In all fairness, there was a down year in 2003 between Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. There also was not a Harry Potter movie in 2006 between Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
But there’s some truth to the saying that “perception is reality” and it kind of feels like the Harry Potter franchise has permeated nearly every facet of my pop culture consciousness each year since Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone 8 years ago and has never really faded in that length of time.
The sixth movie, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, is hovering on the horizon and it kind of feels like a rebirth for me.
Cami and I didn’t see the fifth movie when it was in theaters. Henry had been born a few months prior and considering the downright dreadful slog that was Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, we didn’t feel compelled to find a sitter.
We ended up renting the movie and watching it maybe a month ago and I was kind of surprised by how dark it was. I’m not a fan of the books, so I can’t compare or contrast against the source material. But I found it INFINITELY more easy to follow compared to Goblet of Fire and (as I’ve been told) there was more complicated plot elements to cram into the fifth movie anyway. So, cheers for that.
With renewed interest I am looking forward to Half-Blood Prince and I think it is to the franchise’s advantage that they have settled on a director with David Yates. He directed Phoenix, Half-Blood and is in the process of filming both chapters of The Deathly Hallows.
As much as I love Alfonso Cuarón’s work in Prisoner of Azkaban (and as much as it looked like they were going to rotate directors out to keep the franchise in step with the natural aging of the actors) I believe a consistent voice is best and I eager to see where things go.
I have no other particular insights about the Harry Potter movies, so I’ll turn it over to you guys. Which one of the films is your favorite? Do you have high hopes for Half-Blood? How do you feel about them splitting the seventh book into two movies? Leave your comments below!
Yeah, it's been a while, hasn't it? We used to get one of those a year. When was the last one?
2007.
What did you do with your year off? I learned to play the piano!
I finished reading War and Peace!
I made a quilt with me making out with Daniel Radcliffe.
Looking forward to this one. The trailers have gotten me excited about seeing this one (may even see it on IMAX)
Not sure which of the movies is my favourite (though my fave of the books is Goblet of Fire). Think I’ll need to show my partner the other movies before we go see this one (he hasn’t seen any of the Harry Potter movies yet)
Hm, different strokes for different folks, I suppose — I found Prisoner of Azkaban and Order of the Phoenix to be nearly unwatchable due to not being able to follow along, unlike the other three.
But then, I never liked the books. I tried one at one point, and didn’t think it was well-written or engaging at all. Of course, I was also probably 10 years older than the intended target audience at the time.
I enjoyed the books as a simple albeit engaging read, of all of them I would have to say Azkaban was my favorite one. It stayed closer to the story line than all the book, there was a lot left out in Phoenix (enough for me to actually care) and I don’t know how they will cram all that’s in Half Blood into this movie. I guess I will have to wait and see.
On a side note, I seen Bruno this weekend. Wow. I seen more man junk than I have cared to and watching some of that stuff is definately uncomfortable.
As a huge fan of the books (although coming to them via the movies), a strange thing happened for me, probably starting at the end of Goblet of Fire. I started to realize how hard it is going to be to wrap these movies up because of plot elements that were cut from the earlier films.
The books individually are fun. However, the real genius behind them comes in book 7 where all the plot elements come together in a pretty spectacular climax. That being said, I believe it’s essential that they split the final move into 2 parts. The book even has a natural end point about mid-way through the story.
Honestly, I’m more worried about what they’ve done with Half-Blood Prince. Not a single line of dialog from the trailer is straight from the book, and Dumbledore’s “wand-arm” appears to be unmaimed which seriously concerns me, being that his maiming is an incredibly important plot element (not only in Half-Blood) but as a point of redemption for a major character that wouldn’t pay off until the second half of Deathly Hallows. Personally, I really want to like the movie, but I fear that like Order of the Phoenix and Goblet of Fire, it’s going to leave me frustrated at the details that are discarded along the way.
I know they can’t put everything in, but if it was up to me, there would be different cuts made.
I just wish they’d have done the movies like Lord of the Rings and done extended cuts for the hardcore fans that want the movies to be more complete.
We are very excited. Our theater has sold out all 4 screens for their 12:01 AM showings on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning. We are taking 9 people, my daughter’s friends, with us.
I am probably 20 years older than the target audience for the books, but that just means I read them to my children (now 13 & 16) and we were totally engaged. When the last 2 books came out we had to buy 2 copies. Each was being read continuously until all 4 of us completed them. One copy is now in our house library and the extra was given away to a child at our school.
I’m probably not going to get to see the new Harry Potter movie until the weekend. It’s funny – I was sitting bored for the last couple months since this year’s summer selection has been abysmal and disappointing. I had hoped Transformers would at least be serviceable, but so far the 3 best movies have been Star Trek, Up and The Hurt Locker. I really hope that where the Tomato-Meter indications stand now are going to stay relatively constant because we *need* a good middle-of-summer movie right now.
I haven’t seen a Harry Potter film since the second one (and that I only watched because there wasn’t anything better as an in-flight movie), but this looks pretty exciting.
That and the 6th book was pretty much the filler before the 7th, so I don’t feel like there’s much they could screw up.
My problem is, I was a hugely crazy Harry Potter fan and I don’t want to wake up that insanity again with minor inaccuracies.
I’m not really a Harry Potter fan, but I’m actually looking forward to this one. Maybe it’s because this summer’s crop of movies has sucked so consistently, and I know I can at least rely on the Harry Potter films to be decent if nothing else.
I find the movies an interesting series in development of the actors and the effects over the storyline. The story is ok. It follows the books where it can and drops many of the subplots and character development. The stories survive the cuts well enought but I can see where the genre may not appeal to everyone.
Half-Blood Prince was supposed to come out last November – supposedly it was completely ready for screenings, too. WB wanted to wait and cash in on the summer audience instead, so Twilight took the original November slot.
I really don’t get how successful the HP universe is. JK’s writing isn’t of a high standard (how many adverbs can you throw into a sentence?). But then it’s made her the richest woman on the planet so what do I know?
I don’t think it’s that the writing is particularly great, it’s just that she manages to build an engaging world. It’s complex, it’s got all the great things of kids imaginations, magic and dragons and wizards and it’s also got things of nightmares all strewn together in a simple enough manner that kids are able to get into it.
I’m preceding this by saying that I am a super HP fangirl. Please do not judge me too harshly.
Actually, Prisoner of Azkaban is my favorite book and my least favorite movie. I just feel that it was such a dramatic change from Chris Columbus’ faithful adaptations, and I feel that many important themes and plot points were glossed over. It forced me to start looking at the movies as films in their own right, rather than adaptations. Of the films, CoS and OotP are my favorites so far, which is why I’m looking forward to Half-Blood Prince.
And they have to split the seventh book into two parts. SO MUCH happens, and SO MUCH of it is crucial. They would have to scramble and cram and the fans would revolt. It’s necessary.
And yes. I will be at the theatre tomorrow at midnight, and I am mighty proud of it 😉