I haven’t, nor have I even contemplated, reading any of the Harry Potter books (has anyone seen the size of those things, especially the more recent editions?), so when I see the Harry Potter movies I have little choice but to take the cinema versions of the epic at face value.
I don’t know what has been omitted from the book versions, I don’t what has been changed, enhanced, reduced, or whatever.
About all I know is Harry Potter is an undergraduate wizard, a prodigy apparently, experiencing the pains and joys of adolescence, while also battling the forces of evil.
Making a movie adaption of a book, especially a well known one, is no easy task. In fact it has to be akin to producing a biopic, which I discussed last week.
A director has to choose what to include, to omit, to enhance, or reduce, while trying to remain faithful to the original story, without making a film that is six hours long.
Somehow.
I have seen some good “adaptations”, I’ve also seen some less than brilliant efforts.
But when it comes to something like Harry Potter, particularly the latest installment, “Order of the Phoenix“, having nothing to benchmark the movie against, makes it all the easier to sit back, take in, and enjoy.
And there’s no shortage of wizardry both on screen, and behind the scenes. In fact I kept thinking had JK Rowling lived in another time, and was writing these books 50 years ago, they may have turned out quite differently.
She has been fortunate to write in a time where her imagination can work in overdrive, and whatever she sees or dreams can be, thanks to current special effects technology, be bought to life on the big screen.
I, like you and many, I’m sure, never read any of Harry Potter’s books because I found their size intimidating; that is, until I had surgery a couple of months ago and had to stay home for a couple of weeks with nothing much to do. My boss recommended the audio version of these books and I have to tell you, it’s better than the movies! In fact, the movies are just boring after you listen to the books. The person reading it makes you feel like you’re actually watching it happen on the screen, it’s fantastic! You should try it, I promise you’ll be hooked after the first book!
I have read all the books, but I did take one of them in as an audio recording while driving to Burning Man a few years back – it was an awesome way to pass the time I must say. The books are really worth reading, but it is hard to say what effect they have on my experience of the movies. Maybe read the books someday after the series of movies is completely released?
@Stardock – I don’t know if I want to hear that the movies are boring!! I don’t mind HP, but I’m not sure if my enthusiasm would extend much beyond the movies, that’s the only thing…
@Kurt – yes but by the time the HP movie series is complete something else will have come along… like Star Wars, episodes 7 to 9!!
I really enjoy the books and thought the lastest movie was great.
I’ve just had a bit of inspiration and was wondering two things. (1) do you have a facebook account? (2) If I were to set it up how many people would be interested in joining a group to discuss what they would have done with recent movies?
I certainly wouldn’t have had the recent Transformers movie end the way it did
Hmm… if I have a facebook account I’ve probably forgotten about it…
BUT it sounds more like an idea for a blog there to me :) You could write a post about a movie’s ending and ask people to chime in with what they think.
Cheers for that. I’ll look into it.
I liked the first couple of movies, but this last one looked like it was a 4-hour epic that got slashed down to 2 hours. Enormous chunks of the story were left out, and if I hadn’t read the book I suspect that I would have been lost.
I did enjoy the books very much, it is a great series, and I look forward to possible future stories.
haha! yeah! i wrote on my blog once that those books could knock someone out if you used it to hit ‘em on the head. they’re huge! i’ve never read one, but everyone’s telling me to. i love the movies though. when my brother read the last installation, i came hurrying back home and demanded he tell me who died. haha! such a scumbag!
@Stephen – there’s got to be very few movie adaptations that mirror the book they are based on. The Potter books are massive, so I’m sure large chunks of the story have been omitted from the movies.
I was thinking the Potter movies I have seen have enjoyable because I see them with no expectation of what they “should” be like. If I had read the books possibly my views would be different.
@gilda – everyone I know who has read the books has told me I should as well. I’ve heard “accounts” of what happens at the end… whether they are accurate though I don’t know! :)
I guess I had the biggest problem with scenes like the opening Quidditch match, where the gang was making their way up to their seats, and then it cut to them entering the tent afterwards. It was so jarring that I thought a reel had been left out. I suppose that it did not help that I literally read the book the day before seeing the movie, so every plot change was immediately obvious. But LOTR is a big story too, and Peter Jackson was able to avoid skipping over chunks of the storyline like that.
I suspect that some more got filmed, and we will have to buy the DVD in order to see the “director’s cut”.
I imagine gaps like that would be frustrating. LOTR was another movie series I enjoyed, but once again I did not read any of the books (hehe, I do read books… if only occasionally though! ;) One again though I did a few grumbles from some LOTR book readers.
You’re right about director’s cuts DVDs though… add an extra half hour of “deleted” footage or something, and people will want to pay (again) to see what could be quite a different movie. We’re talking commodities here not stories!