![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
That HP Movie All The Cool Kids Are Talking About
Fun was had this weekend, as well as revising my ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
ds_flashfiction story, making a rec to ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ds_flashback and trying to write some new fiction as well.
It was pretty media-intensive as well. On Saturday, I got together withhelvirago and vwbug to see Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, which pleased from beginning to end -- I mean that literally, we stayed for the credits which were arranged like the Marauder's Map in the story.
I'm not a huge fan of the books -- well, by my standards, anyway -- I think I've read most of them twice, and listened to them once. (The Jim Dale-read unabridged tapes of the books are extremely good, btw, especially if like me you have trouble "hearing" the writing with an English accent. Dale does all the character voices, too, and when you consider the size of the cast, that's quite an accomplishment.)
No, seriously, by my standards that's fairly casual -- you should see me when I get fanatic about something. I know I'm not fanatic about this because a) not reading it until passages are memorized and b) my personal characters not wanting to play crossover.
Which means since I have the lucky ability to almost completely forget the plot details between reading -- partly a function of the swift-moving plots of the books -- I can come to this movie and not be bothered if it doesn't exactly follow the book plot, because it's nearly all new to me anyway. Which makes for a better film experience, if you're not tripping over details.
Even the details that were there were delightful: the Whomping Willow was marvelous! (And it neatly disposes of bluebirds, too!) In general, I liked Cuaron's Hogwarts more than the first two -- just the school itself (and the grounds) are a character in its own right. It didn't bother me in the least that Cuaron reimagined the geography or architecture here and there -- in general I thought that they were moody improvements.
I really liked how the pictures came more alive in this movie -- while I can remember them moving in the previous movies (each of which I've only seen once) the director seemed more at ease with them here, interested in giving us little glimpses of the goings-on in them.
I liked how the director wasn't afraid to take big jumps in narrative/plot and trust the audience to fill it in. Yes, it's the third movie in a series, and I'd wager 90% of the audience has read the books, so also you can trust they'll know what's missing, but even if they didn't, the cuts are logically made so that we move swiftly between the important plot points.
I came away not feeling overwhelmed by the special effects, which given the nature of the movie is astonishing. So much of the "magic" was in the acting, and the reactions to blue-screen images. The adult cast is top-notch, and I think Cuaron did wonders with the kid actors, all of whom have grown so visibly -- and we're particularly lucky that Radcliffe and Watson are getting better looking as they age, which certainly isn't a sure thing when you cast 10yos.
(Oh, and nobody told me they cast Timothy Spall as Pete! I love Spall!)
Among other favorite moments, I liked Harry's first ride on Buckbeak, particularly skimming along over the water. I don't care if that was cliched (I see that some people are comparing it to standing on the bow during Titanic), it was very cool -- and as I've laid on the bow of a small powerboat going full out, and watched the water curve away under the prow, it felt familiarly wonderful.
Somewhere on LJ I saw that Cuaron has more numinous in his little finger than Chris Columbus does in his whole body. That feels about the right proportion....
In other news, I've been watching entirely too much Hugh Dillon, but I'm going to have to make a separate post about that, maybe tomorrow....
ds_flashfiction story, making a rec to ds_flashback and trying to write some new fiction as well.It was pretty media-intensive as well. On Saturday, I got together with
helvirago and vwbug to see Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, which pleased from beginning to end -- I mean that literally, we stayed for the credits which were arranged like the Marauder's Map in the story.I'm not a huge fan of the books -- well, by my standards, anyway -- I think I've read most of them twice, and listened to them once. (The Jim Dale-read unabridged tapes of the books are extremely good, btw, especially if like me you have trouble "hearing" the writing with an English accent. Dale does all the character voices, too, and when you consider the size of the cast, that's quite an accomplishment.)
No, seriously, by my standards that's fairly casual -- you should see me when I get fanatic about something. I know I'm not fanatic about this because a) not reading it until passages are memorized and b) my personal characters not wanting to play crossover.
Which means since I have the lucky ability to almost completely forget the plot details between reading -- partly a function of the swift-moving plots of the books -- I can come to this movie and not be bothered if it doesn't exactly follow the book plot, because it's nearly all new to me anyway. Which makes for a better film experience, if you're not tripping over details.
Even the details that were there were delightful: the Whomping Willow was marvelous! (And it neatly disposes of bluebirds, too!) In general, I liked Cuaron's Hogwarts more than the first two -- just the school itself (and the grounds) are a character in its own right. It didn't bother me in the least that Cuaron reimagined the geography or architecture here and there -- in general I thought that they were moody improvements.
I really liked how the pictures came more alive in this movie -- while I can remember them moving in the previous movies (each of which I've only seen once) the director seemed more at ease with them here, interested in giving us little glimpses of the goings-on in them.
I liked how the director wasn't afraid to take big jumps in narrative/plot and trust the audience to fill it in. Yes, it's the third movie in a series, and I'd wager 90% of the audience has read the books, so also you can trust they'll know what's missing, but even if they didn't, the cuts are logically made so that we move swiftly between the important plot points.
I came away not feeling overwhelmed by the special effects, which given the nature of the movie is astonishing. So much of the "magic" was in the acting, and the reactions to blue-screen images. The adult cast is top-notch, and I think Cuaron did wonders with the kid actors, all of whom have grown so visibly -- and we're particularly lucky that Radcliffe and Watson are getting better looking as they age, which certainly isn't a sure thing when you cast 10yos.
(Oh, and nobody told me they cast Timothy Spall as Pete! I love Spall!)
Among other favorite moments, I liked Harry's first ride on Buckbeak, particularly skimming along over the water. I don't care if that was cliched (I see that some people are comparing it to standing on the bow during Titanic), it was very cool -- and as I've laid on the bow of a small powerboat going full out, and watched the water curve away under the prow, it felt familiarly wonderful.
Somewhere on LJ I saw that Cuaron has more numinous in his little finger than Chris Columbus does in his whole body. That feels about the right proportion....
In other news, I've been watching entirely too much Hugh Dillon, but I'm going to have to make a separate post about that, maybe tomorrow....