Harry Potter - The Complete Series Thread

[Doctor Jones]

Believe me, I had one of THOSE people behind me during Part I, when that dancing scene came up, she said, "THAT wasn't in the book!" Ugh. Just please... shut up.

I love the scene myself. It's a very human moment that really adds to them. Plus, I think it's Kloves way of showing his preference for a Harry/Hermione pairing.

 

[Nemeres]

This comes a tad late, but regarding the alternate fanfic ending from a couple of pages back: intriguing. The last book is hands down the clumsiest of them all, imo, so it's not like I'm particularly precious about the way it ended. It always seemed a bit "eh" to me that Harry's chosen-one-ness ended at 17, right after defeating Voldemort. The immortality thing would've been a cool throwback to the chat he had with Dumbledore about Nicholas Flamel in Book 1, and it would've made for a much more interesting speculation about the rest of his life than just the happy family man thing.

On the other hand, the theme of the book(s) was death and the wisdom/courage required to accept it. But this is a world where the guarantee of an afterlife exists (ghosts everywhere) so I don't know if that was as effective as it was supposed to anyway. End rant.

 

[Victarion]

I liked the stuff they dropped about Dumbledore in the Deathly Hallows.

 

[Asteroid-Man]

Yeah, it seems like before the 2000's, book adaptations used to take HUGE liberties with the source material and get away with it with very little controversy. I think the rise of internet fandom has given people communities of like-minded fans with whom they can debate, nitpick and tear adaptations apart to their hearts' content, and that's led to a general audience attitude that's much more critical of deviations from the source materials than they used to be.

I don't think the HP films were great film adaptations, but they weren't unfaithful to the books. Not by a long shot, imo.

That said, my ideal adaptation of these books would be a premium cable or streaming TV series: one season per book, and 6 to 10-episode seasons depending on the length of the book being adapted. Part of what I feel is missing from the movies, and it's really not their fault, is the way the books really captured the day-to-day operations and happenings of Hogwarts. Reading the books, you could easily feel like you were living there. The way the months/seasons passed and the subplots evolved across the school years, the little details that really fleshed out the universe and that general sense of spending a year with these characters each time couldn't be captured in a 2+hour movie. Each book would need several hours devoted to it to properly capture that feeling, so I think a TV series would be better. If they did one season/book a year like they kinda do with Game of Thrones, the child actors would still grow up with the roles just like they did with the films, which I think would be even cooler to witness with a TV series than it was with the films. Not anytime soon of course, as the movies are still fresh in our memories, but maybe in a decade or so.

Can you please merge both Harry Potter threads?

8 Harry Potter movies have been released from 2001-2011. it has become one of the highest grossing movie franchises of all time and has gotten extremely positive reviews. The Harry Potter movie franchise is based off the extremely successful series of books by JK Rowling. Which Harry Potter Movie is your favorite?

We already have a Harry Potter thread.

 

[XtremelyBaneful]

Can you please merge both Harry Potter threads?


We already have a Harry Potter thread.

I think it should be merged here --> http://forums.superherohype.com/showthread.php?t=317566&highlight=harry+potter

I'm a hardcore harry potter fan so I think we should have 1 harry potter megathread to discuss ALL things harry potter if you get my drift. if there's going to be one in the films section and one in the book section that's fine too, but since the film adaptations are so closely associated with the source material I think it should be 1 big mega thread for all things HP.

 

[Asteroid-Man]

I think it should be merged here --> http://forums.superherohype.com/showthread.php?t=317566&highlight=harry+potter

I'm a hardcore harry potter fan so I think we should have 1 harry potter megathread to discuss ALL things harry potter if you get my drift. if there's going to be one in the films section and one in the book section that's fine too, but since the film adaptations are so closely associated with the source material I think it should be 1 big mega thread for all things HP.

That subforum barely gets visited. Keep one thread for the books and one for the movies.

 

[Marvolo]

This thread is very clearly about the films. Film discussion doesn't belong in the book section of the forums.

 

[XtremelyBaneful]

I didn't know he meant merging film threads. In this case though the films are very often compared to the books and vice versa. You'll often find the book discussion turning into a film discussion from comparison and so on and so forth.

 

[Sawyer]

*sees Neville Longbottom trending on Twitter*

*finds Matthew Lewis' Attitude Magazine photo spread*

 

[mclay18]

I thought JKR and Matthew Lewis's Twitter chat about the Attitude magazine shoot was rather funny. She comes off like a disappointed but supportive mom.

 

[amazingfantasy15]

That is a fanboy problem, not a narrative problem. I say this as someone who lost a lot of his favorites scenes with the cuts.

I think there was a huge narrative problem with the movies. Starting with movie 3 a lot of really important information started to get cut.

Movie 3 - Origin of the Marauder's, most importantly the map

Movie 4 - The entire movie felt very rushed, there should have been another 10-15 minutes spent at the Quittich Cup and another 10-15 minutes on the ending, explaining Voldemort's plan and Dumbledore making his plans for what's next. This is also when the movies started to care way too much about the relationships, the Yule Ball could've been cut entirely and we would've missed nothing. Instead spend another 5 minutes in the pensive and have Harry watch all the trials. Also, have the prize money that Harry can give the Twins.

Movie 5 - First another few minutes spent at the Dursley's, that scene was chopped to bits and had no suspense. Spend another 5-10 minutes at Sirius' house in the summer. Showing Ron and Hermione getting their prefect badges, the Twins developing their jokes products and Mrs. Dursley's boggart needed to be there. Also make Umbridge actually evil, not just a strict teacher, have the Quibbler interview. Also let the talk between Harry and Dumbledore play out, let all that information be given.

Movie 6 - Cut the romance and give us the origin of Voldemort/the Horcruxes, that what this book was about. Also, make Harry obsessed with finding out what Draco's plan was. Make the bathroom fight scary, like the Dementor attack in movie 5, it lacked all sense of suspense. Finally expand the attack on Hogwarts make it like the book, not just a Bellatrix temper tantrum. Plus have the funeral.

All the movies needed was another 30 minutes or so and they could've been so much better and given us the proper information. It's not the there were cuts, it's that those cuts were of important information and they seem to have been made to give us more relationship stuff which wasn't really needed.

 

[Lord]

As someone who only watched the movies and not the books, i felt like the films started to blur themselves in the 5th one, had i not known what a Horcrux is from the wikia, i wouldn't have followed the films as well either.

I feel like some of the information could have very easily been delivered, and while i understood the reason to divide the last story, it always felt to me like they didn't use the fact that they had 2 films now and could have had much more exposition than what they gave. The bit when they came back to Hogwarts was honestly very confusing, with that ghost that supposedly hided one of the horcruxes and all that.

The final battle could have also been handled much better, i wish we had seen more of each one of the most important characters, expecialy those that ended up dying, it just felt like the group was going from a messy place into another, i was hoping for the battle to be a bit more interessting and creative, not to mention Voldemort and Belatrix turning into confeti. Being a film, they also had the oportunity to change some things from the books, expecialy that awful epilogue, but instead of giving some 10 minutes or so to see how the surviving side characters that we've grown to like for 8 films are, we cut abruptly to 19 years later to see the main trio many years later.

I wish someone else had directed Deathly Hallows, i always thought David Yates was just serviceable, and the last story deserved much better than just a serviceable execution.

 

[Chesterfield]

Sorry if this has been posted before but has anyone seen this? I quite enjoyed it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbdvogFyZZM

 

[Marvolo]

Anyone who enjoys listening to the movie scores or particularly enjoys the score for the Deathly Hallows films send me a PM letting me know. Ive got a treat for yall.

 

[A Necessary Evil]

I love the DH scores, they're great.

Also, as someone who hasn't read the books since 2007, I still feel the films did a fine job of telling the story.

 

[Lord]

I have a question regarding the Order of the Phoenix film, in the end the team is next to what seems like a portal, and the order of the phoenix even enters from there. What was it exactly? Once Sirius Black dies, his body starts to float into it for some reason, and we never see his body again, it almost looks as if the Avada Kedavra spell had made him disappear.

And what was that prophecy thing? Who made it and why was it Voldemort's secret weapon? If anything, it only predicted something Voldemort already intented to do (kill Harry).

 

[mclay18]

Anyone who enjoys listening to the movie scores or particularly enjoys the score for the Deathly Hallows films send me a PM letting me know. Ive got a treat for yall.

Desplat's work on the final two films rival Williams' work on POA IMO. I'm excited to hear what he'll bring to Star Wars Anthology: Rogue One.

 

[Chesterfield]

Not taking away from Desplat but I have to disagree.
Williams' buckbeak's flight theme alone is better than anything Desplat did for both DH movies.

 

[Hush]

I have a question regarding the Order of the Phoenix film, in the end the team is next to what seems like a portal, and the order of the phoenix even enters from there. What was it exactly? Once Sirius Black dies, his body starts to float into it for some reason, and we never see his body again, it almost looks as if the Avada Kedavra spell had made him disappear.

And what was that prophecy thing? Who made it and why was it Voldemort's secret weapon? If anything, it only predicted something Voldemort already intented to do (kill Harry).

Read The Books, honestly best answer.

 

[Gold Samurai]

Earlier this year I decided to collect the books and the movies

-The books really make Harry sound like a jerk who doesn't listen

-"Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" the movie goes by really fast and at times feels like a filler episode of a series. Particularly the time travel part at the end.

- The book and movie don't really explain what that arch that Sirius dies in was.

 

[Mad Ones]

Prisoner of Azkaban is my personal favourite. Book and movie.

 

[Marvolo]

I have a question regarding the Order of the Phoenix film, in the end the team is next to what seems like a portal, and the order of the phoenix even enters from there. What was it exactly? Once Sirius Black dies, his body starts to float into it for some reason, and we never see his body again, it almost looks as if the Avada Kedavra spell had made him disappear..

The Order of the Phoenix dont enter through the Arch. They apparated in through the door that Harry and the group fell through at the top of the room. Then they flew all around the room.

In the books the Order just come running into the room through doors and even Dumbledore walks in like a BAMF and immediately makes Lucius and the other Death Eaters his *****es. In the books only Voldenort knows how to fly around like smoke. Yates tho gave the ability to any and every adult wizard.

As for the Arch the books never explain it very much. The ministry is built over it. And it seems to be at the very heart of the Department of Mysteries which is where Unspeakables study things like time, death, and other powerful ancient magic. The Department of Mysteries is a bit like our Area 51. Highly classified and top secret. That is why those who work there are called Unspeakables. They arent allowed to ever tell what they do in there.

The Arch is very ancient whatever it is. In the books when Harry and the others first arrive they wonder through a number of rooms. One has giant planets in it, another has a giant tank with floating brains in it that have thoughts coming off them like tentacles that can grab onto you and hurt you, another room is full of time turners. There is also a spinning circular atrium with doors all around the room and one of the doors is locked. Harry tries to use a knife sirius gave him that can pick any lock. The door's lock melts Harry's knife. Later Dumbledore tells Harry that in the Department of Mysteries is a room filled with the most powerful magic of all. He says that the power is love. Apparently love is an actual magic that is studied in the Harry Potter universe, and it is what gave Lilly's sacrifice the power to protect Harry from Volemort when he tried to kill him when he was a baby and what allowed Harry to protect all of Hogwarts from Voldemort when he sacrificed himself to Voldemort in the Forbidden Forest.

Anyways, back to the Department of Mysteries, they eventually stumble into the room with the Arch. Harry and Luna can hear voices coming from behind the Veil and it seems to have some sort of pull on Harry and Luna. Harry most of all. He even forgets why he is at the Ministry and approaches the veil without realizing it. Hermione cant here the voices but she gets really freaked out begging them to leave the room and she is able to get Harry's attention off the Arch and he remembers why they are at the Ministry and they leave the room and end up in the Prophecy room.

After Sirius falls through the Veil Lupin is trying to restrain Harry and Harry is screaming that sirius is alive. Lupin tells him that he is gone and that where Sirius has gone he cant come back.

So the likeliest thing is that the Veil is literally a doorway to the otherside. There has been all sorts of speculation about it in the fandom. Some have speculated and I also think this is a possibility that this portal is the origin of magic. There may even be other Veils in other countries that foreign Ministry's of Magic are constructed on top of. Unfortunately, or not depending on how you feel about it, Rowling never explained the Arch. So your guess is about as good as mine or anyone elses.

My advice, if you dont have time to read all the books or even all of OOTP, take the time to read the climax of OOTP. Start at Chapter 34 "The Department of Mysteries" What happens at the Ministry in the books is...well its a lot more. And there is a lot to the phrophecy that is left out of the films. An entire chapter is given to Harry and Dumbledore's discussion about the prophecy in his office after they return to Hogwarts and a lot is covered and lets just say a number of Dumbledore's prized trinkets and possessions are thrown and tables flipped. Its interesting.

 

[Doctor Jones]

Prisoner of Azkaban is my personal favourite. Book and movie.

Same here. It's the most character driven and personal and it's the bridge between books 2 and 4 where things become much grayer instead of black and white the previous two did. Plus, ironically, it's the only story where Voldemort doesn't appear in. It's weird the smallest scaled out of the seven stories yet it feels very human at times.

 

[mclay18]

Not taking away from Desplat but I have to disagree.
Williams' buckbeak's flight theme alone is better than anything Desplat did for both DH movies.

That's why POA remains #1 on my list.

I think Desplat's work on the final two are criminally underrated. Doyle and Hooper's scores for movies 4-6 were fine, but they didn't elevate the movies to a significant level.

I was ecstatic that Desplat got the gig. If you couldn't get Williams to finish off the series, Desplat was the second best choice. I really loved his music for the final two films.

 

[Asteroid-Man]

Not taking away from Desplat but I have to disagree.
Williams' buckbeak's flight theme alone is better than anything Desplat did for both DH movies.

Agreed.

Anyone who enjoys listening to the movie scores or particularly enjoys the score for the Deathly Hallows films send me a PM letting me know. Ive got a treat for yall.

Is it too late for whatever this is about? lol

As someone who only watched the movies and not the books, i felt like the films started to blur themselves in the 5th one, had i not known what a Horcrux is from the wikia, i wouldn't have followed the films as well either.

I feel like some of the information could have very easily been delivered, and while i understood the reason to divide the last story, it always felt to me like they didn't use the fact that they had 2 films now and could have had much more exposition than what they gave. The bit when they came back to Hogwarts was honestly very confusing, with that ghost that supposedly hided one of the horcruxes and all that.

The final battle could have also been handled much better, i wish we had seen more of each one of the most important characters, expecialy those that ended up dying, it just felt like the group was going from a messy place into another, i was hoping for the battle to be a bit more interessting and creative, not to mention Voldemort and Belatrix turning into confeti. Being a film, they also had the oportunity to change some things from the books, expecialy that awful epilogue, but instead of giving some 10 minutes or so to see how the surviving side characters that we've grown to like for 8 films are, we cut abruptly to 19 years later to see the main trio many years later.

I wish someone else had directed Deathly Hallows, i always thought David Yates was just serviceable, and the last story deserved much better than just a serviceable execution.

Another thing that shouldn't have been cut from 5th movie was the locket. Oooooh and the other rooms at the DoM.