Harry Potter - love or hate it?

[Formerly Known as FKAJ]

2 and a half stars from David, 3 from Margaret. Not any more optimistic.

[freakybuffy]

That doesn't sound good, I guess in a few hours I'll be able to give my star rating.

[emmasi]

That's a shame about Margs and Dave. I wonder if they read the book, and knew what to expect. If not, the darkness of it might have been too confronting for a "kid's movie." I think you have to have a certain liking for the bad guys to fully appreciate it, because it does focus heavily on Draco and Snape and the Death Eaters wreaking havoc, as they do. But then, I like that sort of thing

The light moments were hilaaaarious, and the scary moments had me and several other people in the cinema cringing!

Like I said before, I didn't reread the book and all my basic recollections of the plot were covered, including one nasty little detail that I didn't think they'd do, but they did!

Draco attacking Harry on the train at the start - awesomely evil!

So I was happy

I was most grateful that

Tonks and Remus kept their tawdry little post-Sirius skankfest to themselves. A throwaway "Sweetheart" from Tonks was all that remained of that atrocity

- thank god!

And I was most displeased with

Draco's explanation of why he had to kill Dumbledor. In the book, I clearly remember that he said that Voldemort would kill his mother if he didn't kill Dumbledor. It was an important vindication of Draco's character - that he was never as evil as he pretended to be, because no one who loved their mother enough to kill for her - and risk being killed himself - could be a lost cause. But now he just comes off as a selfish coward, which saps him of what little sympathy he would have otherwise gained. It was also a mirror of Narcissa's need to protect him, proving that they had a bond as strong as Harry and Lily - I wouldn't question Narcissa's ability to die for her son. Unfortunately, I think that all went to hell with one silly line. "I have to do this, or he'll kill me!!" SIGH! I suppose Harry's acknoweldgment of Draco lowering his wand at the end was something in his favour, but still

Buuuuut apart from that little amendment, I thought it was great

Three and a half stars...?

[KirstyEkua]

I hate Harry Potter season. I work part time in a cinema and it's utter madness. HP fans are messier than any other -i don't get why people buy food then throw it all over the floor.....and complain about having to sit right at the front when i've made it perfectly clear it's really busy and there's hardly any seats left but they don't wanna wait like 30 mins for the next show.

Oh it's joyus

[emmasi]

^If it makes you feel better, me and my friend didn't take any food into the cinema

Meanwhile, I just read David's review online, and he did say that hasn't read the books and that the story is therefore incomprehensible. And yet, he seemed to like PoA... Go figure.

[Laura]

I have just seen Harry Potter and it was no where near as good as expected. Was alright but its not a film I'll be watching again in a hurry.

[Zetti]

Beware, spoilers if you havent seen HP6

I loved the movie. A million times better than HP5 in the sense that it wasnt just all dark stuff. There was jealously, romance and comedy. Ron and Harry and Hermione just made me laugh and I loved the bit when Mcgonngal said 'Take Weasley with you. He looks too happy'

Lavender in my mind looked completely different when I was reading the book but the film character was great but I would have loved to see more of her because it would have made it more exciting and funny.

Harry and Slughorn along with Ron were my 3 favourite in the film. Harry and Ron 'love potion' conversation just had me cracking up and Hermione's jealousy of Lavender had me smiling because I know how it will end up.

Snape! Hmm I liked him in this one but that is probably because I know how his characters ends up. For me that showed at the end when he didnt want to cause him too much pain or at least that is what I thought.

Parts of the book was missed but that happens all the time. The only bit I really wanted to be in there was the Bill/Fleur bit.

The Burrows burnt out and the millennium bridge scene were exceptionally done. The mince pie had me laughing especially at Ron's expression and Harry and Ginny's kiss was disappointing.

Sectumsempra for me wasnt as good as it could have been but it was still a fantastic scence especially the effect it had on Draco.

Dumbledore's death should have been longer but the tower scene was for fitting because the place where Dumbledore's life ended was the one place where Harry decided he had to carry on what Dumbledore had started.

Draco and Bellatrix made the film a good one in the sense of how they only appeared in some scenes but that was powerful in terms of their acting.

On the whole I will give the film 8 out of 10

[Formerly Known as FKAJ]

Goblet of Fire was often pretty exciting, especially the scene with the dragon, but cutting the Quidditch World Cup?! And the resolution to the Rita Skeeter story? And the blowout between Dumbledore and Fudge? And any kind of information about the Crouches? And Bertha Jorkins, the whole reason why Voldemort knew about the tournement and that Barty Crouch Jr. was alive? And Ludo Bagman, one of the most entertaining yet devious and unscrupulous characters in the series? But I'm glad the house-elves were cut, that did get annoying. And I was impressed by the merging of the Karkaroff trial and the Crouch trial in the pensieve scene. Ralph Fiennes was excellent, too, as were most of the actors.

I just rewatched this and this comment still stands, with one addition: Prirori Incantatem.

The Crouch thing was even worse than I remembered. At the end Dumbledore said something like "Write to Azkaban, inform them they're missing a prisoner." *facepalm*

[Jen]

So, I went and saw HBP last Friday, and that's given me enough time to get my thoughts in order. Initially when I came out of the cinema I was pretty stoked with it, and then I spoke to my dad (who came and saw it with me, but hasn't read the books or seen all the movies) and he was thoroughly confused. So I had to consider why. If you haven't seen the movie and don't want it spoiled ... DON’T READ ON!

I'll try not to be too spoilerish, but some things are inevitable...

Last chance ....

I think the movie could be broken up into three separate trains of thought; 1) Ron/Hermione/Lavender aka. Love, 2) Harry and the memory aka. Felix, and 3) Draco and the task aka. Pigfarts (for reasons I will reveal later).

1) Love

I adore Ron/Rupert and even more after his performance. Love-stoned!Ron is one of the most hilarious things I have ever seen. I think this is one of the strongest sections of the film, the introduction of the love potion in the trios visit to WWW – which is so incredibly awesome – and then moving on to the chocolates and Ron’s poisoning. I adored seeing Hermione pull faces whenever Ron was with Lavender and Ron’s complete obliviousness. Lavender is brilliant. She was just the right amount of needy, annoying and enthusiastic that I imagined she was from the books. Also pulled straight from the books the sneaking of Hermione at Slughorn’s party, the canaries and the snow at the very end. Speaking of Slughorn’s party did anyone else get the “dragon balls” joke? This whole saga really sets things up for DH as well as the Harry/Ginny relationship. Ron had the right amount of disgust when he saw them snuggling and snogging at the Hogs Head.

2) Felix

Seeing Harry on Felix felicis I think gave a real insight into the kind of guy DanRad is. Everything seemed a lot more natural when Harry was high, and Dan seemed a lot relaxed. I couldn’t stop laughing at the “pincers” and the randomness of “I think I’m going to go to Hagrids”. Seeing Tom Riddle was completely eery in contrast. Both Tom’s did an awesome job and gave enough information to make sense of Horcruxes and Riddle’s childhood. I was disappointed that it wasn’t gold in colour (as described in the books). I mean, how hard is it to add in the special effect so it is gold in colour? It’s a minor detail, but it stood out to me.

3) Pigfarts

So, if you haven’t seen A Very Potter Musical (AVPM) then this won’t make much sense. There is basically a running joke that Draco Malfoy is planning to be transferred to Pigfarts, another wizarding school. However, he can’t get there because it is on Mars. He needs a spaceship and so he makes an unbreakable vow with Voldemort that if he gets Death Eaters into the castle and kills Dumbledore, Voldy will get him a spaceship (when the technology become available). And in the end of the musical when Dumbledore dies, he doesn’t actually die but goes to Pigfarts. So I couldn’t help but giggle and wish that when they were on the train and Draco Malfoy was saying he wasn’t going to be at Hogwarts for much longer, that he was going to say “Next year, I’m transferring to Pigfarts”. But looking past this, Tom Felton did an incredible job. I liked how we saw what Malfoy was doing while the trio were doing their own thing. The scene at the end in the Astronomy tower was pretty powerful, so I got kind of annoyed when the girls behind me wouldn’t shut up. But I don’t understand why they insist that when a character dies that they do it in slow-motion. If anything it totally loses the impact of it. The idea is that it is sudden, not slowed down so you have time to think about it. They did it with Sirius in OOTP and now Dumbledore. Leave it alone! I’m sad we didn’t get to see the funeral, and what was with DDs wand still being on his desk at the end? Will that effect it in DH? But I’m pleased they realised the importance of Draco disarming DD.

I was impressed with the number of small things that were kept in, like the brief glance at Ginny with her pygmy puff on the train, Ginny and Dean in the Hogs Head, the Tonks/Lupin “Sweetheart” moment and all the WWW products. I really wish I could go onto that set and just look through all the detail that there is no way we could see on camera. However, there was one giant gaping plot hole. It’s called Harry Potter and the HALF-BLOOD PRINCE. In the movie Harry gets the Prince’s book, does well in potions, and then it isn’t mentioned again til the end when it’s like BTW, Snape is the Half-blood Prince. No explanation, no nothing. Just ‘Hey, Snape!’, ‘Okay, bye!’ The whole point of the sixth book is figuring out who the HBP is.

Looking forward to DH, I don’t know how Harry is supposed to find all the Horcruxes when DD didn’t mention that Tom collected souvenirs, and wanted to be linked to Hogwarts, not to mention that Ginny hid the book not Harry. And I was desperately searching for a diadem/crown in the RoR when they were there. This is the first movie they’ve made in which they know the ending to the series so I only hope they have considered this when plotting this and the next movie.

Still, having said all of this, I really want to see it again. I think it is my new favourite out of the series for the amount of comedy in it, as well as the number of ‘book moments’. My faves were definitely Draco and Ron. I could have done without all the inuendos of Ginny/Harry and even Cormac McClaggen (Did anyone see him eating the desert at Slughorn’s?!). But it was still funny and the whole thing seemed to flow a lot more easily that the previous fills. Everything is becoming interconnected and definitely working up to the big finale. It is like the semi-penultimate movie of the series and acts as such.

Wow, I didn't realise this was so long... Oops. If anyone actually reads it in full, then that is very impressive and thank you .

[jenlee]

Lol, Jen. I read it and now have to add my own thought which I've been meaning to do but keep forgetting.

Spoilers ahead ...

What I loved:

Ron/Hermione/Lav. They were all so amazing during all their scenes. Jess did such a great job as Lavender and I adored the bit with her drawing in her breath on the train and her 'I miss you', lol. She really impressed me and, as much as I love Hermione/Ron, she made me like Lavender. The very small bits of her added in everywhere from the moment we first saw her in WWW were perfect, particularly during Ron's quidditch try outs. I really loved Ron and Harry's talk when they were in bed and Ron started on baout Hermione's nice skin. I aw'd like you wouldn't believe. I'm really glad they kept in the bit where he says her name while he's in the hospital and I loved the sometimes knowing looks on Ron's face when Hermione was upset. Oh! And I loved that Hermione could smell spearmint toothpaste in the love potion in potions class, especially after the "moment" at the Burrow with Ron.

Katie Bell. Holy wow! Every time I watched the trailer I would get chills at that bit and it was even better when seeing the whole thing. It was creepy, really creepy.

Other little things ... the comedy. I love during Felix, when Harry turned away from Slughorn to go to Hagrid's and Slughorn goes "Harry!" and Harry's all like, "Sir!", lol. And Jen, I totally got the Dragon Balls! That was one of the funniest bits in the movie. I also loved Luna. Evanna never fails to impress me and I love that they kept in the bit in the begining when she tells Harry that walking to the school with him was like having a friend. Not quite the same as the book, but close enough. I actually really liked all the Cormac stuff (could be because Freddie Stroma is so pretty ). And I loved Bellatrix. I don't think they could have found I better person to play her. Helena does such an amazing job.

What I didn't like:

The scene just after Dumbledore's death. I think it needed the battle we see in the book with the auror's and DA. It would have made the fact that Death Eaters had infiltrated Hogwarts so much more serious.

Harry and Ginny. The initial almost flirting was cute, as was Harry's awkwardness, but the kiss was a let down. And like Jen, I was on the look out for the Diadem during the RoR scene.

I really disliked the burrow attack. Possibly just because it's not even a little bit canon, possibly because I heart the burrow and it really sucked to see it on fire.

Okay, so there's more I loved than didn't love but that's hardly surprising, lol. And also unsurprising is that I squeed about Ron and Hermione more than anything else but let's face it ... Rupert is hot and awesome and I can't get enough, lol.