A note on the third Harry Potter movie

[womzilla]

As noted in my previous post, I'm working through a two-week backlog of Friends Lists posts, and a post from negativeq about the film helped me realize one thing that I quite liked about the film but which might be off-putting to many viewers.

nellorat said that she saw a number of reviews which said the film was pitched completely at the cogniscenti, that only people who had read the book could possibly understand what was going on. We have a solid counterexample of that in our own family; supergee, who has read none of the novels, had no problem at all following the third film. However, I do agree that the film moves very quickly from point to point and often leaves it to the viewer to make significant connections. The incluing is done at a ferocious clip, and people who aren't familiar with the

This does make me wonder how anyone is ever going to make an even remotely satisfying version of Order of the Phoenix. The pre-Hogwarts section alone--the first two hundred or so pages of the American version of the novel--could easily take two hours of film to handle properly. Maybe a series of films per novel, the Kill Bill of the wizardly world? I'm not as worried about the adaptation of Goblet of Fire; the plot in that is more bloated and less intricate, and I suspect it will compress down to a satisfying 150-180 minutes. But Order of the Phoenix--man, a lot happens in that, and almost all of it is important....

(As to things I missed from the book: I hadn't noticed until sarah_ovenall mentioned it, but, yes, the shape of Harry's petronus isn't explained, and that's a shame. A bigger shame is not explaining the origin of the Maurader's Map. Either of these would have taken only a sentence or two from an appropriate character and would have, imho, added significantly to the film's development of the theme of Harry's deep-rooted connection to his father. But the film wasn't a poor one for those gaps, and otherwise I thought that the handling of the material for adaptation was very skillful. I wasn't sad to see Quidditch's role tremendously reduced, although Prisoner is the first of the novels in which Rowling can be seen to understand exactly how little sense the rules of Quidditch make. I also agree with Sarah's observation that the main characters spend far too much time in muggle street-clothes and not enough in their classroom robes.)

Comments

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

I agree that the rules of quidditch don't make much sense, but the game is inspired by soccer, which doesn't make much sense either. The outcome of a quidditch match seems to rest almost entirely on the capture of the little ball that it's Harry's job to chase (I forget what it's called; it's been years since I've read any of these books), and therefore presumably on the skill differential between the two players holding his position; but my experience of amateur soccer is that the outcome of a match rests almost entirely on the skill differential between the two goalies.

[davidgoldfarb.livejournal.com]

It's worse than that; it rests not just on the skill differential between the two Seekers, but on their equipment. Much is made of Harry having the latest and greatest broom. Quidditch seems to be a rich wizard's game.

[sturgeonslawyer.livejournal.com]

Quidditch is indeed a rich wizard's game (though the Weasleys seem to manage), and the importance of the brooms leads me to suggest that it's based at least as much upon polo as soccer.

(Also, the best brooms don't guarantee victory - recalling that in the second book Malfoy's dad buys upgrade versions of Harry's superbroom for his whole team. They lose anyway. So there's _some_ skill factor involved...)

[womzilla.livejournal.com]

Soccer makes at least as much sense as any other team sport, and more than most. Unlike Quidditch, Soccer is not structured in such a way that the activities which take up most of the time and attention of the game (the quaffle, the goals, and all of the players other than the seekers) are almost completely irrelevent to the outcome of the game, overwhelmed by a completely separate side-game.

To be as senseless as Quidditch, a game of Soccer would have to conclude with a footrace between two players who take no significant part in the rest of the game, and the winner of the footrace scores five goals. To really resemble Quidditch, the footrace should start at a random point in the game and require the racers to sprint across the field while the rest of the players are trying to tackle them.