Harry Potter

[cellio]

(Ok, let's see if this will post today.)

We went to see the Harry Potter movie Monday night. Before that, though... this had to have been the most unappealing set of previews I've seen in a while:

• Spongebob Squarepants: Um, I think they might not quite have this movie's demographic nailed.
• Spiderman 2: Eh. Didn't see #1 and won't see this, but they're closer to the demographic.
• Sleep Over: Eww. Just... eww. Inane gigly teenage girls sneak around their parents and have cat-fights. Um, yeah. Maybe Spongebob wasn't so bad after all.
• Catwoman: If, like me, you have not read the comics (I assume there are comics), you get no information about this movie beyond "babe in black doing acrobatics". Maybe that's enough for their target demographic. (Oh, and I gather the cat-woman died and was recycled or something?)
• Cinderella Story: Cinderella set in modern-day LA. Looks cute, but if the glass slipper has really been replaced by a cell phone, I would think that identification would be anti-climactic. ("Each of you, quick: what's your phone number? Ok, let's ask the phone.")
• Princess Diaries 2: This looks like it could be fun. Or rather, it slightly motivates me to find #1 (this is a sequel). Dani has good things to day about the book.
• Polar Express: Eww eww eww. Even if I did Christmas, and even if I had kids, I still wouldn't take them to see this bit of insipid Santa-is-love fluff.

Now, on to the HP spoilers.

Context: I have not read any of the books.

This was a pretty good adventure story about generic characters. I didn't really see a strong effect from this being specifically the Harry Potter universe. There seemed to be less character advancement and less advancement of the overall story than in the first two movies. I don't think we learned anything new about the lead characters, nor did they learn anything new about themselves. And Draco, formerly a snide force for evil, was instead a snivelling force for bully-dom in this one.

I'm not saying the actors didn't do a good job with their characters or that there weren't fun moments -- just that it didn't seem to move the way the first two did. I enjoyed seeing more of Hagrid, I thought the replacement Dumbledore was credible (but lower-key), and Snape was his usual creepy self. (I don't like the divination professor, but maybe I'm not supposed to.) I liked Lupin, though the homosexual-teacher allegory at the end was rather blunt. And I thought Sirius was done well and had some depth; I hope we'll see more of him.

That map was cute. Dani tells me that according to the book Harry's father created it; that would have been a nice detail to include.

There were some very nice effects (I liked the hippogriff in particular) and too much scenery that could have been better allocated to character time. The plot was tidy, tying up loose ends and holding together well.

One plot thing did surprise me, though: the movie makes clear, through the passage of seasons, that this Sirius Black scare lasts at least six months. If we hadn't gotten the weather scenes, it would have seemed like a few days. I did not see the rising urgency you would expect from "oh no, that murderer has been stalking us for months!". What was up with that? Did it come through more in the book?

And a nit: if time-travel is so dangerous, why the heck is the faculty letting Hermione use it to shave a semester or two off her studies?

Assessment: Much better than #2, not a rich as #1. I'll go to the next one.

We made extremely good time getting to the theatre, but were still surprised to be the first ones at this particular show. That's not really a win, though; it just meant we got to watch more commercials. Remember when you could spend pre-movie time just talking, with quiet music in the background?

Comments

[jducoeur]

The theme of prejudices and bigotry becomes a big one, with many examples as the series progresses. Harry's getting slowly radicalized by his experiences.

Actually, it's interesting watching this process, because it's neither simple nor consistent. For example, Hermione spends much of Book 4 annoyed at Harry (and pretty much everyone else) because they don't understand why *she* feels so radically about certain prejudices. If Lupin is the AIDS metaphor, Hermione is the black metaphor, and she's very sensitive to the issue.

Fascinating. I hadn't consciously twigged to it before this conversation, but prejudice does appear to be the single most-explored theme in this series. Anti-werewolf prejudice is the most minor of three major examples I can think of offhand...