felt the first two had rather generic scores"

The world of film should be so lucky as to have Williams' work on Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone considered commonplace and generic.

 

[Luis Esp]

I agree. It should have ended with Harry flying off screen, with nothing but smoke from the broom.

 

[Andrew Bunk]

Amen!