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Friends In Your Head | Forums → Episodes → The 200th Episode 24-Hour Harry Potter Commentary Marathon
It's hard for me to list mine as I've only seen/read each once and not really thought about ranking or anything. This seems sensible though.
1. Prisoner of Azkaban
2. Deathy Hallows
3. Philosophers Stone
4. Chamber of Secrets
5. Half-Blood Prince
6. Goblet of Fire
7. Order of the Phoenix
EDIT: Reshuffled my choices during the livestream.
Having not read a single page of it, my votes go directly to the films, disregarding anything they might've left out from the books.
1. Prisoner of Azkaban
2. Half Blood Prince
3. Deathly Hallows A
4. Deathly Hallows B
5. Philosopher's stone
6. Order of the Phoenix
7. Goblet of Fire
8. Chamber of Secrets
Just finished Goblet in my pre-marathon re-read of the whole series. I had completely forgotten Ludo Bagman existed. Now all I can think of is that he should've been in the film and played by Stephen Fry.
I don't get the love the Half Blood Prince and not-love for Order Of The Phoenix
Rewatching Half-Blood Prince right now. Wow is it great. Perfectly mixes comedy and horror. It's much better than I remember.
I remember feeling like they kinda botched Dumbledore's end scene. Otherwise, it's fine. I was never a huge fan of that book though, you really feel the "middle-chapterness" of it as its just setting up all this stuff for the finale.
As for Deathly Hallows Pt. 1, I'm genuinely surprised that people seem to love that one. I have to wonder if it's just the fact that it stays super faithful to the book, because to me, it does not really work if you're not bringing your knowledge of the books in with you. Dobby's death scene in particular feels woefully unearned, as he's had like 15 minutes of screen-time 5 movies ago, and then another 10 in this one, and suddenly we're supposed to feel like this is some huge moment. If you pretend the books don't exist, I don't think it works as a fulfilling narrative (unlike other "part 1" adaptations like Fellowship of the Rings for example).
Part 2 may deviate in ways fans hate, but it's at least enjoyable as a magic-themed extended action movie. But I admit to being odd man out on this one. I was never a fan of how that book handled the final duel (with Harry winning on basically a technicality), and I much prefer just having a full on magic battle between the two of them. That movie does lose major points for not showing how several major side characters bite it, I don't know what the hell they were thinking there.
+2
I should probably get around to watching the last movie.
I think the excuse they come up with early on (during the Dueling Club stuff in Chamber) is something to the effect of, "Look, when you're in a battle for your life, it's easier to do a quick disarming spell than something really cool and inventive."
That episode of Alohomora with Teague and Dorkman was great. To the Transfiguration stuff, I'll add that Sorcerer's Stone contains a passage about McGonagall having the students turn a mouse into a snuffbox as part of a test. I find it existentially terrifying that you could be turned into an inanimate object.
+3
Meh. I don't hate the movie magic for what it is, but I've seen them so many times that I forget how much cooler the books are when it comes to magic.
I'm kinda with DocSub on this one. It shifts to the more direct "gunfight" style spells, because otherwise, the whole notion of wizards being more powerful than muggles kinda breaks down. Like, if Voldemort has to do some fancy spell to get my car to turn into a monster to chase me down and eat me, while he's busy doing that I can pull out a gun and shoot him in the face.
I think they could've (and should've) used splashes of more inventive magic throughout the movies, but fundamentally I don't have a problem with the laser-gun style approach to the battles.
Right, but my point is, if you have a direct killing spell, there's no reason not to use that every time, as it's the most efficient way of taking down your opponent. So if you have wizards dueling to the death, ya, it's gonna be them really quickly firing short-burst killing spells at each other, and ya, it's gonna look like a laser-gun battle. All the creative magicky-type spells to get a bunch of vines to show up and incapacitate your opponent or whatever, end up being a waste of time.
Now, throwing logic aside, there's something to be said for a "fun" type of magic battle where it's constant wacky inventive things attacking the characters. This is something I'd imagine Spielberg could have a field day with in his prime. However, this requires a totally different tone, that doesn't fit with the later books/films in the series. The fun, lighthearted magic stuff fits in the first half of the series, but when shit gets dark and the movies are committed to their ultra-serious tone, having a suit of armor choking out professor snape is gonna seem WAY out of place.
Ok, you've convinced me. Well done.
+1
Friends In Your Head | Forums → Episodes → The 200th Episode 24-Hour Harry Potter Commentary Marathon
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