Dec 29, 2012

Why do the Harry Potter movies suck so bad?

Completly different from my last posts, but hey! I'm a movie and literature lover, so I felt the need to discuss this subject.

The question that hunts my mind from time to time is: Why do the Harry Potter movies suck so bad?
I think it is wise to remind you that this is my opinion and yours may differ. Just to avoid enraged fans ^^

When I was 11 years old, I had already read the 4 HP books that existed so far, and I LOVED them, I still do actually ^^, it was the year of 2000, and one year after that I was anxiously anticipating the new book, but instead we got a movie. "Alright, a movie!" I was super excited! I went to the premiere here in Portugal, and I was prepared to watch one of the most awesome movies ever created! - Girl, was I wrong - I almost cried with disappointment when I left the theatre.
 I know, I know, you can't expect a movie to be better than the book and I really wasn't, but the movie didn't even tried! It didn't even made the book the tiniest little justice. It was and IS horrid. 
I was sure it was gonna be a flop. Who in they're right mind would like the movie after reading the book which was FAR superior? Oh yeah, I forgot... most kids of my age didn't read that much and they didn't even know that the books existed, so many loved the movie, because let's face it, it is an immature movie, whereas the book isn't.
After the movie I got a bit "angry" at the HP fandom, 'cause I almost felt as a personal offense from JK Rowling letting my favourite book, at the time, be butchered like that :(

Many years after! We're in 2012, last week to be exact, and I decided to give the movies another try. I though - maybe the first movies were the worst, cause the cast was still young and unexperienced, yadda, yadda (which doesn't really matter 'cause the problem is not really the cast, cause there are GREAT actors in it, but yeah). Anyway, I decided to watch the Order of Phoenix (I ended up watching the previous movies too, when they aired on tv). 

First of all, how can you even expect a consistent saga when the director isn't even the same?  Let's see:

Sorcerer's Stone: Chris Columbus
Chamber of Secrets: Chris Columbus
Prisioner of Azkaban: Alfonso Cuarón
Goblet of Fire: Mike Newell
Order of Phoenix and so forth: David Yates

HP was actually David Yates first grand production (he had done some TV movies and mini-series only), I wish I could say it was also his last, but unfortunatelly it has been rumoured that he's been working on new projects, including a Tarzan movie (ouch).
I'll be talking about the Order of Phoenix only, for now, since it was the last one I've watched. 
I can honestly say it's one of the worst directing and screenplay I've seen, besides B movies. 
The story evolves in hyper-speed, you just want to shout "SLOW THE FUCK DOWN" at the screen. The way the scenes are connected, oh lawdy, it looks like Yates had a list of scenes he had to include from the book and how they connect to each other is completely overrated. It is also ironic how fast-paced the movie is and still.. incredibly boring.

Side Note:  Did you know that the Sorcerer's Stone book has 310 pages and the Order of Phoenix has 870, but the first HP movie has 152 minutes while the fifth has 138? I mean, really?! So the book is almost triple the size, but the movie is shorter.. makes sense. It explains why it looks so freakin rushed and chopped.

In the book the character of Harry gets much more moody and complex, you realize he's not the perfect hero, neither was he's father, who was kinda douchebaggy actually. You get none of that in the movie, it's just good ol' Harry with that stale personality of his and no character development.
The only good parts were the few minutes Alan Rickman, Gary Oldman or Helena Boham Carter were on screen.

Now that I've shown my discontentment about the movies, I would really like to hear from people that love them and why. We all have different perspectives and opinions, but it intrigues me how one can love equally both books and movies. In some cases people are so obssessed about HP that they will love everything about it blindly (that's the bad thing about fandoms), so they can't have a objective perception of the movies. And there are some people that have never read the books and love the movies  - Those I can't really understand :| Cause if you thought that shit was good, if you read the books your brain will freakin' explode! 
And I'm not even sure if there are people that have read the books and seen the movies and prefer the movies O_O But if there are, I'd love to hear from you and hear your opinion :D

And to end this post here's a drawing of me as a Ravenclaw student :D



14 comments:

  1. Pensei que nunca encontraria ninguém que concordasse comigo, por norma, tal como aconteceu recentemente com o hobbit , não aprecio adaptações para filme, mas tens acho que, com descrições tão boas e tanto espaço para bom método digital no que diz respeito a está história , as mesmas sao especialmente más. Felizmente podemos sempre mergulhar no mundo de jkr ao reler as obras.
    Adoro a edição especial de hardcore que saiu agora dos livros entre inglês, mas são tão caras, a girl can dream

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  2. Tem que se ter expectativas realistas em relação a adaptações de cinema, é claro que um filme nunca poderá conter a mesma informação que livro, mas as adaptações do HP são provavelmente as piores da história (ou sendo menos dramática, as piores que já vi). Foram feitos para se meterem milhares fáceis ao bolso e não pela Arte (that's what's wrong with most movies this days).
    É que não falha só como uma peça de arte cinematográfica, como falha também como filme de pipoca/entretém, porque eu que conheço a história estava aborrecida de morte, então alguém que não conheça, não tenha visto os outros filmes ou lido os livros não percebe ponta de um chavelho. Claro que é uma história contínua, logo convém ter lido/visto o que veio por trás, mas conheço casos em que pessoas começaram a ler os livros do meio e gostaram na mesma (e depois até voltaram para ler os inicias), enquanto os filmes são completamente incompreensíveis, e duvido que suscite curiosidade para sofrer outra tortura daqueles e ir ver os anteriores o.O

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  3. I totally agree with you.. Harry Potter could have made one of the best movies series EVER.
    But you gotta admit that GoF was epic.

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    Replies
    1. Goblet of fire was the worst one xD movie I mean

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  4. I totally agree with you.. Harry Potter could have made one of the best movies series EVER.
    But you gotta admit that GoF was epic.

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  5. I could only ever watch as far as gof,then i just couldnt stand the rest of them.There just a complete mess that dont make sense,butchered,chopped,plot holes you name it.David fat head yates makes hes own version of the books and there crap.Wtf was ootp,is hbp a hp film?dh1 too boring and dh2 was based on a different book

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  6. Here's why: the contents of the Harry Potter books that made the series amazing are simply not present in the books because they translate poorly to movies. Some of the most enjoyable moments in the Harry Potter series take place during the quieter moments when characters interact, Harry attends classes, writes his exams, does homework, etc.. That's where the meat of the character development is. The movies don't allow for much of that to happen, and the few moments that do show it just don't have the same punch because they're treated like second class citizens. They're just included because they need to be; the books felt all inclusive. There were never moments where you felt that something was happening simply because it needed to be done. All of it mattered.

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  7. Imagine there were some form of media, that produced money and lasted longer than 2-3 hours. Something people could watch, and has plenty of room for character development. Hmmmm... Maybe a TV series? If they truly wanted to nail the HP movies though they would have to esplit all the movies into 2 parts and then DH into like 6 parts. I think a TV series would be much better.

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  8. Man,the movies do suck..I though COS and GOF were passable and i like POA, but HBP sucked monkey balls.DH was shit .The movies were all "commercialized"..to become money spinners and dumbed down so those who cannot take the pain of reading the books could see a few flashes and bangs and become happy and the makers rich.
    Boy,HBP was by far the worst IMO.Totally ruined Harry-Ginny romance.
    I liked POA because
    They nailed the Dementors and Patronus.
    Sirius black.
    For the first and last time Harry looked like the books,the messy hair,the clothes.

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  9. Hey

    I read your article and felt good that someone else feels the same way. I have formed a team with the goal of approaching Rowling and convincing her to make a new TV series. Do you have any suggestions for me?

    Rutwik DIxit(India-a hardcore HP fanatic :D)

    Ps. Anyone who can read my comment send me any suggestions on rutwikomdixit@mail.com

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    Replies
    1. How is the approach in Rowling going? XD not good I suppose?

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  10. OMG i thought im the only one who noticed this. The movie ruined my memory of harry. If i can erase the movie in my mind. and let the memory of book retain. I'll die a happy man!!

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