h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

soiled in so many ways

that Depends

Ice Age 3 was plenty of nods towards Jurassic Park 3, but we love that film anyway.



I just hope HP is as good tomorrow

I, Robot is on Film Four tonight. Haven't seen that in a few years so I'm going to watch it.

Really looking forward to Harry Potter.

Gonna watch HP6 on Saturday, really looking forward to it. Also keeping off any convos that might discuss the movie, just so I can see it with an open mind...

And now a confession. The Lady of the Mice and I watched Casablanca for the first time ever two weeks ago. Never thought I would be saying this but... Casablanca is one cool film!

Y.

I just watched a film called Death at a funeral the other night, directed by Frank Oz, suprisingly not bad!

Ice Age 3 - great! Especially loved Simon Pegg's voicing of the Jack Sparrow send-up.

Off to the Harry Potter premiere here tonight. Trying to resist scrolling up this thread to find any comments, as I know it came out in the UK and US last week.

Harry Potter premieres here in the US tonight. We're not going for opening night, though- we've got tickets for an IMAX showing on Saturday. Not that I worry about "spoilers", since I know what happens...

i just seen Star trek and it was good
and last movie i saw before that was star trek nemesis

all over movies i seen just seen since year 2000 just keep going down hill

Harry Potter in a little under an hour.

Enjoy! I'm going tomorrow night.

Adult tickets at my local cinema are now £6.90!

Just saw HP6 - what a relief! After the pile of doo-doo that was the HP5 film I thought this one was funny in the right places and serious in the right places. Now I want to see it again but in English.

I'd give it 4/5.

I missed the bedlam of the ending from the book as well as all the detail of you-know-who's youthful exploits [1] but what was in it's place (a pretty laser-like focus on relationships) was absorbing enough and I found myself laughing at all the parts I ought to so rated for entertainment but not fidelity.




****SPOILERS***














[1]
Missing or Different:

All the stuff with Marvlolo Gaunt, the house, the ring etc - which makes me wonder how they'll follow that in Potter 7 parts 1 & 2, as the story if I recall was Voldemort's magpie like tendency to use as horcruxes, items either personal (the ring, the diary) or of magical significance and import (the relics of the Hogwart's founders).

That kind of got established in Half-Blood Prince but I saw no trace of it in the film.
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The duality of Snape's role - his part in the prophecy - we found out the book was his but not why - nor does he show his conflict at being called a 'coward' - as if he could bear everythign else but not that - he just came over as angry and well more like a genuine bad guy. His significant scenes were pared down to the conversation with Dumbledore and Bellatrix, which was disappointing as, yet again, it misses the depth of what's going on.


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I wanted there to be bedlam!

When The Deatheaters get into Hogwarts in the book there's a pitched battle; this was more like a surgical insurrection of assassins. More sombre, perhaps but it lacked the energy of the book's final scenes. With this much slow burn and build up the climax was dramatic but played for the slow, drawn out impending conclusion: will Draco carry out his mission? - less the drama and confusion of The deatheaters breaching the barricade and in all the confusion, the worst news of all.





























**** SPOILERS****

HP6 too.

I felt a bit let down. It looks good, but it's melancholic when it should be menacing. A very lightweight treatment of a heavy book. Anyone would think these things are for kids.

What Clive said about plotline diligence too. They are systematically missing out all the stuff that gives the darker characters their motivation, so the enemy is coming across as Evil for the Fun of It. And do we have to be quite so Bonham-Carter reverent? I think her Bellatrix has gone way over the top into silly self-indulgence.

And there are some unnecessary careless errors. Like Dumbledore saying he hadn't expected Slughorn's memory, and then strewing his desktop with stuff that proves he's been acting on it for months.

It's a sad limitation of the medium, I fear, and one only rarely overcome. The better the book, the more disappointing the film.

Hmm; regarding motivation - I noticed that trend in HP5 when they missed out the line the seemed to be Voldemort's raison d'etre "if death is nothing Dumbledore, kill the boy" during the possession scene. that chilled me when I read it and was anxiously looking forward to seeing it on screen. But that too was sacrificed for what seemed no good reason given the imbalance of focus heaped on other areas in the narrative. Given what the Horcruxes *do* and their pivotal role through HPB and TDH it seems that deficiency is set to be repeated.

Not that this makes them *bad* films but lesser given their potential.

"Melancholic when it should be menacing." - exactly!

With the detail stripped out what is left is much more inexplicable and it feels like there's no insight gained.

That was the big thing of the novel HPB for me; it laid out the ground work of the story that has resonated since day one: How Harry came to be orphaned. That really starts with understanding Voldemort and those who surround him, most notably and importantly, Snape since he is the connection between the generations and a lynch pin of everything yet to happen.

The drama of it was the deatheaters getting into the school - and that was undersold in the film as well.

My criticisms shouldn't be taken as a mark of a bad film just diminished expectations.

I think Pinipped said it: the limits of the medium. However personally I'd happily sacrifice any number of muddy trawls through marshes and yet another Quidditch match for more of the relevant parts of the plot.

I stopped comparing the films to the books long ago - but most recently (and grumpily) with the...

do we still need spoilers for the 5th film?




just in case (here be spoilery bits for 5 and 6)





... killing of Sirius by Bellatrix. After that anything that is taken from the book into the film is fine with me.


back to HP6


I loved all the focus on relationships. And I loved Jim Broadbent as Slughorn even though he wasn't at all how I wanted him to be. The brief bits of Malfoy being lonely and desparate were lovely, as was the tiny tiny glimps we had of Fred & George.

I was disappointed with the end. I wanted to see a big desperate fight, more so because of the pathetic effort we got in HP5.

And having been a fan of Snape since book 1 I am very disappointed how he has been handled in the films.

However - I still loved it. Probably more so because 5 was such a rubbish effort.

And I'm going to see it again.

I though Jim Broadbent was fantastic - a bit more leering (and verging on Jack-Sparrow) than I had anticipated - but still ace! (or )

Oh I agree I thought the relationships theme was a good and the right one.

My favourite Snape moment was in the meeting with Bellatrix and Narcissa

"I have deceived the greatest wizard of all time. Dumbledore is a fool."

It's a brilliant juxtaposition and can be read more ways than one.

But overall - although I've enjoyed Snape - the films have not been kind to him.

I've just got back from watching HP6, and what can I say?

Wow, what a pile of old crap! People have *enjoyed* this?

What plot there is is inconsistent with itself and with previous films. When the half-blood prince reveals himself to be the half-blood prince, I thought "so what?" It didn't seem to have any relevance to anything. It might as well have been "HP And The Tinky Winky".

But really, the plot was missing from most of the film. If you're going to do a "Who's snogging who" film for two and a half hours, this is the wrong genre in which to make it. Make a rom com.

RF