#WWMD - Watching With My Daughter

140 characters can be a bit limiting, so from time-to-time I’ll do an expanded piece. This one is a look back at a series as a whole. We just rolled through all 8 movies in a fairly short span of time. So here are some extended thoughts on the series, not written as a cohesive article, just random notes typed in as we watched.

Warning: SPOILER-FILLED

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (2001)

• Richard Harris – really good to introduce the series, though it’s hard to imagine him appearing in the later movies.
• Why can’t George Lucas meddle with movies like these that were made at the moment when CG became accessible enough to be done inconsistently? This could use a revisit…
• Some good use of practical effects, but not enough.
• Stuart Craig designed this world beautifully; amazing…
• Gorgeous poster by Drew Struzan – oddly the only one in the series to be done by an illustrator. Why? No one creates these amazing paintings like Struzan, but there are many talented artists who could be used.
• So many great actors in this series; Richard Griffiths only one who could make the ridiculous character of Dursley believable.
• John Hurt should have a cameo in every single movie. Every one.
• John Williams score is lovely, although the theme is used so often it is ridiculous. Probably not his choice – I know John Barry hated the overuse of the James Bond theme. Of course, that may be because he claimed to have written it – and hadn’t…
• Great DP work by John Beale; wonder why he didn’t do any of the others.
• Man, these kids are so young…

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002)

• Kenneth Branagh having the most fun of his career, and with cause.
• More Weasleys is a good thing.
• Jason Isaacs is the best villain working today…
• Dobby; close cousin to Jar-Jar Binks…
• Too much of this storyline just goes nowhere. Try to find out something – doesn’t work. Try something else – doesn’t work. Boring…
• The whole diary thing is confusing. I don’t believe for one second that the author had figured out the whole 7 story horcrux thing when writing this; I don’t care what she says. It feels retconned. If not, it’s just bad writing…

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)

• The high water mark of the series. Darker, cleaner and better in every way.
• Columbus did great job of setting the table, but Cuarón gave the series respect, art and depth. Had the courage to break from the slavish retelling of every detail fans of the book wanted and give them the story they needed. In so doing, gave everyone involved permission to let the films have their own life and voice.
• Cuarón had the benefit of having the child actors reach an age where they could be more involved in the creative process. David Thewlis provides an on-screen version of this; his thoughtful portrayal of Lupin is the first adult character to treat Harry (and Radcliffe) as as a respected contemporary.
• Dementors introduce a seriously dark air; very well designed…
• Michael Gambon begins his run as Dumbledore; brings a down-to-earth, active vitality to role. Want him to say, “Welcome to the Layer Cake, Mr. Potter”.
• The iris transitions between scenes is a really nice touch…
• Emma Thompson nails it, as usual…
• John Williams turns in his last score for the series – and it’s got some great cues.
• A lot of the joy of this one is seeing the kids start to come into their own as actors. Given some rope by the director and they run with it. Makes watching the rest of the movies fun as they continue to mature.
• Not a short movie, but it moves along at a great clip.
• What can be said about Oldman that hasn’t been said? He’s brilliant in this.
• Time travel is always a cheap plot device, but it’s fun here.
• I love the end credits…

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)

• Real slow starter; not slow, exactly, just a bit hard to get into. They sort of thrust you into the story as though they’re in a rush to get through the setup as quickly as possible, which is of course exactly the case…
• You can feel the pages absolutely peeling away; I can visualize them huddled around the book, ripping pages out in handfuls…
• What’s with the haircuts?
• Brendan Gleeson is so good in this, as always. The scene of his first class is brilliant.
• David Tennant, on the other hand, must have been really confused when he turned up; “What, is this all you want me to do?” Couldn’t they have found something meatier for him?
• Dragon is a real highlight.
• The “Dance Like a Hippogriff” song is up there with the Cyndi Lauper Goonies song and the Dragnet rap as worst movie tie-in music ever…
• Underwater challenge ok, but probably not worth all the time they spent filming it.
• Maze is really good; seemed anti-climatic in the book, but they really brought the terror in the situation to life in film.
• Fleur is portrayed as kind of a weakling; don’t remember if this was so in the book.
• Can’t lie – watching Twilight buy it doesn’t suck…
• Ralph Fiennes as Voldemort – genius casting, design and execution. Legendary new movie villain. Love how he just throws himself into the role; the dancing around, the movements, yelling along to the screams – all great. Good choice to lose the snake eyes…
• First real serious wizard fighting – awesomesauce…
• Spoiler: I think it’s really sloppy writing that they tie up a plot point by having Moody missing from the whole story. So you learn all about this character and Harry forms a bond with him, and then it turns out that in fact it is one of the villains that we’ve been watching for the entirety of the story. Cute, but doesn’t that mean that actually we’re rooting for a bad guy and that Harry hasn’t even met the guy that he’s supposedly so close to?
• Wish Cuarón returned as director; they asked him…

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007)

•  Yates kicks off the last half of the series with gorgeous cinematography; establishes look and feel of the rest of the movies. Great choice, by the way.
• Dementors so cool…
• Thank goodness for the return of Oldman, Thewlis & Walters. Missed in the last one…
• Opens up the story to a broader world than just the school – very welcome.
• Would have loved to see where the series could have gone if they spent more time with the adults; could have been very interesting.
• Radcliffe really comes into his own in this one – real range of emotions; nicely channels anger and resentment and makes you sense his growing apart from the other characters. Gives Grint & Watson a chance to elevate their game, too.
• Introduction of some real fan faves in this one – Tonks is fun, but Evanna Lynch really nails Luna Lovegood – a much needed character of levity and insight.
• Imelda Staunton is so unpleasant to watch – that’s a compliment.
• Like the whole newspaper headline thing, but it’s a touch overdone.
• Score for this one by Nicholas Hooper is superb.
• Scene with Thestrals in woods is a great one and very different feel.
• The face in the fire effect is unsatisfactory, but still heaps better than in the last movie.
• About an hour in, with the training, the movie really hits a great pace.
• Christmas scene with Sirius heartbreaking.
• Helena Bonham Carter: they finally found something she was perfect for…
• Grawp – what is that about? Example of things better left out of the adaptations.
• Department of Mysteries sets very cool.
• The MacGuffin in this doesn’t make a ton of sense; didn’t Voldemort know about this prophecy years ago? Isn’t that why he went to kill Harry in the first place?
• Excellent fighting, but with all magic movies I always bristle at the lack of consistency; so you have to shout out some command when you cast a spell, unless it’s during a big set-piece, in which case we just all start doing indiscriminate things that have effects we haven’t seen so far? I always want to ask for a sourcebook so I know the rules; maybe a couple of D20’s, too…

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)

• Nice dark opening – good tie-in to previous film.
• Like the tone immediately; light hearted, not heavy-handed, despite or possibly because of the subject matter. For all that, it’s still very moody, of course…
• Thought this book was terribly dull, so very surprised how much I enjoy this movie
• Can’t think why they wasted the time/money on putting the Muggle house back together – a total show-off scene.
• Jim Broadbent among the best casting choices in a long series of great casting choices.
• Bruno Delbonnel such a great DP. Would have been nice to see him do more of these. A little too much color timing for my taste, but that’s very much in vogue at the moment – unfortunately…
• The whole blooming love thing is charming. Ginny becomes my favorite character in the whole series in this movie.
• But Tom Felton as Draco Malfoy is the most interesting in the movie – kid has some depth to him. Sadly he’ll likely never get the chance to show it.
• Set design much more varied in this one; really see different look and the claustrophobic sets help to tell the story.
• Music by Nicholas Hooper fantastic; really in the groove now.
• The whole pensieve /memory effect has certainly been perfected by this point.
• Michael Gambon flexes skills here…
• Young Fiennes actors are uncanny…
• Return of Quidditch; about time – missing from previous two movies (and next two).
• Luna’s lion hat – best prop ever…
• Great moment on the steps after match – Watson shows why she’s got a bright future.
• Very good transitions in this and all of the movies.
• Lots of good quiet moments, small details in corners.
• Mr. Weasley is one of my daughter’s favorite characters, and I see the appeal; the character has an understated strength, manifested in the way he treats the children and Mark Williams is excellent.
• Visually cool scene of attack in the marsh by the Weasleys, although it makes no real sense; probably because it wasn’t in the book.
• The vanishing cabinet is nicely utilized; in fact, all the Room of Requirement stuff makes for very good thematic moments.
• The liquid luck sequence is a ton of fun.
• I read at the time this came out an interesting insight, think it may have been in EW, but not sure; noted that since the story is so much about what happens at the end, that you don’t notice that it’s really the only thing that happens in the story. Not totally true, but not exactly libel…

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (2010)

• Rusting WB logo – cool
• Bill Nighy finally gets into the series. Great but somewhat wasted in tiny role.
• Dynamite beginning, showing the big 3 readying themselves to leave. Particularly Hermione wiping her parents memories; sends notice that this is going to be rough…
• I know fans wanted the Dudley stuff in there, but it really belongs deleted.
• This whole wand fascination borders on fanaticism.
• Is it just me or is Rickman’s wig more ridiculous with each movie?
• The big question, of course, is “did this need to be 2 movies”. Of course not; squeezing extra movie out of franchise? Maybe, but they could just as easily have done that with the past few books, too.
• The biggest thing about the movies is the same as with the book; the whole first half of the book is dead boring because the characters have such crap plans. That’s not the fault of the screenwriter, it’s just that the character’s lack of vision feels like the storyteller’s lack of vision.
• Never understood why they’ve got this Mundungus character; why would you entrust the job to someone you had to coerce? This whole plan is sort of ridiculous, actually. They can’t apparate because Harry is underage and he’d what, get expelled? So what? Not to mention that as soon as he starts defending himself he’s using magic and so would be detected just the same. And if they knew where he was going, why does that matter? They’d probably guess, anyway.
• Hedwig. Heartbreaking in print and even worse on film.
• Rhys Ifans is perfect as Lovegood.
• The whole Dumblebore story is much more interesting in the book. Amazing that they still couldn’t make it work in this much screen time.
• Seeing these characters in modern London is funny.
• Great moment when Hermione has to wipe memories of the thugs with the parallel to what she had to do to her parents. Even cooler in the book is the fact that the other 2 don’t realize what she has had to do; what going underground has cost her – more than any of them.
• Thank goodness for the return of John Hurt, even briefly.
• Why are they sleeping on couches in a house full of bedrooms?
• The Kreacher effects are truly superb. The skin tone and luminosity is among the best I’ve seen.
• The whole Snatcher thing isn’t really explained, but it’s not any clearer in the book. These guys look like they’re in some crap English band. Probably are…
• Love Harry as Fitzy from The Departed…
• Eduardo Serra great cinematography on both films. Don’t know why they keep changing, though.
• The scene of them trying to destroy what they know they can’t destroy is as meaningless as the same scene in Superman: The Movie.
• The radio theme is interesting exposition tool…
• Some really good moments of Ron becoming alienated. Great to be rid of him for awhile. Let the smart kids work, Ron…
• Godric’s Hollow one of better locations/sets. Does lead me to wonder, not for the first time, are we in magic town or are the wizards and muggles living side-by-side? Never adequately explained in books.
• How can you live through so many near-death experiences and still have no spidey-sense? They walk into a lot of dumb situations…
• Snake attacks, Hermione loses battle with stack of books…
• Harry kind of a jerk about his wand being broken; hey, tough guy, smart girl saved your life…
• Piece of mirror is a recurring plot point, but I don’t even remember where it came from.
• Pound for pound, the “accio” spell seems to be the least useful, but they keep trying it…
• Not sure I fully understand some of these plot points even long after the fact. Who puts the sword there? And why do they put it in the water?
• Tale of the Three Brothers animation is so creative; perfect way of advancing story.
• This running scene is visually interesting, but of course neglects the fact they have magic.
• As plot devices go, not recognizing the most famous and wanted person in your world because they have an allergic reaction is pretty weak…
• Dobby has no master…

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011)

• Glad they didn’t bother with trying to summarize what had happened up to this point…
• Thanks for more Warwick Davis! And more John Hurt…
• They do a good job with exposition in the early scenes.
• Helena Bonham-Carter frumping around like a pouty teenager is her best acting job yet.
• What do we think about the Chosen One using Unforgivable Curses? Not the first time, either.
• I love the security guards – baseball hats & wands…
• They must have been planning an amusement park ride when designing these trolleys.
• The multiplying treasure was one of the better ideas in this book.
• I love dragons. Great visuals…
• Ciarán Hinds has some of the worst makeup ever as Aberforth Dumbledore.
• Neville steps up, big-time…
• Sending 1/4 of the students to the dungeons? Seems harsh. The whole “Slytherin is evil” thinking is the most obvious sign this is based on a kids book. Such black & white thinking.
• Oh, but it’s ok for the head of Slytherin to be out protecting the school? If memory serves, he was stuck in the dungeons in the book. Of course, he wasn’t played by Jim Broadbent at that point…
• Kelly Macdonald is a nice add to the series; one more in a series of under-used actors.
• Romance…
• The shield effects are really cool. All the visuals are.
• Full-on battle is exactly what you hoped it would be. Epic in a way most modern effects movies don’t manage. Good combination of practical effects, set dressing and CG. Take notes, kids…
• Room of Requirement is a writer’s crutch on the level of time travel and cloning; lets you explain/justify ANYTHING…
• “That’s my girlfriend, you numpties!” Eloquent…
• Boathouse is a neat addition.
• Really cool how they just sort of show everyone in the fight, albeit quickly. Ties it all together.
• If Voldemort has to kill Snape, why does he have the snake do it; doesn’t that defeat the purpose? Isn’t Nagini now the master of the elder wand?
• “Look at me.” Nice touch.
• Brutal showing of the cost of the battle. Taking new parents Lupin & Tonks just cruel…
• Why do they keep changing the look of the Pensieve?
• Why do they go to the trouble of digitally making Rickman younger but having Dumbledore remain the same age?
• Still have no idea what the significance of having the Resurrection Stone here is. If these people are in his heart, why does he need stone?
• Great acting by Radcliffe here – kid willingly going to his death.
• King’s Cross scene well done.
• Neville the Snake-killer!
• Great final duel, flying all over.
• I like the coda; I think it’s nice.