| 11 AUG 2009 at 12:45pm |
| Deleted User | [size=16]Does anybody still care about Harry Potter?
I never DID !!
I admit to being one of a tiny minority who was never much impressed or greatly interested in either the books or the films.
( Probably even very much less than the millions who swooned over Michael Jackson !)
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| 11 AUG 2009 at 1:57pm |
JelenaPrivate Detective
Posts : 587
Joined: 30 SEP 2007
Status : Offline | I care more for the books (and I've read all of them) than for the movies. I'll probably watch this last one some day but most likely on TV or DVD.
Temporary guest in your life.
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| 11 AUG 2009 at 7:50pm |
colpetSchattenjger
Posts : 1630
Joined: 12 APR 2003
Status : Offline | I like both the books and the movies. Just like Lord of the Rings, each media brings something different to the party.
Occasionally visiting Uru Live (KI 0063722 .&&
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| 11 AUG 2009 at 8:08pm |
SirDaveGuild Master
Posts : 4941
Joined: 17 OCT 2002
Location: US
Status : Offline | Really got into Lord of the Rings, but Harry Potter seemed more like it was directed at a fairly young audience (though my wife enjoyed the books & the movies). It was the Quiditz that turned me off forever- seemed to seal the audience as the skateboarding crowd. Lord of the Rings just seemed to span the generations better.
The future ain't what it used to be!
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| 11 AUG 2009 at 10:55pm |
AndromusGuild Master
Posts : 5538
Joined: 6 NOV 2002
Status : Offline | I never understood all the hype about Harry Potter. Rowling's writing struck me as so-so at best. I could think of a number of children's fantasy authors who deserve much more attention than her.
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| 12 AUG 2009 at 12:37am |
AubstopperIntergalactic Janitor
Posts : 85
Joined: 19 MAY 2008
Status : Offline | I really love harry potter.
my friends and i always dress up when a new movie comes out, and we used to dress up for the borders' midnight release parties for the books.
the movies suck for the most part (especially the newest one), but the books are very good.
I'm really looking forward to JK Rowling's encyclopaedia that's she's writing for the series...basically she has boxes and boxes of notes that she made (backgrounds on every character and stuff like that), and she's going to put it all into a huge ass book...she said that it'll come out like 5 years or so after the 7th book.
"Man's greatest tragedy is that he can perceive of a perfection that he can never attain."
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| 12 AUG 2009 at 1:36am |
| Deleted User | [size=14]Bain ta'am vere'ach ... ain lehitvake'ach !
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| 12 AUG 2009 at 1:53am |
IviniaGuild Master
Posts : 4459
Joined: 7 JUN 2003
Location: US
Status : Offline | Ok, apparently your speech to text software is clogged. [smiley=rofl.gif]
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| 12 AUG 2009 at 1:56am |
ShanyGuild Master
Posts : 3313
Joined: 19 JUN 2003
Status : Online | That's Hebrew for 'different strokes for different folks'
Literal translation - You can't argue over matters of taste and smell.
(hope you don't mind Len)
EDIT: Back on topic-
I like Harry Potter. Not a huge fan, but I enjoyed all the speculating whenever a new book came out, and I like some characters in the series.
Though I recently read a summary of the first movie (there are recaps of movies called "Movies in Fifteen Minutes", they are very funny), anyway I was shocked how childish some of it seemed. Of course the series has evolved since the first book/movie but still.
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| 12 AUG 2009 at 3:26am |
CarolineJA+ Overseer
Posts : 16540
Joined: 28 JAN 2007
Location: AU
Status : Offline | The main problem with the movies - as far as I can see - bearing in mind that I don't read the books, is that they are written for print not screen.
The books are huge and the movies cannot possibly include all the tidbits that the books can use to explain characters' behaviour which means a lot of actions in the movies appear unexpected and unsupported by anything else.
The books would probably make a fantastic 24 episode TV series when it's all done and finished. That way character and story arcs could unfold slowly and there would be less repetition. I'm a little fed up with Voldemort right now. Time for another baddie perhaps.
I have been quite scared watching some of the earlier movies but not this latest one. I kept being amazed at how like a beanpole young Master Draco Malfoys had become - just like my sons's friends at school. We all felt the same afterwards - that we'd been waiting and waiting for the real action to get started.... :-/
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| 12 AUG 2009 at 9:36am |
| Deleted User | [size=16][font=Times New Roman]Thanks Shany !
When I grew up in England it was "One man's neat is another's poison" --- I don't remermber any health-vegetarians 8 decades ago.
I read the first book, played the first computer game, saw the first film (and the second I think ???) on TV.
AND THAT WAS ENOUGH FOR ME.
I'm obviously in a very tiny minority.
LATER !
My wife is a voracious reader (3 books a week of almost every genre) and was a British Council librarian for a dozen years until they closed the Haifa branch due to "lack of funds".
She was even less impressed than me --- found it difficult to finish even the first book and had no interest whatsoever in the films or games !
So no family quarrels there (My children were completely disinterested --- grandchildren LOVED them ALL !)
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| 12 AUG 2009 at 11:00am |
JKingSchattenjger
Posts : 2349
Joined: 4 MAY 2008
Location: 0
Status : Offline | I've long been of the opinion that J. K Rowling is a bit of a hack, huge success notwithstanding. Nevertheless, I do enjoy her storytelling if not her writing style---most of the time, anyway. I thought The Order of the Phoenix and The Half-Blood Prince were hopelessly boring, long-winded and generally annoying. The Deathly Hallows made up for it all in my mind, but there's still no escaping the sub-par quality of those entries.
As for the movies, my impression is of course coloured by familiarity with the stories before I see them. They tend to seem designed for a virgin audience, and the early ones in particular go to excruciating detail, but there's never much use of creative license in the screenplays. I do wonder whether they will be remembered much twenty years from now.
You can't kill someone in a studio.
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| 12 AUG 2009 at 12:45pm |
MaraPrivate Detective
Posts : 542
Joined: 6 JUL 2007
Status : Offline | No, not really. I've never read any of the books; have seen all the movies but the latest (will probably get the dvd). I enjoyed the movies in the beginning but now I'm getting bored by the series.
Mara
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| 12 AUG 2009 at 7:42pm |
ThaumaturgeJourneyman
Posts : 999
Joined: 11 MAY 2006
Status : Offline | I've only seen the movies - the books simply haven't captured my interest sufficiently - and those I rather enjoyed, the latest one included. I'll admit that I was a little disappointed by the seemingly throw-away revelation of the identity of the Half-Blood Prince, but the rest of the movie was quite enjoyable, I thought.
I look forward to the next movie, especially as it is (am I not correct?) the last, and, from what I've gathered, most interesting of the lot. ^_^
MWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
*ahem*
Sorry.
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| 13 AUG 2009 at 2:40am |
Lady KestrelGuild Master
Posts : 4038
Joined: 27 SEP 2004
Location: US, NJ
Status : Offline | I've enjoyed all the books and movies very much. Neither are perfect, but the characters have really grown on me. I think the movies have captured the characters' personalities perfectly, and the acting, of course, is top-notch.
"Where is the fountain that throws up these flowers in a ceaseless outbreak of ecstasy?"
-Rabindranath Tagore
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| 17 AUG 2009 at 6:44pm |
LahrsIntergalactic Janitor
Posts : 4
Joined: 17 AUG 2009
Status : Online | I will go out on the limb then and say yes, I still care about Harry Potter and I cannot wait until my children are old enough that I can read it to them.
I know the huge cliche, books are better than the movies, and I must state it again here. The books contain so much more information, obviously, which leaves so much back story, side story and in many cases, main story out that there is a lot lost in translation. I saw Half-Blood Prince in the theaters a week ago with my wife and I was amazed that the only mention of the Half-Blood prince was when the trio asked, who was the half-blood prince, and at the very end when Snape claimed it was him. Anyone who hasn't read the books is going to find that information incredibly useless, which is even more amazing since that was the title to the movie.
I have enjoyed all six of the movies, but I know the rest of the information since I read all of the books and I can fill in the blanks. Of course, this is all opinion, but I have thoroughly enjoyed the books and will reread them soon on my own.
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| 19 AUG 2009 at 4:25pm |
dWIntergalactic Janitor
Posts : 10
Joined: 5 AUG 2008
Status : Online | I'm actually a huge fan of Harry Potter, but I have much of a distaste for the films. Unlike JKing I don't find her to be a hack, but I find her to be a rather honest writer unlike many others out there, and that's perhaps why I enjoy reading her books so much. What I mean by honest is that it's her natural way of writing; it's not something pressed upon her by some academic institution such as a creative writing class at the university she attended. She might have improved her writing skills there, but her style wasn't changed to reflect what her professors thought was the optimum creative writing style like it has with so many other writers. People pick up her books and they're written in English, not as some vocabulary-rich-for-the-sake-of-being-so tome of boredom. Kids love it because the books do not treat them as idiots as many of the replicas of "See Spot Run" do for so many at the 5-11 year old range.
The films are another story in my opinion. I'm a huge fan of Lord of the Rings, and I absolutely adore the films by Peter Jackson. Some things were changed; some characters were erased completely, but the story remains intact between the books and the films. People who never read the Lord of the Rings can watch the films and understand them. The same cannot be said for the Harry Potter films. The problem with the Harry Potter films comes down to one person: Steve Kloves. Adapting a book is hard work as it requires cutting and additions, but the additions have to make sense and translate the book. He has a bad habit of cutting much of the interesting and important plot points and injecting meaningless and repetitive scenes in his screenplays, especially since the 4th movie -- which I regard as the worst of the bunch so far. His complete disregard for many important plot points have come to bite him in the butt in the 6th film where now it's generally impossible to have an understandable and meaningful conclusion to the story in the 7th and 8th films. If a screenplay can't adapt a book's basic plot it's a complete failure in my book.
I went to see the 6th film with a large group, many not having read the books. Everyone with me was generally in a state of "What the <censored>?" The people who never read the books didn't know what was going on, and the people who had were incapable of explaining it to them without going into great detail, pulling plot points that were never explained in previous movies but were present in previous books.
Should anyone care about Harry Potter anymore? In terms of the films, no, but the books will become classics.
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| 19 AUG 2009 at 8:31pm |
KarstenSorcerer Apprentice
Posts : 347
Joined: 23 SEP 2006
Location: DK
Status : Offline | I have read all the books (currently reading book # 7 ) and seen all the movies.
The best movie so far was definetely # 5, I find. Many things were of course cut from the book; they had to do so. I missed a lot a Quidditch from the book in the movie; the matches weren't that necessary to the plot, however.
As for the 6th movie, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince certain events in book were changed in the movie, among other things the beginning and some events occuring during the middle of the book. And the ending is a bit different....
Slight spoiler ahead:
Spoiler AlertI was surprised and saddened to see that the origin of Voldemort weren't not touched upon in movie # 6; I mean this is crucial to understanding Voldemort's character and offers at least some explanation as to why he does what he does; him being the last heir of Slytherin's. Voldemort, or Tom Riddle, as he once was known probably believes that he carries on the work of his now long deceased and great ancestor. This becomes very prominent i book # 7, at least the part I've read so far.
I understand, of course, that a movie is an entire different product than a book, and neeeds to find its own voice, although it is based on a book...
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| 21 AUG 2009 at 4:31am |
LahrsIntergalactic Janitor
Posts : 4
Joined: 17 AUG 2009
Status : Online | Unlike the books, the movies had paid very little attention to all of the important characters other than Harry, Hermione and Ron. This will become much more problematic in Deathly Hollows. The book of Half-Blood Prince really dives into the story of Snape while also fully bringing forth Voldermort. Forgetting Voldermort, the whole reason for the books to begin with, losing out on Snape in HBP is going to be very difficult to make up in the next movie which will either force a change in the story or result in an anti-climactic character development.
I guess what this all boils down to is this, if you enjoyed the movies in the beginning, read the books and get the entire story. The movies are nothing more than CliffsNotes at this point. I think dW did a great job in comparing the book/movie of LotR vs. HP.
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| 22 AUG 2009 at 1:46am |
ArkadiaPrivate Detective
Posts : 558
Joined: 1 JUN 2008
Status : Online | It's interesting to see everyone's opinions on this. Yesterday I purchased the complete box set of Harry Potter (all seven novels in a lovely box). I've never read any of the books before, which always strikes people as odd because I have (and have always had) an insatiable appetite for books. I've never seen any of the movies either, because I was always holding out to read the books, so it will be a fresh experience for me.
When the hype about Harry Potter first started, I was engrossed in the His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman. I sure hope that Harry Potter comes even a little bit close to the incredibly immersive and wonderful experience that Pullman created for me
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