After my dismal review of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix last week, I received a lot of flak from my friends.
It’s one thing to bash on Steve Carell, they said, but Harry is sacred. No one bashes the Harry.
Well I bashed the Harry and I’m not here to recant. What I am here to do is to compare and contrast a good Harry Potter movie with a bad Harry Potter movie (all through my non-book reading eyes).
This weekend I caught most of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire on HBO. Now that’s a good Harry Potter movie.
First off, there is a self-contained and coherent plot. There are hot french girls, tough russian boys, and the british dorks all together in some wizard equivalent to a track and field tournament. That’s a story.
Goblet understands that its cast is mostly comprised of children who can barely act. Complex human emotion like that between Ron and Hermione is brought out through words, instead of expecting it to just show through emotes.
There’s also a much larger helping of humor in Goblet which is important for any movie to succeed — that’s right, every movie. No matter the genre, movies need humor. That’s something that actors like Will Smith understand, and that’s why actors like Will Smith produce almost nothing but blockbusters.
While Order threw lots of characters at the audience without explanation, Goblet sorted the characters by priority and all but ignored those that didn’t matter. This allows the viewer to really focus in on the awesomeness that is Viktor Krum.
The only thing Order really has up on Goblet is hair. Harry Potter’s hair is cut like a 75 year old granny in Goblet of Fire, as is pretty much every other boy in the movie. The updated hairstyles are much improved in Order of the Phoenix.
Anyway, I just wanted to set the record straight (in writing) that I am not a Harry hater. I simply felt the need to identify Phoenix for what it is — a poorly executed movie. Potter has potential, and Goblet of Fire proved that when it is properly realized, it is a sight to behold.
As someone who watched Phoenix last night and Goblet the night before, I think you’re right about Goblet being a better story, but Phoenix is still a damn good movie. I think the reason it’s darker and doesn’t have as much humor is because the book is the same way. An allegory of political repression is never going to be as fun to watch as a competition, but it’s also a manifestation of the darker tone of the end of the series.
Personally, it’s one of my least favorite books, mainly because of Harry’s adolescent behavior. I think it’s clear he crushes on Cho the strongest, and magic and hormones must be an odd mix. The dark note at the end shows us people we care about will not be there to the end, which is something of a metaphor for life, and perhaps not a crowd pleaser. Of course for those of us who’ve read the next book, we know it only gets darker from here…
Heh. You should be a guest counter-review columnist on Lykaon’s Lair. ;)
It makes me sad that they’re going to get darker. The mundane explanation of magic, how it works, how the school works, how the relationships work — all of that is woefully under-described in the movies and its sad that they’ll abandon the whimsy that made it fun.
Dark can be okay, but it has to be measurably awesome enough to overcome the lack of humor.
But I am still a firm believer that even dark can have its moments of humor. I am the type of person that even if the world were ending and you and I were the only two left in Virginia fending for food, I’d still be making jokes.
They can co-exist.
… and for those of us that read Lykaon on a regular basis, we’ve clearly found another glimpse into the poor man’s mind.
“This allows the viewer to really focus in on the awesomeness that is Viktor Krum.”
Wow, Man Crush anyone?
I think we’ve got a bit of the ol’ Draco in Leather Pants
going on, what?
Hmm… Viktor Krum in leather pants…
Wait. What?
I plead the 5th on all counts.
I too saw HP:OOTP last night, and all I can say is Harry Potter Rocks! In all seriousness, I thought it was pretty good, and there were a few jokes. The build-up to the MoM fight sequence was especially good, but of course I new it was coming. I do have to admit that I found Harry’s moodiness to be rather annoying, much as I did in the book.
Perhaps this will prove to be what you’re missing:
Potter SNL