Around 3:40 my mater and

Around 3:40 my mater and I arrived at our local movie theatre for the 4:00 showing of HP and the CoS, but it was s to the izz old out. We bought tickets for the next time [4:50] and walked next door to the Coffee Beanery and had hot chocolate [me], tea [the mater], and a cheese danish [both.] Also, I spotted a soggy dollar on the ground, so I picked it up and that made me feel special. Finding money is always nice. :D

So, le film de Harry Potter. [Major spoilers ahead. You were warned.] I didn't like when Vernon fell out of the window and Harry was all, "Smile! I delight in other people's injuries!" And when he stabbed the diary with the fang. Repeatedly. With much gusto. They're turning my poor, sweet Harry into an extremely violent boy. ;-;

The Burrow setting was great. Loved the pigs, loved the clock, loved the chairs, loved the fireplace. <3 Arthur Weasley is hardly thin, but he did the part pretty nicely, I thought. It took me a while to recognise Percy! He was looking q. cute in that scene.

Lucius Malfoy was excellent with his silly little snake scepter. I was a little surprised with his "Avada—" I don't think he would go so far as to attempt to kill Harry in the middle of Hogwarts. But I guess when people lose their tempers . . .

Kenneth Branagh was AMAZING. Seriously, he was a spectacular Lockhart. And with q. a fashion sense. ;D His dueling outfit was love. <3 At the end, after all the credits [me mum and me sat there to the very bitter end because Sibling #1 said they had a tribute to Richard Harris or an extra scene or some such nonsense] there was a short little thing where it showed a shop in Diagon Alley, possibly Flourish & Blotts, and there was a poster for "Who Am I?" with Lockhart in a straightjacket looking dazed. :D Memory-loss!Lockhart was perhaps even better than Pompous!Lockhart.

And then of course there was the Snape-Lockhart interaction. Rickman had far too few scenes, but the ones he did have were of course excellent. I missed the part in the book where Lockhart does this dramatic bow with flourishes of his hands and Snape just barely inclines his head. In the movie they both simply bow to each other, which was incredibly boring. But Snape is lovely anyway. Esp. when he picks up Draco during the duel and pushes him back toward Harry. And one part that made me smile was the Snape-McGonagall tag team action where they tell Lockhart he should be the one to go save Ginny because he said he knows where the Chamber is.

Dumbledore was weak [I hate to speak ill of the dead, but it's true xP], although towards the end he smiled a bit, when telling Harry and Ron that they got awards and when telling the school that exams were cancelled, and that was good.

Crabbe and Goyle are super. :D They were brilliant as Harry and Ron. And towards the end, when Crabbe stood up to clap and Malfoy pulled him down . . . that was great.

And now enough of the actors and on to other things. I esp. loved the details of the movie. All the moving Lockhart pictures, the bottle of Skele-gro, the statues. Ooh, and talking of statues: I adored the entrance to Dumbledore's office! With the griffin and the spiral staircase . . . that r0x0red.

The animatronics, on the other hand, SUCKED. Totally and completely sux0red hardcore. I hated Fawkes [old Fawkes was just terrible, reborn Fawkes was slightly better], I hated the basilisk [it belonged in a Godzilla movie xP], I hated Hermione's cat face, and the close-ups on Aragog were totally unnecessary. They should have just used CG.

The spider scene was incredibly scary, but I still can't fathom why they changed "Forbidden Forest" to "Dark Forest." I mean, what the crap? Oh, and the audience loved Ron's reaction to the spiders. Harry is talking to Aragog and the entire theatre audience starts cracking up because Ron is looking up at the spiders and is just totally scared out of his pants. :D Ron is so lovely. Other parts that made me literally gasp were when that scary hand grabbed Harry's in Borgin and Burkes, when Harry was laying in the sand and the bludger came hurtling at him, and when the basilisk shot up out of the water when Harry was kneeling by Ginny.

Oh, and the Whomping Willow! I totally imagined it as a willow tree, not a freaky fake tree with like hands and stuff. That was just weird and pjooey.

Parseltongue was totally kickass. It sounded kind of like Hebrew, with the "ch"ing, but then of course there was all the hissing, which I don't think happens often in Hebrew. Then again, I know no Hebrew, so I'm not one to talk.

Nitpicks. A basilisk is basically an overgrown snake, right? Snakes do not rely on their hearing so much as their sense of smell, right? Why wasn't he sticking out his tongue like a normal snake? And why on earth did Harry pick up the sword by the blade with his bare hands? I mean, HELLO? If it's sharp enough to pierce the basilisk's jaw, you'd think it would hurt his hands. And if all the students are wearing earmuffs that block out the piercing shriek of the mandrakes, how on earth can the hear Professor Sprout's instructions? There were other things that I noticed while watching the movie, but I've forgotten them now. When I see it the second time [which I'm sure I will >D], I'll remember.

Oh, and I really enjoyed the flashback scene. Young!Hagrid was extremely poorly done, but Tom Riddle was yum. =9 Oh, and Moaning Myrtle was pretty good. I loved her voice. :D

I think that's all. I'll blog about last night's affair tomorrow 'cause I am plumb exhausted. xP

Almeda | 16.11.02 21:31 | TrackBack