I got into the whole Harry Potter thing a little bit later than most. The first I ever heard about it was from a news report showing how upset some small children were when the fourth Book (Goblet of Fire) was delayed.
"Idiots," I thought, and promptly forgot about it. Eventually though, someone pointed out that they were actually reasonably fun to read, and so I borrowed a copy of the first book and gave them a shot. There were indeed good harmless wizarding fun, so while I still thought the mass hysteria surrounding each release was a little bit mad, I did get each new book as they came out and read them cover to cover (Although as far as I'm aware, that's the only way you do read a book. I've never picked up a book and decided not to read pages 24-39 apart from an unfortunate printing error in my copy V for Vendetta where pages 24-39 had no so much fallen out as were just plain missing), and on the whole enjoyed myself.
Books 1-4 were pleasant adventure stories, getting darker in tone as they continued, but rollicking adventures nonetheless. Book 5 (The Order of the Pheonix), in contrast, was an eight hundred page long winge which took more than half the book for anything to happen. I was on the whole rather unimpressed with the fifth entry, so was very happy to find that Book 6 (The Half Blood Prince) would turn out to be the favourite in the series, and not only because Harry got his nose broken in the 2nd chapter (the whinging little git).
I was less impressed with the film translation. The first two entries, Directed by Christopher "Kids film, kids film, Aids film, kids film" Columbus, who if nothing else must be noted managed to make the story of these books both darker and also more sickeningly cute at the same time. The first film was fun if a tad forgettable. The second film could be described the same way, only there was more of it to forget. It's particuliar crime was the extra 20 minute "Let's all give everyone a hug" ending, if only because I was dying to go the bathroom by that stage, although I spose that's not necessarily the film's problem. I never got around to seeing the third of fourth films (although I'm told they improved matters considerably), but I did go and see the fifth film after being raved at by a friend who normally can't stand Harry Potter that it was actually pretty darn good.
And indeed it was. Thanks to the natural problems of trying to fit 800 pages into 140 minutes, vast tracts of the book had to be condensed or removed. The 400 pages of whinging was the first to go. Instead of "whinge, whinge, dementor, whinge, change of address, bigger whinge, HOGWARTS AT SODDING LAST, rest of story," the film runs with the much more sensible structure of "Dementor, tiny whinge, HOGWARTS, rest of story." So it was with high hopes that I went along to see Half Blood Prince, because if the director could make a book I was displeased with, how good was a book I really liked going to be?
It turns out it would be merely ok. The cuts that benefited the 5th film so strongly felt rushed in the 6th, as more engaging plot and story was being cut. Whereas the 5th film felt tightly constructed, the 6th felt like you were running the whole time and never really got to stop and consider what had occurred.
It was however, oddly funny in places, most notably due to Jim Broadbents excellent performance as Professor Slughorn, and Harry seeming oddly crazy at many times throughout the story.
All in all, it wasn't bad, but some reworking on the editing and a chance to slow down every now and again (even if it meant lengthening an already long film) would have helped considerably.
Rating 3 out of 5.
No comments:
Post a Comment