OverClocked ReMix...

XZero · #1 07-14-2011, 03:00 PM

The movie opens nationwide tonight for midnight screenings, so I thought I'd get the obligatory thread going for those who want to discuss/analyze/evaluate it.

Little note: OC Remix doesn't get a whole lot of trolling like this, but please, don't even post if your entire post can be summarized as "Harry Potter iz teh gay!!111!" If you don't like the movie or the series, voice some well-reasoned opinion by all means. But if you just want to make fun of fans, don't. Go on YouTube to do that.

As for me, I didn't grow up with Harry Potter like a lot of fans did. I was 12 when the first book came out, but I didn't hear of it until a few years later when the first movie was released in 2001. By then, I was 15 and far too "cool" (read: douchey) to be interested, despite some of my friends being into it. So for a while, I was one of those who said shit like "LotR >>>>>>> Harry Potter" and "Harry Potter's gay" with absolutely no real basis for thinking either of those things. Last year, at 24, I decided to give the movies a chance when the 6-disc box set was on sale for $40, and I fell in love with it. I saw movie 7.1 with friends from school at midnight, and this past January, I bought the whole set of books (also on sale). Throughout the spring semester of school, I read the books for an hour or so a night, and 5 months later, I can honestly say that it's one of my favorite book series out there. What I thought were simple kids books--and admittedly the first 2 or 3 kind of are--turned into an in-depth, character-driven experience. There's a weird feeling when you spend so many months reading these books every day and start to feel that the Harry Potter world is like a second reality. There's a resultant feeling of loss when you finish the books. Tonight, that feeling of loss is compounded by the end of an era.

I'll post my thoughts on the movie for anyone who cares sometime tomorrow, probably after others who have more initiative to stay up later into the night have already done so. For my part, I'm extraordinarily excited for this movie, and I'm hoping that it is a proper send-off for the characters I fell in love with just a few months ago.

Hylian Lemon · #2 07-14-2011, 03:18 PM

I hadn't read anything, but I'd seen movie 2 on tv and 7 part 1 in the theater with some friends. They gave me a little summer reading assignment to finish the books before the last movie came out, so I blazed through them in about a week and a half and got the movies on netflix. Good stuff. I couldn't stop until it was all over. So, I'm going with the same friends to the 3D screening tonight (tomorrow morning?) because the 2D was sold out by the time we thought to get tickets a couple weeks ago.

Basically, I didn't read the books when I was younger because my mom was wary of witchcraft-related stuff. I got in trouble once for smuggling a witch book home from the library and hiding it in the boards under my bed.

One person from her church recommends Harry Potter on his blog, though, and all of a sudden she wants to read it too. Oh, Mom.

XZero · #3 07-14-2011, 03:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hylian Lemon

Basically, I didn't read the books when I was younger because my mom was wary of witchcraft-related stuff. I got in trouble once for smuggling a witch book home from the library and hiding it in the boards under my bed.

One person from her church recommends Harry Potter on his blog, though, and all of a sudden she wants to read it too. Oh, Mom.

Oh, don't worry. I'm sure the movies turned you into a damnable devil worshipper. Have fun in hell. But don't worry; you'll be in the cool hell.

I have a side job at the Catholic church I've been a member of since birth, and I was talking with one of the priests there about Harry Potter earlier this year. He said that when parents were starting to worry about it, he was actually asked by the bishop to go see the first movie to see if it's something that they should be concerned about. He came back to work about 3 hours later and basically told the bishop that any parent who worried about it was insane; it was harmless and he sensed some Christian themes and imagery in it. If parents took the time to see it with their kids or read it for themselves, they'd see that it isn't going to destroy our nation's youth.

DarkeSword · #4 07-14-2011, 03:47 PM

I stopped watching the movies after the 5th one because I felt that they excised too much of what I felt was essential to the stories. They were basically highlights reels of the books. Azkaban and Goblet were particularly disappointing (Azkaban is my favorite of the books).

I'm being taken to see 7.2 this Friday though. Seems like it'll be good.

WillRock · #5 07-14-2011, 03:48 PM

Looking forward to seeing the film but as a result will be staying away from this thread... i'd like to go in with an open mind, but I have read the books.

In response to Dynes post about not reading the books till much later because he thought it wasn't cool, I do think its a shame, because one of the biggest factors of the book series was that it basically "grew up" with its audience - the first three books are childrens books, and meant to be so, but the other books are for more mature audiences.
I was one of those that read the books when they came out and as a result, its a very big part of my childhood and that impact the books had on so many others who read them when they came out is lost on anyone now that didn't read the books at that time, because they can read them all at once.

Hylian Lemon · #6 07-14-2011, 03:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DarkeSword

I stopped watching the movies after the 5th one because I felt that they excised too much of what I felt was essential to the stories. They were basically highlights reels of the books. Azkaban and Goblet were particularly disappointing (Azkaban is my favorite of the books).

I'm being taken to see 7.2 this Friday though. Seems like it'll be good.

I felt the same way; I was disappointed to see a lot of the fun subplots missing. I mean, Hermione never says anything about freeing the house elves in the movies, and that aspect of her character spanned multiple books. I guess that's the problem when you have the books getting longer and the movies staying the same length. 7.1 was better, though. Splitting it up was a good decision.

XZero · #7 07-14-2011, 04:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hylian Lemon

7.1 was better, though. Splitting it up was a good decision.

Which is funny because I remember everyone complaining about that announcement and accusing WB of just wanting to get as much money from the franchise as possible. While I have no doubt that their corporate interests are exactly what the fans were saying, the way these movies were handled shows that movies 4 and 5 probably could have afforded to be given similar treatment. Here's hoping for Peter Jackson-style "Super Extended Blu Ray Editions" next year.

Kanthos · #8 07-14-2011, 04:21 PM

I didn't read any of the books or watch any of the movies until this past October. I borrowed the books from a friend, read them all in three weeks (not bad when you've got a full-time job), and watched each movie after I read each book.

We all know that movies made from books, especially books as long as Harry Potter books, are going to be missing a lot of details, subplots, and even characters, but what I dislike most about the movie series (which I'd say are not bad, but nowhere near as good as the books) are the tiny changes put in for no good reason and the way that they often undercut JK Rowling's tendency to provide all kinds of clues in the books that don't get resolved until much later.

Example of a pointless change: Dumbledore and Harry go to recruit Professor Slughorn, who's trashed his house and turned himself into a chair. In the novel, Dumbledore knows things were staged because there's no dark mark above the house. In the movie, despite the fact that they showed the house from the front and could've easily shown the sky, and that they'd shown the dark mark onscreen as early as the start of Goblet of Fire, they used dragon blood as the clue. Why change that?

Example of early reveal: In Half-Blood Prince, Harry and co. sees Draco walk into Borgin & Burkes but don't really know what Draco wants, other than that he's having something repaired. It's not until the end of the book that you find out it's a vanishing cabinet, and that's how Draco gets the other deatheaters into Hogwarts. In the movie, Harry has Arthur Weasley use his ministry connections to look into it, and halfway through the movie, Harry knows what Draco was looking at in Borgin & Burkes. Combine that with several scenes of Draco working on the cabinets and Arthur's description of what they do, and it's not hard to piece together, pretty early on, that Draco's trying to get people into Hogwarts.