Harry Potter and the Director That Redeemed Himself

What is the difference between a good adaptation and a bad one? Especially when we are considering the adaptation being written from a property we hold close to our hearts? To me, the answer is be truthful and faithful to the source material, all the while being able to visually and stylistically surprise us. This may seem an easy feat to accomplish, but considering David Yates past work on the series, in my least favorite cinematic installment of the series, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, this may not always be true. One aspect is just the psychology of it all. When we each read J.K. Rowling's epic wizarding tale, we read our perfect version of it, meaning we made our perfect casting choices (such as my mental casting of Alan Moore as Rufus Scrimgeour), our perfect style and essentially our perfect translation of the novel ourselves. Therefore, when we got Order of the Phoenix, we had a few things matching our vision, the young Evanna Lynch as Luna Lovegood and the CGI rendering of the thestrals for example. However, Michael Goldenberg's (the man currently destroying our film version of Hal Jordan in Green Lantern) script left out important scenes, changed a few things and ultimately fell short of what we all had in our heads while reading.

I'll admit that Yates' next adventure into the Rowling mythos was better. In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince we get the return of screenwriter Steve Kloves, whom in the end will have adapted seven of the eight films. Kloves still, in my head, missed some of the more important parts; however, we get some tender moments between Ron and Hermione, some significant Alan Rickman screen time, a slightly more foreboding atmosphere and of course the always stellar cast. It ended up being something that, for me, I hated to love. That is why when I read the news that Yates was returning to film the two films that would split the last book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, I cringed deep inside. The film series, which started out with director Chris Columbus, moved onto the incredible Alfonso Cuaron (Y Tu Mama, Tambien and Children of Men are among his impressive filmography) and finally dropping off into the hands of Mike Newell, not to mention the fact that Terry Gilliam, a true cinematic visionary and Monty Python alum, has always expressed interest in being part of this franchise, makes the choosing of Yates anything but settling.

So, anticipating disappointment, I settled down for the midnight showing of the first part of our last journey into the world of Harry Potter and his friends. Was I disappointed? Aside from the scene kids that kept talking about how much they loved Harry Potter, throughout the film, completely ignoring the film itself, I was delightfully pleased. Yates cannot take all of the credit, as given two films to adapt the screenplay, Kloves puts out the most faithful adaptation yet. (As a note, and spoiler alerts ahead, as I am pretending someone may actually read this, I, by no means am saying there wasn't things I disapproved of, for instance, the fact that Harry hardly even grieves over the death of Hedwig among several other things.) But Yates, along with franchise noob, cinematographer Eduardo Serra create a dark landscape that coincides with the bleak, death-ridden storyline.

But for me, the biggest saving grace for Yates, is the entire visually and stylistically surprising us thing I mentioned earlier. When we read this book, we pictured it to be foreboding, we probably played out the acting in our heads (maybe even not up to par as the likes of Helena Bonham Carter gives), but the addition of something out of the ordinary, not in my imagination while still fitting with the film and Rowling's storyline was the animated sequence when Hermione reads the tale of the three brothers. The entire thing looked like somebody took one of Tim Burton's rather macabre and twisted ideas and put it to imagery combining Gilliam's Tideland, and the anime prequels to Play Station's Heavenly Sword. It is this one moment that completely redeems Yates for me, and officially puts Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 as one of my most anticipated films in a long while.

As a note, I did some research and found out that the animated sequence came courtesy of animator Ben Hibon. Cartoon Brew has a bitching little short called Codebreakers that he did for MTV Asia. If you have a few moments to kill, check it out.

Wednesday, July 15th, 2009

It will not be my custom to review movies, that is not what I'm about. I'm thinking about eventually opening a new blog for the sole purpose of reviewing some of my more favorite films; however, I live in a very small town that doesn't get a lot of movies, in addition to working and being a full time student, to review films in a timely manner is nearly impossible, and let's be honest, bitching is more fun. But then there are cases like last night's midnight showing of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the sixth film in J.K. Rowling's epic wizarding franchise. Remember how I said bitching is more fun. Well, lucky for me, there is fuel aplenty for any fan of the books, so let's get to some of my biggest peeves, no Potterverse (is that a term yet?) pun intended. Oh, I suppose there needs to be a spoiler alert, hypothetically and probably illogically assuming here that a) Somebody will eventually read this and b) Anybody that is prepared to read a rather drawn out complaint about the film adaptation has yet to read the book and know the plot for themselves already.

First off, my favorite character in the book or film series is Professor Severus Snape. In the films thus far, Alan Rickman has perfectly played the deadpanned semi-antagonist, but in the books, we really get a feel of the character, and feel sorry for him no matter what hideous act we think he has done throughout the series. Rowling herself even referred to Snape as a "gift of a character" on Snape's official fan site. So, with a true anti-hero that is in the story's namesake (after the revelation that Snape is indeed the Half-Blood Prince, the story might as well be called Harry Potter and Severus Snape), I was prepared for a wonderful performance from Rickman in the film. Instead, I felt like crying when on the drive home, I realized that Potter newcomer Jessie Cave (as Ron's love interest Lavender Brown) had more screen time and lines.

Getting further into my argument, I could trample all over Steve Kloves' script as it seemed it left out a lot of important parts (i.e. the funeral of Albus Dumbledore for Christ sake!, the three leads trying to find out who the Half-Blood Prince is, anybody caring that Harry did the sectumsempra spell on Draco Malfoy, etc., etc.), the importance of some of the book's big players (Neville Longbottom has one sentence in the film, and the delightful Natalia Tena as Tonks, as well as David Thewlis' Remus Lupin is nearly filler characters), and many, many other things, but I think the bottom line on it all, is that I'm disgusted with the overall way the film franchise has been handled. Since the success of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, the films have been more about how much money could be made, and catering the films to teenagers, especially in a post-Twilight (I think this would qualify for a "dystopian") society. Whenever you read the books, the awkwardness and corny jokes are there, it is part of Rowling's style, and it is one of the more charming things about the book, but as the characters grow older and the original readers gets older, the books became more mature. Not creating a Dark Knight atmosphere, but the subject matter of the latter books are definitely not the same as when young Harry first came to Hogwarts. Instead of letting the films get more heavier, Kloves' script attempts to push the teen relationships more than the crucial storyline, and even there, we're not given some of the more iconic scenes from the book (i.e. Harry breaking up with Ginny at the Dumbledore's funeral.) This type of thinking is undermining to America's teenage demographic. What makes Ron and Hermione's flirtatious beginnings and eventual relationship such a nice element in the novels are the adventures and hardships they share with Harry. And to cut out Harry's break-up with Ginny seems to be destroying the teen romance card push Kloves and director David Yates was hoping for. To take out the heavier moments is insinuating that all the teen audience cares about is senseless snogging and cute anecdotes here and there.

However, it's not all bad. The cast, as always, is superb. Rickman, Michael Gambon, Jim Broadbent, Maggie Smith, Thewlis, Robbie Coltrane, Timothy Spall, Helena Bonham Carter, Julie Walters. Not to mention the young leads Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson, even the less expierenced Evanna Lynch is perfect as Luna Lovegood. However, I have not heard much praise for young Tom Felton, who plays Draco. I don't know if Susie Figgis, the casting director of the first film, knew what she was doing when she cast him, but Felton grew up to be one creepy-looking bastard. Also, as always, John Williams gives an incredible score. At the film's heart, it still is a summer blockbuster, and when in the middle of the action, your attention is brought to how wonderful the score is, it is an excellent achievement.

Now, I don't feel bad for making this a rather long blog, seeing that I was absent yesterday, but are you ready for Potter overload? A few news items...

Half-Blood Prince has set the record for a midnight show, defeating The Dark Knight and Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith easily.

Guardian is reporting that the Vatican has decided that the sixth film will not send you, the viewer, to Hell, as the others have been condemned. Interesting.

If you're sick of Potter and his pals, here is a link to see The Empire Muggs Back, a collection of Mighty Muggs toys to be auctioned off to raise money for the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Awesome set of toys.

Finally, The Grand AdventureCon in Pigeon Forge, Tennesse, the closest comic book convention to my neck of the woods, have added a few more names to the guest list. David Barclay, the chief puppeteer of Jabba the Hutt in Return of the Jedi and Maria de Aragon, best known as Greedo from A New Hope.