Thoughts on Harry Potter
Several weeks after almost everyone else in the civilised world, I finally went to see the new Harry Potter film last weekend. It was good, let me tell you that much, but almost straight after I left the theatre, a few thoughts arose in my mind which I’d like to share with you today.
My first impression of the film was, as I said before, wonderful. It was witty, funny at times, dark at others, and had a great air of suspense. If anything, my one of my major criticisms is that it ended too early - just as things were getting interesting and exciting, Harry and Dumbledore went off to do their thing with the Horcrux, and then the whole movie was over in a matter of 20 minutes.
You see, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince makes exactly the same mistakes as all of its movie predecessors.
In the week since i saw the movie, I’ve almost completely re-read the book of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, and now, more than ever, the immense shortcomings of the film are extremely obvious.
I seem to remember, when browsing Wikipedia before the release of the film that one of the most hyped aspects of the new film was the characterisation, and the relationships that are shown to have developed between the characters of the film. They’re right, in a way, although perhaps only in relation to one particular relationship - Harry and Ginny. This particular romance develops far earlier in the film than in the book, and (from my point of view, anyway), the film does an extremely good job of showing the emotions of these two characters during this time. Other relationships, however, seem to be quite neglected. Ron and Hermoine, for example, seem to have a far better relationship in the film than the book.
But what shocked me most, upon reading the book, was the incredible amount of detail that was simply missing from the film. This detail seems to fulfil one of a couple of purposes: either to entertain, and make the world of Hogwarts seem more alive and interesting, or to explain, and to help the reader understand the immensely complicated story (this is particularly relevant within the last two books, where the plot becomes extremely convoluted).
Of course, the need to emit this detail is just a problem with the medium of film itself, as nothing short of a five hour marathon would allow the space for it to be included. In the case of the entertaining detail, this is not a huge problem, as the film more than makes up for it in other areas. But the lack of explaining detail is far more of a problem. So much of this was emitted from the film that I cannot help but think that the plot has been severely ‘dumbed down’ for this medium. For example, the many trips into the past exploring Voldemort’s motivations are emitted, as much of Harry and Dumbledore’s discussion about Horcruxes, detail that will most likely be needed to make the final movie make sense.
This is in fact my main problem. So much of the detail from the plot has been emitted from Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, that I’m sceptical as to whether the film of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will make sense to people who have not read the books, or will hugely disappoint people who have
What’s more, the final movie is being to split into two parts, effectively allowing the producers to make that five hour Harry Potter marathon of which I spoke earlier. Warner Bros. stated that this choice would allow “an extra hour and a half to celebrate what this franchise has been and do justice to all the words and ideas in the amazing story.” But what use is an extra hour and a half if the movies don’t make sense because the foundations for the ‘ideas in the amazing story’ weren’t laid in the films before it.
Will Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, when released late 2010 and mid 2011 (another draw-back of splitting the film), be a faithful recreation of the masterful final book in the series, or will it just be a ordinary Harry Potter fanfic which struggles to make itself understood? I, for one, hope that it is the former. I guess, however, that only time will tell.
