The Harry Potter Movies

[VCRTracking]

 

For some reason Goblet of Fire is on constant HBO rotation. That may have been my favorite book but I was really disappointed in the movie. The acting was so hammy and over the top. I will never not hate Michael Gambon's Dumbledore. He had none of Dumbledore's kindness, gentleness or humor.

 

Retrospectively I think he fit what Dumbledore was revealed to be, Machiavellan and ruthlessly pragmatic.

[Athena]

Retrospectively I think he fit what Dumbledore was revealed to be, Machiavellan and ruthlessly pragmatic.

 

I prefer Gambon over Harris for this aspect of the character. There is a "soft" side to Dumbledore that Gambon did not play into as much or maybe it was the writing or both. I think Ian McKellan would have been perfect, but he was too busy being Gandalf. Heehee.

[fireice13]

I understood that things had to be cut for the films and I'm willing to give a lot of leeway for that. One of the things I hated was how they changed the final battle between Harry and Voldemort. In the book it's in the Great Hall in front of everyone and Harry lets Voldemort and everyone there know that Snape was on the good side the whole time. In the movie, Snape never gets that recognition. He's my favorite character and I hate that they changed that and for no good reason. The end battle was perfect in the book and they could've filmed it that way.

[benteen]

I think they made a mistake with having Harry vs Voldemort being a private affair.  Seeing their long-standing nightmare slain is important to the Wizarding community.  They need to see Voldemort die and know he's never coming back. 

 

A friend of mine also pointed out that they didn't like the fact that when Voldemort and Bellatrix die, their bodies magically broke apart.  She argued that it went against the fact that despite the fact that the two were monsters, Voldemort was just a man and Bellatrix was just a woman.  I agreed with that and it's why I liked Harry verbally tearing down Voldemort at the end of the duel, refusing to acknowledge him as Voldemort and calling him by his real name of Riddle.  I always found that satisfying that Harry treated Voldemort like the insignificant and pathetic piece of shit that he truly was.  Despite how much he denied it, Voldemort was just another person.  Voldemort experienced fear there as well and I think they shouldn't have changed that for the movie.

[Browncoat]

Oh good grief.  I made the mistake of watching the first bit of Chamber of Secrets on ABC last night.  They cut the entire Floo powder/Knockturn Alley sequence!  We somehow went from Molly Weasley in the Burrow saying, "There's only one place to get this:  Diagon Alley." immediately to everyone listening to Gilderoy Lockhart in the bookshop.

[blueray]

Oh good grief.  I made the mistake of watching the first bit of Chamber of Secrets on ABC last night.  They cut the entire Floo powder/Knockturn Alley sequence!  We somehow went from Molly Weasley in the Burrow saying, "There's only one place to get this:  Diagon Alley." immediately to everyone listening to Gilderoy Lockhart in the bookshop.

I've seen that happen before it's annoying. If you going to air the movie air all of it. I've also seen the opposite where they air the extended version but then there is just more commericals too.

[Eeksquire]

I know! I watched the very beginning of it and so much was cut out that I gave up.  

[Miss Dee]

Movie opinions:

Alan Rickman will always be the perfect Snape to me; I don't care how much older he is than the part. I remember reading once that Rickman was who Rowling envisioned when she wrote the part in the first novel. She was resigned when the movie role it was offered to Tim Roth, but thrilled when he turned it down and it was offered to Rickman instead.

What I love about Harry and Hermione in the later movies was that it was a beautiful portrayal of friendship; while I understand why people wanted it to be more, I'm thrilled they didn't go that route. This was more poignant to me.

I do agree, however, that Ron got shafted in the movies starting with PoA.

That said, PoA was my favourite movie. Whoever said up thread that it captured the whimsy of this world said it perfectly. I never thought the Marauders were all that though, so maybe I'm weird. I cared more about Remus and Sirius in the present day.

[Steph619]

Prisoner of Askaban is my favorite movie of the whole series as well. The funny thing is that the first time I watched it, I didn't like it so much, but the more I saw it, the more I liked it. I really wish that Alfonso Cuaron had stayed as director for the rest of the movies because I would've liked to have seen his take on the rest of the series as the books got darker.

[VCRTracking]

I was thinking somebody should do a "Harry Potter" trailer mashup with "Boyhood" and lo and behold there are already a bunch on YouTube. This one is my favorite:

 

[Ceruleana]

ABC Family is running Harry Potter Weekend.

 

Loving these extra scenes, especially in SS and CoS.  Adds a lot more dimension to the (albeit, already very long) films.  I'm a purist, so I appreciate the Columbus films so much.  I know how difficult it is to fit every little tidbit from the books into the films, but he managed to stay so true to them, even if it meant he had to sacrifice creativity.

 

Also read on the Daily Mail that they're looking for actresses to play opposite Eddie Redmayne in the Fantastic Beasts prequel.  I notice that they're looking at some American actresses: Dakota Fanning and Kate Upton among them.

Edited May 30, 2015 by Ceruleana

[Anela]

I saw the first movie was on earlier, and then forgot to turn it on down here. I'd love to see the extra bits added in. damn it.

[GaT]

Also read on the Daily Mail that they're looking for actresses to play opposite Eddie Redmayne in the Fantastic Beasts prequel.  I notice that they're looking at some American actresses: Dakota Fanning and Kate Upton among them.

Kate Upton????????? No, no, no, no, how can they go from Emma Watson to Kate Upton?

[Demented Daisy]

Years later, I still love this:

 

[ulkis]

I'm not quite sure that I'd call it my least favorite, but I found the most disappointing movie to be Half-Blood Prince, largely because the movie just ignored everything that made the book so interesting and dwelled for forever on the most boring parts of the book. 

 

I agree. When Snape says, "I am the half-blood prince" in the movie it's like . . . so? What is that again? They don't go into that at all.

 

Conversely, I actually think that I like Order of the Phoenix a little bit better in movie form. The book is just pages and pages of Harry having anger management issues

 

Again, agreed. Too bad they didn't know Grawp was pointless at the time (since it came out before the last book). Then they could have cut him out too.

[benteen]

 

Conversely, I actually think that I like Order of the Phoenix a little bit better in movie form. The book is just pages and pages of Harry having anger management issues

 

Rowling loved to pile on the misery.  I really think it would have caused her physical pain to show Harry being happy for two consecutive pages.

[Spartan Girl]

Rowling loved to pile on the misery.  I really think it would have caused her physical pain to show Harry being happy for two consecutive pages.

 

Well to be fair, Harry finally got the happiness he deserved in the end.

 

I guess I'm in the minority that wasn't shocked by Harry having anger management issues in the book version OOP.  After all the crap he's been through, a guy's got to have a breaking point at some point.  And who could blame him for snapping at Ron and Hermione when they keep sniping at each other?  Personally, I loved him finally talking back to the Dursleys after all the abuse they heaped on him...

 

But yeah, it was a cruel twist for JKR to give Harry a cool godfather like Sirius only to later kill him off.  Even worse, considering how miserable Sirius's life got: a horrible family, his best friends dying, being framed for murder and thrown into Azakban for 12 years, being on the run, winding back in the childhood home he always hated, dying before he got to enjoy his name being cleared -- forget Harry, I think it would have caused JKR pain to let SIRIUS be happy!

Edited June 12, 2015 by Spartan Girl

[Dandesun]

Harry's behavior in OOP made absolute sense but that didn't mean it wasn't insufferable. He had just been through a ridiculous amount of shit and had no means of dealing with it at the Dursleys but, at the same time, it frustrated the hell out of me that he wouldn't talk to anyone about it... except for Sirius who he couldn't reach very often. Ron and Hermione were his friends and he treated them pretty shabbily before he pulled it together.

 

Again, as insufferable as he was it made total sense so I couldn't be THAT mad about it. It was just... that sort of frustration you feel when the answer is obvious and the characters are being too stubborn or blinded by their own feels to pay attention.

[Spartan Girl]

True, but as great as Harry could be, lets not forget he was a fifteen year old boy and thus inclined to make stupid choices and be pig-headed and narrow minded about certain things.

 

On another note, I would have loved Richard Harris to have lived long enough to have uttered that great "Harry you brave boy.  You wonderful man" line in DH Part 2.

Edited June 12, 2015 by Spartan Girl

[benteen]

There were times that I thought Harry was lucky to have friends like Ron and Hermione who put up with him during his moods.  I thought that spoke highly of both of them.

[truthaboutluv]

This might be more appropriate for the books discussion but unpopular opinion, I'm one who had no issues with angry Harry in OOTP. Because honestly, while I always liked Harry from the first book, there were many times I felt like he was almost unnatural or not really coming across as a real person if that made sense. All these horrible things seemed to happen around him and to him and yet he just seemed so weirdly passive and calm.

 

I mean Harry by all sense of the word was an abused child. The kid was sleeping under the stairs like some animal and treated as such and he just seemed so okay. I mean if he was at least deeply introverted and removed from others, I'd feel like "okay that makes sense for what he's been through." But that wasn't the case. Harry became friends with Ron pretty quickly and easily and seemed to adjust very easily at Hogwarts and seemed like any normal kid. It was just a little weird is all I'm saying. 

 

So having him finally act out and rage about all the shitty things happening in his life made me go, "well it's about damn time." IMO it was like, finally, Harry does have a pulse after all. And frankly, his yelling at Ron and Hermione to shut the hell up with their annoying fighting was for me personally one of the best moments in the whole series.

 

As someone who never shipped Ron and Hermione, though I knew that's where it was obviously going, I was over the bickering by the third book and didn't find it cute or adorable and instead just found it annoying and tiresome. So having Harry tell them to shut it made me cheer very loudly. And I found it believable because I could not imagine being Harry having to listen to Ron and Hermione constant back and forth sniping all the time. That would annoy anybody. 

 

There were times that I thought Harry was lucky to have friends like Ron and Hermione who put up with him during his moods.  I thought that spoke highly of both of them.

 

 

I think they were all lucky to have each other, maybe more so the guys having Hermione. Because "insufferable know-it-all" though she may have been, she was insanely loyal always and always very supportive, I thought. Not to mention smarter than both of them in my opinion. And while I liked Ron and Harry's friendship for the most part, I don't think it's fair to just refer to Harry's moods and his being so lucky to have them be his friends. 

 

Because I'm sorry, as much as he was the fun, sarcastic one for many, Ron was riddled with insecurities that made him quite insufferable at times in the series in my opinion. And those insecurities caused him to not always be the greatest of friends to Harry, most significantly in Goblet of Fire where he decided Harry put his name in the Goblet and got all mad and huffy about it, even going so far as to silently stand by while Malfoy mocked Harry.

 

That whole thing was so stupid, even though I know JK put it in just to create some drama and tension in the friendship. But Harry had never lied to Hermione or Ron so it was ridiculous Ron would think Harry would not just lie to them but be so manipulative and calculating for some little moment of glory, like Harry wasn't getting enough unwanted attention already. While I acknowledge the realism of it, much like Harry's anger, Ron's constant dichotomy feelings of love for Harry but resentment at his fame and wealth, got incredibly tiresome at times.

Edited June 13, 2015 by truthaboutluv

[Spartan Girl]

Oh I really hated it when Ron got petty and jealous with Harry in GOF and in DH Part 1. I know in the latter he was under the influence of the Horcrux necklace, but that's no excuse. When he said, "You don't know how it feels! Your parents are dead, you have no family!" I wanted to punch him. That was just the shittiest thing to say to Harry in light of everything he'd been through; he acted like Harry had never lost anyone he really cared about.

For all Harry's faults and temper, I could understand where he came from and why he made mistakes. Ron was the one who I didn't know why Hermione and Harry put up with. Don't get me wrong, he was mostly a good friend and the movies made him a bit more asinine than he was in the books, but he could be a really immature jerk. Him being jealous of Harry being famous was something I couldn't sympathize with. Yes being poor and overshadowed by your brothers can suck, but there are worse things! At least your family is alive and loves you!

Anyway, I really wish the movie had kept in Ron freaking out when Bellatrix tortures Hermione in DH Part 1. I think the book version of that scene, more than the part where he destroys the Necklace, is where he really redeems himself after his Horcrux tantrum (for Hermione anyway).

[HunterHunted]

This is super bizarre, but every time I see Dumbledore's grave/memorial at the end of Deathly Hallows: Part 1 I wonder if it was designed by I M Pei or Maya Lin. It is so incongruously minimalist modern that it makes me wonder if there is some sort of set or production design easter egg, like maybe someone on the crew was either a classmate of Lin's or a student of Pei's.

There was something like that on Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes. Every prison on the show was design to either look like or be named after a University of Michigan landmark.

[Spartan Girl]

No matter how many times I see Deathly Hallows Part 2, it still breaks my heart that the first thing Harry does after using the Resurrection Stone was run to his mother. Part of him will always be that sad little boy in the cupboard.

[truthaboutluv]

For all Harry's faults and temper, I could understand where he came from and why he made mistakes. Ron was the one who I didn't know why Hermione and Harry put up with. Don't get me wrong, he was mostly a good friend and the movies made him a bit more asinine than he was in the books, but he could be a really immature jerk. Him being jealous of Harry being famous was something I couldn't sympathize with. Yes being poor and overshadowed by your brothers can suck, but there are worse things! At least your family is alive and loves you!

 

 

This is why, of all the many stupid shipping arguments that bugged me, one of the ones that most grated was the one by some Ron/Hermione shippers who would say, "Ron already doesn't have anything. He's poor, he's overshadowed by his many siblings, so how unfair would it be for him to lose the girl to Harry too?" Seriously that use to make me practically twitch with annoyance because one, Hermione wasn't some freaking object for poor Ron to "win" to assuage his feelings of inadequacy and two, I'm sorry but if we wanted to compare shitty lives, Ron didn't come close to what Harry had been through...period.

 

Oh he's poor and has a big family. Except that family includes parents who loved him and brothers and sisters who love and support him. Such a tragic life compared to the kid with no parents, spent eleven years sleeping in a closet underneath stairs, being treated like an old shoe his "family" wanted nothing more than to get rid of. And it's funny that some of the same people who argued about poor Ron's hard life were the same ones rooting for Harry and Ginny even when it made no sense because "One Big Happy Weasley Family" and it meant Harry would finally be a real Weasley. Yet I thought being a Weasley was what made Ron's life so hard?

 

Also, you know what's funny, but I think without many realizing it, JK did give Harry "the girl". Many assumed and saw Hermione as being in that role because she was the close friend and it was ultimately the trio together all the time, going on their adventures. But while the movies went for conventionally pretty Emma Watson, remember in the books, JK described Hermione as having big, huge teeth and very bushy hair. Not exactly your classic beauty and at first some feminists thought that was her bucking convention of the gorgeous love interest, gorgeous main female character.

 

But then who did JK eventually put Harry with - the girl who was described as becoming so hot and beautiful that even Slytherins were attracted to her. She was sporty, athletic, stunning beauty with her flowing, fiery red hair and funny and a bad ass too. She would never be described as a know-it-all, boring and mocked for her interests in fighting for House Elves. No Harry basically married the Prom Queen. So uh, yeah she gave him "the girl" in the end. 

 

That's why I LOATHED that stupid part of DH when Ron returned and the necklace showed his fear with the image of Hermione and Harry kissing and Harry had to make the grand statement that he only sees Hermione as a sister. I felt like that whole thing played right into all the stupid reader/shipping blathering for years and was JK's way of pandering to shippers, something she did WAY too much of in my opinion, starting from Half Blood Prince. Of course Ron is riddled with insecurity and his big fear is that Hermione would want Harry because everyone loves Harry more, never mind that Hermione had showed no more interest in Harry than he in her and she could not have been more blatant of her feelings for him in Half-Blood Prince.

 

And Harry had to make the grand announcement that he only saw Hermione as a sister to ensure no confusion from any reader about any feelings there. The whole thing was just stupid. As I've said before, I really liked the series and it will certainly hold up over the time for generations of book readers but I think one of its biggest weaknesses was the romance/relationship. JK sucked at those and she should have just kept it out of the series in my opinion. 

Edited June 15, 2015 by truthaboutluv

[VCRTracking]

 

I agree. When Snape says, "I am the half-blood prince" in the movie it's like . . . so? What is that again? They don't go into that at all.

To be fair, I think it was easier to show Harry getting immersed in the "Half Blood Prince"'s old textbook and wondering who it could be in throughout the book, while in a movie they would have to devote endless scenes of Harry reading to get the point across and you don't have the benefit of it writing back like Tom Riddle's diary.

[ChromaKelly]

I have the unpopular opinion of liking Half Blood Prince, both book and movie. I do agree however that the movie does a bad job of explaining what/who exactly the Half Blood Prince is and what it means when Snape says that at the end. Tom Felton does great work in the movie showing Draco's angst at what he's been tasked with doing. The Slughorn/Tom Riddle flashbacks are done very well and go a long way to show how pre-Voldemort Riddle could be charming and amass a following.

The movie does contain the most mocked line and scene in our household though - Ginny saying "Harry Potter of course" and the awkward shoe-tying thing. I get secondhand embarrassment watching that!

[VCRTracking]

See, if that had been Hermione bending down to tie his shoes the visual would cause fans to explode. There would be countless GIFs on Tumblr.

 

My favorite part of the HBP movie is Harry on liquid luck. The book version is no where near as entertaining!

[truthaboutluv]

See, if that had been Hermione bending down to tie his shoes the visual would cause fans to explode. There would be countless GIFs on Tumblr.

 

 

Nah, I would have been just as "WTAF" as I was with it happening with Harry and Ginny. Harry and Ginny in the books annoyed me because I found new and improved Ginny kind of obnoxious and insufferable and never actually saw what she and Harry had that was so special but I could sort of chalk it up to nothing deeper than teenage hormones. But movie Harry and Ginny was just plain freaking weird. Dan and Bonnie had no chemistry and some of those changes they made, like that shoe thing was just baffling. 

Edited June 19, 2015 by truthaboutluv

[Eeksquire]

Add me to the chorus of people who liked book HBP, but I found the movie version seriously lacking.  I think leaving out the memories that they left out does a poor job of setting up the Deathly Hallows movies - in the book there was doubt as to what the additional horcruxes are/might be and where they might be, but in the movies, it's hard to tell how the Trio would have any clue at.all.

[Spartan Girl]

I too liked HBP the book and enjoyed the movie despite its flaws. The scenes of young Volemort were creepy, Tom Felton gave Malfoy depth, and Harry on liquid luck will NEVER be unfunny.

But although I seem to be the odd person out on this board that actually liked the Harry/Ginny pairing in the books, I agree that the movie version was lacking. The movies never did Ginny justice; she never came into her own the way she did in the books. The writers were so busy with building up Ron and Hermione and giving us fake Harry/Hermione anvils that they just shoehorned Harry's romances.

That being said, I still think their moments in Deathly Hallows Part 2 were okay. Bonnie Wright nailed that scream when she saw "dead" Harry.

[truthaboutluv]

The writers were so busy with building up Ron and Hermione and giving us fake Harry/Hermione anvils that they just shoehorned Harry's romances.

 

 

YMMV but I can't judge the movie writers on that because that's what JK herself did. Seriously, remove the fake H/Hr anvils and that sentence can pretty much sum up the book series. JK spent most of the series building up Ron and Hermione and shoehorned a love story for Harry in the 13th hour. I guess she figured simply having Ginny always hanging around since the first book and being a Weasley would be enough to make up for the lack of actual relationship development between the two and clearly, it worked for many so there you go. But it's why I couldn't fault the movie people with that pairing because they didn't have much to work with. 

[stealinghome]

But it's why I couldn't fault the movie people with that pairing because they didn't have much to work with.

I don't disagree that Harry/Ginny was pretty poorly written--or really just not written--in the books, but let's give JKR some credit here, she never sunk to the level of the movies' shoelace-tying scene. That was embarrassingly bad--like a 9-year-old's idea of romance or something. I don't know wtf the screenwriter (writing it), the director (shooting it), or the editors (leaving it in) were all thinking with that one.

 

More seriously, Harry/Ginny was weak in the books BUT the movie people did themselves no favors by basically leaving out most of the moments that actually worked for the couple, or in which you understood why they were together, and leaving in the weaker moments--or writing brand-new super weak moments. And even then, it might have been...somewhat okay...if DR and BW had had any semblance of chemistry, but they didn't, and it's clear that no one involved with the films stopped to think about how to work around the lack of chemistry.

 

but in the movies, it's hard to tell how the Trio would have any clue at.all.

THIS. I like the Deathly Hallows films quite a bit, they and PoA are my favorites in the movie series, but imo they were really undermined by HBP leaving out all the Horcrux backstory. I feel like I have to do a LOT of fanwanking about the Horcruxes and how the Trio knows what they know in the movies.

Edited June 19, 2015 by stealinghome

[truthaboutluv]

Well yes I fully agree that the shoelace thing was weird which I mentioned above. Like I said, while in the books they were kind of forced and annoying, in the movies it was just weird. I will say, I think the epic Harry/Ginny fail in the movies is a perfect example of why it's tricky to adapt films while the series is still being written. Because if we remember, when they cast these actors, no one knew for sure how the story would go (not to mention they were all kids really).

 

And then JK herself did so little truly developing Harry and Ginny until almost the last book that I can see why by that point there'd been no effort to try and develop some chemistry with Dan and Bonnie on screen. Because the movie people probably thought like so many that it wasn't going to happen.

 

Sure if you expected JK to be completely and utterly cliche you predicted that she'd just conveniently put Harry with Ginny but if you were like me and others and gave her more credit and figured that if she was going to do it she'd have made more effort with them, you weren't expecting the nonsense that came in HBP.  So then when she did pull the cliche and what a cliche it was, complete with monster in the chest, the movie people were stuck having to sell that mess with two actors who had the equivalent of sub zero chemistry. 

Edited June 19, 2015 by truthaboutluv

[benteen]

Despite flaws (including having Snape passionless in his final scene with Harry) I liked the HBP movie a lot. 

 

JK didn't really do much for Harry and Ginny.  I actually would have liked to have seen more of Harry in a relationship but again, I was always under the impression it would have caused JK physical pain to write Harry being happy for more than two consective pages.  The early days of Ron and Hermione's relationship would have been a LOT of fun to see.

 

Truth be told, I would have loved to have seen Harry and Luna.  And I'm not a shipper.

[truthaboutluv]

The scenes of young Volemort were creepy, Tom Felton gave Malfoy depth

 

 

I don't know if this is an unpopular opinion or not but I actually think Tom Felton was the best of the younger actors. I think he was good from the first movie and only got better. And when the story called for him to dig a little deeper with Malfoy's struggle to stay loyal to his family and all he'd been taught and his genuine fear at doing some of what he was asked to do, Felton really sold it. 

 

Nothing against the trio but honestly, I found them all fairly average and well some might even say Daniel was pretty mediocre in those early films. I do think he worked hard and by the end of the series he'd gotten a lot better and I do think he did well with the true meat of the series in my opinion - the ultimate good vs evil battle between him and Voldemort.

 

And I know there are many debates about Ron's true character and appeal being stripped away in the movies and maybe that's true but either way, Rupert Grint was completely unmemorable to me for much of the series. He had moments here and there, mostly just funny ones but nothing that truly stood out to me and Emma was just okay. 

 

Speaking of the actors I also agree about the ones who played Voldemort. The child they cast to play very young Voldemort in the orphanage and the actor who played him everytime they showed him at Hogwarts and as a very young man, were both really, really good. I thought they both conveyed exceptionally well the dark and sinister nature that was already in him that would only get much, much worse the more powerful he became as a wizard. 

 

I actually would have liked to have seen more of Harry in a relationship but again, I was always under the impression it would have caused JK physical pain to write Harry being happy for more than two consective pages.

 

 

I don't think it had to do with her being incapable of making Harry happy for two pages but just that she was kind of crappy at writing romance.  She fell on these very, very tired and cliche tropes and then just beat them to the freaking ground. Boy and girl argue and bicker because they secretly really like each other and they will eventually fall in love. Okay, seen that one multiple times but then she just kept DRAGGING the inevitable coupling when every person and their dog had figured out she would put the two together. So then by the time she finally did, I honestly, and maybe it was just me, couldn't stand Ron or Hermione anymore and thought they deserved each other in a you are both annoying. 

 

Cliche trope number 2 - guy doesn't really see mousy girl who is clearly the girl for him but she gets an amazing makeover and suddenly he realizes what he'd been looking for was right there the whole time. Except JK pretty much made the eventual coupling as superficial as the trope itself with  her showing very little of what about those two made them connect like no one else and what about Ginny made her such a perfect partner for Harry as she herself claimed in interviews, other than she played Quidditch I guess.

 

I remember someone made a great comment in talking about how much that "relationship" was so much telling versus showing. There is a line in HBP after they have gotten together where Harry says that he and Ginny could stay up for hours talking. Except JK never showed us any indication of that ever. She never built the relationship on the basis that these two people just got and understood and connected with each other. No, it was that Ginny got really hot and she became a really good Quidditch player.

 

She even used cliche tropes with the whole Lily, James and Snape saga. James was the arrogant, popular guy who eventually falls hard for the one girl who wasn't impressed with his charm and then of course Snape wasn't really evil after all but all that time had been secretly in love with the beautiful and amazing girl that everyone seemed to loved. Hell it's apparently why Petunia was so bitter because everyone loved Lily more, including their parents, or so she claimed. 

Edited June 19, 2015 by truthaboutluv

[Athena]

I don't know if this is an unpopular opinion or not but I actually think Tom Felton was the best of the younger actors. I think he was good from the first movie and only got better. And when the story called for him to dig a little deeper with Malfoy's struggle to stay loyal to his family and all he'd been taught and his genuine fear at doing some of what he was asked to do, Felton really sold it. 

 

Nothing against the trio but honestly, I found them all fairly average and well some might even say Daniel was pretty mediocre in those early films. I do think he worked hard and by the end of the series he'd gotten a lot better and I do think he did well with the true meat of the series in my opinion - the ultimate good vs evil battle between him and Voldemort.

 

Tom was definitely the best of the kids at first. He also had the most acting experience by that point. Post-HP, he and Daniel are the best in terms of acting. I think Radcliffe developed a lot as an actor over the course of the films. He was not remarkable the first couple of films, but I think PoA was when he started to actually grow as an actor.

 

I think Rupert has a small range and does very well in it as a character actor. I don't find Emma to be a particularly remarkable actor.

 

I hold the UO of actually liking the H/G plot in the books and in HBP. I liked how Harry's relationship with Ginny was actually the least angstiest thing going in his life at that time. It amused me.

 

The movies ruined any good from it. They cut out any decent moments and added the most stupid shoelace scene. I don't understand why couldn't have just adapted a Quidditch scene or the post-Cup party.

[truthaboutluv]

I liked how Harry's relationship with Ginny was actually the least angstiest thing going in his life at that time. It amused me.

 

 

I for one didn't need or want Harry's relationship to be angsty. It's why I liked when he first developed his crush on Cho. Sure I never thought that he would end up with her but I thought it was adorable in that nice, first crush way. And then JK pretty much shit on Cho's character in OOTP and made Harry a major ass to her, to justify trashing that.

 

But with Harry and Ginny, I didn't need it to be angsty ever (and goodness knows how hard I rolled my eyes at that very cliche and corny ending in HBP, "oh Ginny I must go on my quest so I can't be with you" - "Oh Harry I always knew would never be happy unless you were hunting down Voldemort") and had no problems with them being happy. I just felt that with a seven book series that was mostly told from Harry's perspective, it would have been nice to actually read and see something tangible between these two. As I've said before, it's not so much I hated Harry and Ginny, as much as I plain didn't care.

 

And that sucked considering Harry was my favorite character and I wanted to be happy for him and his happy ending. However it was with a character I felt like I neither knew at all because she was mostly just written as a convenience (i.e. the one girl the Weasleys had so Harry could marry into the family) and who I didn't care about. I cared about the trio, I cared about Malfoy in that I was interested in where his story was going to go, I cared about Neville, Voldemort, etc. Ginny, not so much. 

Edited June 19, 2015 by truthaboutluv

[ChromaKelly]

Part of the problem with Ginny in the movies is that Bonnie Wright is wooden and delivers her lines so flatly. Daniel Radcliffe has chemistry with just about every other actor and I think that leads to some of the Harry/Hermione, Harry/Luna, heck even the Harry/Draco shipping. I can feel the connection Harry has with those characters, but not with Ginny. JKR did kind of suck at writing romance and that really is the weakest parts of the books. I never felt like Harry and Ginny were meant to be, it did just feel convenient.

Edited June 19, 2015 by ChromaKelly

[Sharpie66]

I think Radcliffe developed a lot as an actor over the course of the films. He was not remarkable the first couple of films, but I think PoA was when he started to actually grow as an actor.

 

I think I've said it here before, but the first time I ever thought that DR could actually act was in the train in PoA, when they're walking down the aisle trying to find an open seat and he's telling Ron and Hermione about blowing up his aunt. He says something like "I was surprised I wasn't arrested, actually!" in this tone that made me sit up and say "Wow, he can actually deliver a line that sound believable coming out of a young teen and I'm buying him as Harry Potter for the first time in this series!" Every time I see PoA since that first viewing, that line reading really stands out to me.

[blueray]

I personally liked Harry and Ginny together. I feel like it was sort of realistic that they would at least date in high school. She was a popular girl who was athletic, good looking and nice to everyone. Harry was also popular (for the most part), athletic, good looking and nice to everyone.  They also did have some things in common interest wise.

 

As for JK Rowling not writing romance very well, I sadly have to agree. I love the book a lot but that was one weak spot. Which I honestly could careless about, since everything else is awesome!

[VCRTracking]

Having read the two Cormoran Strike mystery books JK wrote under the Robert Galbraith pseudonym, I can say she's better at writing adult relationships. You really do want  Cormoran and his secretary/assistant Robin to get together.

[Spartan Girl]

I personally thought JKR did all right with romance. At least it was better than Twilight. I know that's not a good comparison, but it's still true.

[truthaboutluv]

At least it was better than Twilight. I know that's not a good comparison, but it's still true.

 

 

It's Twilight - so that's not saying much. That said, the Twilight series was pretty much built on and around that god awful romance whereas thankfully HP was not. Which is why I've said, despite my feeling about the relationships in the series, I do still think the series was amazing and will definitely hold up for generations to come. JK created an amazing universe filled with mostly interesting and fun characters and a very compelling bad guy. 

 

Having read the two Cormoran Strike mystery books JK wrote under the Robert Galbraith pseudonym, I can say she's better at writing adult relationships.

 

 

Still have those on my "to read" list but I did read The Casual Vacancy and yeah all the relationships in that were awful too. Although in her defense with that one, I'm pretty sure all the characters were meant to be unhappy and kind of awful, so...

Edited June 19, 2015 by truthaboutluv

[stealinghome]

I feel like it was sort of realistic that they would at least date in high school.

I agree that it was realistic for Ginny and Harry to date in high school. Where JKR lost me was when she tried to make them each other's One True (aka the epilogue). There wasn't enough there there, from what we saw, for me to buy them as lifetime loves.

 

Generally speaking, though, I think that JKR was better with the teen romances than with the epic, Love Of Each Other's Life stuff (aka Harry/Ginny and Hermione/Ron). Like, I think Harry/Cho was handled reasonably well, the Ron/Lavender stuff always makes me laugh because we all knew that couple in high school, what little we saw of the Hermione/Krum stuff was pretty buyable, etc. So it's not like all the romance was handled badly. It was just connecting the teen romance to Happily Ever After that really tripped Rowling up.

 

Part of the problem with Ginny in the movies is that Bonnie Wright is wooden and delivers her lines so flatly.

Yeah, I've never seen BW in anything else so I can't judge her as an actress more broadly, but as Ginny she was super flat and had no charisma. It's almost like she didn't read the books and then no one told her that Ginny was supposed to become a real firecracker from about the fifth book on (granted, as I said above the movies excluded a lot of Ginny's best moments, which didn't help at all).

[kili]

I don't disagree that Harry/Ginny was pretty poorly written--or really just not written--in the books, but let's give JKR some credit here, she never sunk to the level of the movies' shoelace-tying scene. That was embarrassingly bad--like a 9-year-old's idea of romance or something. I don't know wtf the screenwriter (writing it), the director (shooting it), or the editors (leaving it in) were all thinking with that one.

 

We have to give the screenwriter a pass on the shoe-lace thing. The director asked Dan and Bonnie to come up with a situation where they could show their character's growing attraction and that is what they came up with. They used that anecdote frequently during the promo for that movie to showcase the actors.

 

I don't know why the director didn't say "Um...no. Try again" when he saw what they had planned. Perhaps the editor was forced to leave it in.

[stealinghome]

The director asked Dan and Bonnie to come up with a situation where they could show their character's growing attraction and that is what they came up with. They used that anecdote frequently during the promo for that movie to showcase the actors.

That...actually explains a lot about that scene. But, wow, yeah, after one take the director should have been like "...yeah, no, we're doing something else here." Major directing fail.

[truthaboutluv]

Um not sure what that makes me think about what Dan and Bonnie consider flirting. I mean why didn't they just go for her fixing his collar or tie or something like that? The director says come up with a situation that shows the characters' growing attraction towards each other and their minds go to Ginny bending down subserviently to tie Harry's shoe lace while he looks on blank faced? Okay then...

 

Of course I think the bigger issue here is why the director and screenwriter was leaving it up to their two teenage actors to come up with something and essentially do their job for them. Maybe they figured as teenagers they would come up with something more believable and resonant as opposed to adults. Clearly they were wrong. 

Edited June 20, 2015 by truthaboutluv

[Spartan Girl]

The shoelace thing was Dan and Bonnie's idea? Oh that's disappointing...

Even Harry zipping up Ginny's dress in Deathly Hallows Part 1 was better than that. But Book Ginny would never have suddenly gotten bashful and awkward just because George walked in on them making out...

That scene was still funny though.

[Eeksquire]

Ok, I admit to loving the dress-zipping scene, but mostly because of George, I think.