Harry Potter

[keiko]

Didn't Suck! Hooray! *happy dance* Go see the movie, then read the book.

K

[MistressJennifer]

I know I want to see it!!

The Harry Potter producer said that he might meet with me, but he was in a big rush, just flying in and out for the premiere, so HE DID NOT CALL ME!!

I mean, WHO DOES HE THINK HE IS??? How dare he not call me???

I sent him the photo of me in the Village Voice and he said that I looked wonderful, so maybe next time he is in town he will call me....

[Toe Cutter]

I love how Harry Potter pisses-off the christian right. That makes me happy.

[Dark Z]

Awesome movie. It sucked that they cut out some of the best parts of the book, but then again, it's kinda rough to make a 6 hour movie, so I can understand it.

I did notice that they've been popping Ginny into the background alot more...


awesome movie. I want to see it in imax now.

[Tequila Zaire]

awesome movie. I want to see it in imax now.

Same here...gonna catch it next week on a weekday so I can avoid the under 16 crowd...not that kids are an issue but their parents tend to be the ones who need to learn how to shut the hell up during a movie more than anyone.

[Kidthorazine]

Saw it at the IMAX i was kind dissapointed with a lot of the cuts they made but i guess it could have been a lot worse i wasnt expecting a 6 hour movie but i think they could have left some of the subplots in or at least resolve the ones they did sort of include. In short i liked it well enough but it easilly could have been a lot better.

[keiko]

It could have been better, of that there was no question. But when compared with the glaring horridness of the last three I will say that this one is a vast improvement. I do wish they wrapped up the Rita Skeeter thing and I wish the Quiddtch cup had been more detailed. Neville should have been more terrified of the Cruciatus Curse but really what they did do was fantastic.

K

[Tequila Zaire]

Well it's tough adapting books like those in the Potter series...even with something like LOTR cuts, characters, and events had to be changed. The spirit of the books are what matter since you have to remember the point of the films is to compliment the books...not replace them. Potter films already have a fan base who know everything and anything about them and enjoy the films for what they are more than what they could be.

If anything one could question doing the films AS the books are still being written. It makes it much harder to plan ahead...unlike the LOTR films you can't really change things around so that subplots can be included or resolved cause you may not be able to even include them in later films.

Also everyone wants to see something different on screen...certain characters, scenes, dialogue, etc. I can only imagine the headache adapting such high profile books into films under 3 hours. Those books aren't exactly small to begin with...with scripts on average at 120 pages that's a lot to cram into them.

I do wonder if they will ever be remade though...

[Vitorro]

I think, to actually capture the books essence, and have it completly as the book tells the story, it would be as a animated film, instead of live. Still, Im suprised JK Rowlings hasnt given the ok to tell Harrys stories on Saturday Mornings, it would broaden her pocketbook as well as catch a whole new fanbase for Potter

[Buster Friendly]

Rowling's pocketbook is probably plenty fat enough to suit her these days... but wait for a potter cartoon none the less...(5 years or less)

...I've always said that short stories make good movies, but anything longer than a novella is just asking for trouble... (hmmm, maybe words are worth more than a thousand pictures?)

anyway I've been seduced by the Aeon Flux website... I was having doubts about the movie adaptation of such a willfully bizzare cartoon (I had doubts about expanding it from it's inital 60 second dialogless installments to half an hour, but Peter Chueng pulled it off beautifully) ...so I went to the website, and have to admit... THAT'S how you fucking run a website/multimedia campgain, gawdfookin' dammit!! (donnie darko also had a topnotch website)

as someone who works in the frothing at the mouth viral edge of media manipulation, and pathenogenic marketting, it's so nice to see someone get it kind of right... (okay so it's a little bland compared to what 'could be' done, but hey... I've learned to live in a world of lowered expectations...)

keetch-koo!

[Tequila Zaire]

I hated the regular series to be honest...it grew on me over time but I was always dissapointed that the massacres I had learned to love got cut out in favor over long drawn out philosophical debates...he handled it much better with this Alexander The Great adaptation...

I'd probably enjoy it more now though...gonna have to pick up that new DVD set.

[Buster Friendly]

personally I feel like he made up for the lessened ultra-violence with weirdness... but that's just me.

I've learned to accept a certain amount of 'mainstreaming' if it produces a still subersive product... (his use of amputation was nice, and creepy in AF)

didn't see Alexander, but I did catch an episode or two of 'the phantom' which I think Chueng either did character design for, or was involved in some other way... a much more 'child friendly' product. the AF series often boarderd on the absurdly pretentious... but that's okay.

[Tequila Zaire]

The only reason AF was toned down was due to MTV's "we don't want to glorify violence" shtick they preach...so it's more of a case that he worked within the limitations given than his desire to take away what made it so well known to begin with.

His Alexander project (Reign the Conqueror on U.S. tv) was dead on in terms of balancing long philosophical musings with action and violence...all of it worked very well and it never felt boring or overly pretentious in any way. I will say the SECOND time you see the series seems to have the most impact since your eyes and mind are really hit upside the head the first time through...he really went to town on the designs.

Beautiful series...really cheap to score on DVD too.

[keiko]

Personally I htink that even if the AF movie blows there's still Charlize in a black vinyl catsuit so it won't be a total loss. But what does that have to do wiht Potter?
K

[Tequila Zaire]

Indeed...kinda like Uma Thurman in The Avengers.

Not sure how we got on the AF topic but we did...we're not exactly the "color between the lines" kinda people so it can't be too much of a surprise can it? haha

Back to Potter...anyone buy any of the memorobilia associated with the movies?

[Buster Friendly]

it was a threadjacking keiko

I regret nothing!

long live the marius van deerlube memorial firebombing society!!

[keiko]

I haven't bought myself alot of Potter stuff, My brother bought me the lunch box and I have two Gryffindor shirts and a Hogwarts Allumnus shirt, but I'm waiting for a Ravenclaw shirt, Blue and Bronze with the Raven on it. *sigh* No heros in my house, just clever people, so no schwag.

K

[tinstar]

Just saw the previews for that AF movie... Looks pretty rawk. Any more info on this Alexander the Great series? Never heard of it myself but it sounds great... Course, my lack of a television set in my place might explain that...

[Buster Friendly]

I don't own any of the swag... I just have the books, and that's enough for me. I like them so much on their own I kind of want them to be left alone in my imagination...

...I'm not even really going to see the movies... (I haven't read the latest one yet... I've been saving it)

[OliX]

Harry Quarter

[keiko]

I just went and saw it for a second time and I still thought the damn thing kicked ass. And I still cried at the end.
K

[VoldtaEngler]

I think im the only one who doesn't like Harry Potter. But to each their own!
Can't wait for MirrorMask on DVD *_*
*threadjack!*

[littlehorn]

Uhhhhggggg. Aeon Flux looks like it will be so lame. MTV movies usually suck. Hey i love Charlize Theron, but this just looks like another loud dumb actionier.
BTW just saw the new potter flick, your right it kicked ass.

[Buster Friendly]

the commercials for aeon flux look pretty dopey I'll grant ya, it's the website that's got me willing to give it a chance. I'll probably be let down (the kill bill movies almost made me give up watching movies ever again...and I totally believed the pre-hype.)

sucker for slick averts...

[keiko]

That's funny, I just watched kill bill vol 1 last ngiht and I was quite impressed. Kinda ticked at myself for not going to see it in theatres. But then I'm a big Quint fan, too.

As for Potter I hope this director sticks on. He did a good job with this one and the next one will need a really good director.
K

[Morning Glory]

the reason that the harry potter movies aren't a million hours long is because it's a fucking kids book. Im really sorry if you are thirty and you are into books about kids and wizards (it's kinda creepy), but you aren't the target audience. that being said, a kid cannot sit still for more then an hour.

[Tequila Zaire]

the reason that the harry potter movies aren't a million hours long is because it's a fucking kids book. Im really sorry if you are thirty and you are into books about kids and wizards (it's kinda creepy), but you aren't the target audience. that being said, a kid cannot sit still for more then an hour.

Have you read the books?

Some books go beyond age man...like The Lord of the Rings, The Chronicles of Narnia, and numerous fantasy epics. If you're comment had any base then the kids would not be reading the books to begin with given their length. The target audience was people who read...the fact kids grabbed onto it so firmly is because they actually read them. Numerous books specifically targeted for kids fail...the Potter books have a more traditional style found in the fantasy realm that seems only British writers can fully realize. Look at Alice in Wonderland and Through The Looking Glass...kids books with heavy double meaning and read by many an adult.

These are all rare cases where the work simply has no target age even when the marketing would try to define otherwise. Also if you think kids won't sit still for an hour...you've never seen kids LOV a movie before...they'll play the damned thing again and again int he same day without so much as blinking.

[keiko]

I don't know how much of a "kids book" the last three Potter books really were. The first three, I can see the misconception, but Half Blood Prince was too grown up for me. It still makes my stomach chrun to think of the last five chapters *shudder*.
I feel really sorry for people that deny themselves things because they believe that it's targeted at some one else. Theme Parks are targeted at kids. The rest of the country is still under the impression that video games are aimed at kids (despite the Mature ratings). Anime is cartoons, would you say Neon-Gensis Evangelion is a kids show?
Denying yourself something magical becasue you feel it is beneath you is the saddest and most ridiculous thing ever.

K

[Vitorro]

I gotta agree with Keiko, a lot of movies are kids movies, just depends on how you look at them. Star Wars, a fantasty movie of a hero and villian, a Princess and the Pirate. sounds like a fairy tale to Me, but is enjoyed by more than preteen kids and adults in golden years. Harry Potter, a wizard, a warlock, and as in the Half Blood Prince, Vampires. Yes, a book enjoyed by a lot of young kids and adults, even golden oldies(were more overaged couples at the showing I went to than kids). its not how old you are, its how old ya feel, knowhutimean?

[Morning Glory]

There's a line between enjoying fantasy for what it is and using it as a substitution for reality. I think that needs to be said and in some cases can lead to real problems. but that's really a whole other issue. As far as the belief that what's viewed as "childish" shouldn't be appreciated by adults, I don't think that. most adult things are bullshit. If adults had the ability to spend their time doings things that were imaginative and simply for the fun of it, like kids do, then the world would really be a much better place.

As far as Narnia and the Lord of the rings goes, they were written for and designed to be read by children. I think they are particularly enjoyable for older audiences because the authors that wrote them are quite good writers and have a lot of knowledge about literature as well as having written prior material that wasn't intended for children. Likewise so was Harry Potter, and I think that because of it's success among adults, that is the reason that the books have been getting longer and more detailed.

I do think that kids have a tendency to lose and gain interest in things at the drop of a hat, but that doesn't really matter. In general I think that most people that go to movies are in favor of the 90-120 minute range, and simply don't have the interest to see every detail presented in a lengthy matter. In my opinion I think the more faithful to a book the movie adaptation is, usually the better the movie, but for the most part It just seems that there is a discrepancy between the two genres and they aren't thought of as being unanimous in the eyes of most.

[-=Asmodeus=-]

If only my Fire Throwing HP Wand would have lasted for more than 4 fireblasts...

Yeah being the crazy pyros that me and my friends are and being that we have lotsa spare time on our hands...AND Also being that we had a Spare Oxy Accetalene(sp) tank in the back of the shop...We decided to play Hogwarts in the shop last week After seeing Goblet of FIRE!!!

I fashioned a wand out of a 1" piece of Wooden Dowel rod...Drilled a hole in the center of it...Ran a piece of copper tubing down it and to the other end attached said Accetalene(sp) tank with regulator and belch tank...

took apart a grill lighter and attached the sparker from it to the end of the wand put the button right where your thumb would be...

TOOK the whole contraption out side filled the belch tank turned on the regulator ...Held the wand at arms length Clearly said the magic words "NOW DANMNIT" Pushed the button and Woosh...A LARGE FIREBALL....

did that about 4 times then the wand caught on fire and we stopped before soemone else got hurt as I did...SO go ahead kiddies play HP and the WAND OF Impending firey DOOM

[Buster Friendly]

ooooh firey doom!

one of my all time favorites.

[sheramil]

Some books go beyond age man...like The Lord of the Rings, The Chronicles of Narnia...

and i can't wait for that to come out. not because i want to see it, but because i want to see the fundy right try to praise christian propaganda disguised as a film called "The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe".

"Well, you got your three basic groups of pre-verts right there. You got your furries, your pagans and your closet ho-mo-sectionals."

[sheramil]

short, shameful confession: i like disrupting discussions on the mechanics of spells in HP, with interjections based on Nethack.

"If only my Fire Throwing HP Wand would have lasted for more than 4 fireblasts.."

"well, Scroll of Charging. Just don't over-do it, some of these wands explode when you over-re-charge them."