Thursday, March 13, 2008

Harry Potter and the Protracted Film Series... Um... Of Doom, Or Something...

News has reached the Muggle masses that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the final installment in the storied Harry Potter series, will have its film adaptation split into two seperate movies, thereby making it at least a three hour epic (FT). Chances are, though, that each film will most likely run closer two hours a clip.

The reason for this basically gives away the fact that these will be two (slightly) longer films than the other six: There aren't really many subplots you can cut out of Potter 7. The first film covered Philosopher's/Sorcerer's Stone almost in its entirety, since it was the shortest of the books by far. Weren't that many cuts from Chamber, either, but some did stand out a bit. From Prisoner on, though, large chunks were apparent, and honestly, they really didn't impact the central plot all that much (although cutting out Ron playing Quidditch (a big character progression for him) and Hermione's S.P.E.W. work (which highlights both Dobby and Kreacher more as well as Miss Granger) are arguable in many circles).

I would much have rather them done the actual Dumbledore's Army outing from the book rather than blame it on poor Cho, but what can you do, right? It's Hollywood: They'll fuck anything up (See Ang Lee's The Hulk or Star Wars Prequels), even if it's with tiny little oversights like that one.

Half-blood Prince will be coming soon, and we get some big moments in that one, but I'm not doubting that there will be important stuff cut. My guess is Harry's relationship with Cho will become the stuff of reflective dialogue, but you can't avoid the Harry-Ginny storyline, since it plays such a huge role in Potter 7/8. And oh yeah: SNAPE KILLS DUMBLEDORE. Duh. If you don't know that by now, you've been living under a rock.

On the bright side, that's two more trips to The Rowland for me, Angel and Teddy, which will be fun. By the time Potter's 7 and 8 roll out (2010 and 2011 respectively), he'll have seen the first six, and hopefully read at least the first book (which, of course, Daddy has). Like I was born into a world just discovering Star Wars (it came out summer of 77, I came out that November), he was born into a world in love with a boy wizard at school with his friends, carrying the weight of the wizarding world on his shoulders and showing kids that, no matter what you have to deal with, it can be faced and dealt with in turn: From staring down the Dark Lord to just growing up and learning about regular life.

That's the true magic of Harry Potter...

Posted by Eric Jacobson at 3:51 AM

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1 comment:

Disasterpiece said...

LMAO @ SNAPE KILLS DUMBELDORE! Seriously, though, HBP was probably the worst movie in the entire franchise in terms of how much of the book was cut out of the film. People that haven't read the novels absolutely hated it because they didn't understand what the hell was happening for most of the movie. Hell, I read the book and still didn't get some of the crap that was going on, myself! I had pretty low expectations for this movie, anyway because it was my least favorite book in the series. It started off way too slow and was mad depressing. I will say one thing about the film VS. the book, though. When Dumbledore died in the book, I didn't cry at all, but in the movie, when all of the students of Hogwarts lit their wands up after the death scene, I cried like an frakking baby! But the ending was just so "WTF?" that I was actually pissed off at how they just ended it in the middle of a freaking conversation and rolled to the credits like it was nothing. I mean yeah, we get it, they're not going back to Hogwarts, but to just end it after making that statement was really freaking lame!

I'm glad they're making DH a two parter, because that book is so involved in so many different ways that to event attempt to butcher it in a one movie variation would be completely insane! I mean, hell, the last five chapters of DH alone picked me up, held me upside down and then completely dropped me on my head because of all of the revelations that came out towards the end of that book. And the way that Rowling chose to end the story was an absolute stroke of genius, in my opinion, so I expect two REALLY good movies out of this one.

And just in case you were wondering, I did cry when a certain somebody died while reading this book. The one with both ears, if you get my drift. I know that a lot of other people died, as well, but I really liked the character and it made me really sad when I got to that part in the book. They better do a good death scene for this person in DH Part 2!

5:44 AM

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