What Harry Potter did Wrong and Twilight did Right
So I finally got around to seeing Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince a while back and it was fine. Nothing too special – I wasn’t completely thrilled by it, but I think I’ve come to expect that from the Harry Potter film series. After all, the movies can never live up to the expectations of the “book readers”, can they? If you haven’t seen the movie yet, stop reading now because no doubt there will be a few spoilers in the next bit.
I liked the romance within the movie, the fact that it didn’t completely dominate and the fact that Hermione and Ron’s “thing” wasn’t shoved down our throats. After all, that does take a while to grow, but I thought, for Hollywood’s sake, they might try to make it a big thing. I thought they did a good job with casting, especially Lavender Brown, Professor Slughorn and young Voldemort, except I wasn’t impressed with the casting of Narcissa Malfoy. I pictured her as much younger, thinner and quite prissy. Almost model-like, with beautiful long, white-blonde hair, essentially a complete opposite of her sister Bellatrix. I loved the scene where Katie got cursed – it was freaky!
I didn’t like that the romance between Tonks and Lupin took a back seat and that Luna found Harry on the train, not Tonks. It would have been the perfect chance for them to explain or hint at Tonks’ state of mind as they walked back to the castle, just like in the book. I’m not sure why they took that out (because it sort of becomes important in the last book!), but I do love Luna so more screen time for her was okay by me. I found Dumbledore extremely monotone in this movie and not in a “I know I’m going to die soon” way, just in a boring “I’m reading off a teleprompter” way. I was very surprised because I’ve loved him in previous movies – perhaps it was so long since the last one that I talked him up in my head?
All in all, the movie was fine, not amazing.
Now, the other night I was reading New Moon in preparation for the upcoming movie (in the Twilight series) and it made me wonder about which was bigger – Harry Potter or Twilight? They are very different, but still similar. I think the Harry Potter books are better written, but Twilight is enticing because the heroine could be you, a normal girl from a tiny town who just happens to come face to face with vampires, but vampires that could actually exist and could actually be your neighbour.
But the thing that Harry Potter did wrong? Or rather, the Harry Potter movies? They took too darn long to make the movies! True, there will be eight Harry Potter movies and only four Twilight movies, but Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was released on 16 November, 2001 and the final movie is slated to be released on 15 July 2011 – that’s 10 years! Twilight, on the other hand was released 21 November 2008, New Moon will be released 20 November 2009 and, even though New Moon hasn’t even been released yet, they’ve started filming the third film, Eclipse, which is set to be released 30 June 2010 – that’s only 7 months after New Moon.
The Twilight people no doubt looked at the fan reception and figured they’ve got a good thing happening and, in order to capitalise on this, they are whipping the movies out as soon as they can, knowing that really, no matter how good or bad the movies are, they’re still going to get the millions of fans going to see it. Harry Potter, on the other hand, has been so slow at getting (the rather mediocre) movies out, that the fan energy faded … and then the Twilight series came along and grabbed everyone’s attention.
Anyway, that’s my thoughts on it all – what are yours? And for those of you who have seen Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, how did you like it?
I never got into Twilight but of the HP movies I found this one a disappointment compared to the others. It was slow, confusing and abrupt in the plots. For someone who hasn’t read the books (sorry I’m just lazy) I felt the other movies did a fine job of helping someone like me understand the plot and the connections. This one did none of that and I found myself lost. Of course I saw all the other movies with my best friend who read the books and so she helped me! But it wasn’t all her, I just don’t think this movie explained things well. The last one was great, really defined the struggle between Harry’s natures and was my favorite!
….carri ann´s last post ..Hey Fiona…
Carri Ann – Yes, I wasn’t impressed with this last one, especially after waiting so long for it! I felt they brushed over important parts and concentrated on less important parts – when the movie ended, I felt like we hadn’t reached the climax yet. Even Dumbledore’s scene wasn’t that dramatic, but apparently they’ll make more of that in the next movie. Disappointing.
i spose i should read the books so i enjoy the story more… but i’m just ever so lazy
….carri ann´s last post ..monday bunday
Carri Ann – LOL! I would recommend reading Harry Potter, but you don’t really need to read Twilight, it’s something you won’t miss if you haven’t read it. =)
I finally saw it last night and was all meh.
Cause the books were fabulous in comparison.
I read 4 pages of Twillight and put it down. Perhaps I should give it another go?
Nice to see finally see the review of HP
I agree with the comment above though that the abrupt plot changes didn’t work. For me, the technique seemed like a “we need to speed this up”, and for that, it actually felt slower. For those who haven’t read the books, they’re likely to get lost, and then lose further interest.
I also agree with you that the climax didn’t feel enough like a climax, and didn’t even wrap up the ending as nicely as the book did. Hopefully the next two will make up for it, although I fear the first half could be a bit of a put-off since there’s no major climax for the first half to really end on.
Kelley – I found Twilight the hardest book to read of them all – it’s rather boring and slow, but the rest of them are more interesting and action-packed. Or maybe it’s just because there’s more Jacob in the later books?
Scott T – They said they’re going to do the funeral in the next movie, but I felt they could have at least made it a little bigger. It was like, Dumbledore died and there were a few sad faces, but that was it.