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rivendellroseFinally saw Prisoner of Azkaban today with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
narsilion. It was really very good - much better than the previous two - and what problems I had with it were mostly easily forgiven.
All of the acting in this movie was quite good - Daniel Radcliffe has actually made some progress in his acting, which is a wonderful thing, and the others were their usual, wonderful selves. Rupert Grint's expressiveness never fails to astonish me, and the twins are as hilariously mischievous as always. Emma Thompson completely delighted me as Trelawney - every vapid little expression and tottering, blind-eyed movement was just perfect, and her interpretation of the "trance" in which Sibyll delivers one of her few 'true' prophecies was terrific - I was so afraid they would cut that!
Alan Rickman's part suffered greatly from editing (some of which I thought were a detraction to the movie as a whole, such as the wolfsbane scenes and his tantrum at the end, when Black escapes), but what little he was left with was, of course, brilliant. I shall spare you all my rhapsodies about his voice and movement, and suffice it to say that I adored the subtle terror in his eyes when faced with the transformed Lupin - that was truly a man facing his childhood nightmare - and was bouncing with delight during the interplay between him, Sirius, and Remus. *Happily absorbs all sorts of subtext*
Also, his slide projector delighted me. My job has warped my mind - I see a slide projector and get excited over what a cool one it is. Of course, it doesn't hurt that it's Snape running it... I'd probably get excited over a vacuum, if Snape was running it.
Actually, Snape running a vacuum would be even more fascinating, just because that's such a bizarre mental image.
In any case, pay close attention to the slides he shows - they're actually quite amusing. The "Werewolf totalus" take-off is quite nicely done, and the Greek vase... is indecent. I was much amused by that, and it actually made me check the real thing, later, to see if they continued that pattern. Sadly (or perhaps thankfully) they didn't. I strongly remember during the making of the Fellowship of the Ring, they showed initial CG work-ups of the cave-troll... which did not have a loin cloth. And which were anatomically correct. It was a bit disturbing, but I highly appreciated their attention to detail and accuracy. At the very least, I bless the PoA CG people for not being stupid and leaving Moony a convenient loincloth or torn remainder of his trousers - that sort of thing weirdly pisses me off.
Speaking of Sirius and Remus, both were portrayed beautifully. Are they fandom!Remus and Sirius? Hell no. Are they just as real and probably better for that? Gods yes. I loved Gary Oldman's tired, gritty, slightly disgusting Sirius, and more so adored David Thewlis' slightly timid, mild, delightfully sweet and shabby Remus. The chocolate, the victrola, the cane for when he's not well... it was all perfect.
Buckbeak was fabulous - I was so completely astonished by how beautiful he was. And, as poornarsilion can vouch, just couldn't get over squeeing over the fact that I have *met*, had dinner with, personally spoke with, and been hugged by the man who, from what I've heard/seen but cannot seem to corroborate just now, helped to design that. *Delighted* Larry Dixon is a genius when it comes to raptors. Additionally, the CG Padfoot was very good - creepy, but realistic.
Which brings me to my one major gripe. Among all these beautiful and highly appropriate CG characters, Lupin's werewolf form stood out like an eyesore. I nearly cried thinking that this deformed, half-human, totally un-wolf-like thing was meant to be Moony. Werewolves (as the name very clearly indicates) are people who transform into WOLVES. Not things with too many joints in their fore-limbs, and most certainly not hairless monstrosities with bowed backs and half-bipedal posture. This isn't just folklore I'm talking about - this is canon from the books. JKR, for some reason, has allowed these movies to directly contravene her word - for that, shame on her. And in any case, I was disgusted by that choice on the director's and art department's part. It was sensationalist and unnecessary. Also, why on earth would a werewolf not have fur?
To be fair, the emotion in Remus' transformation worked perfectly, and I very much liked both Sirius holding him and trying to talk him through it (although surely he should have known by now that it would do no good, having grown up with Remus), and also Hermione's attempt to talk to her transformed professor - that showed very well the empathy for which I love her character. In that moment, with his eyes glowing the amber they're described in the book, I was *almost* able to forget how horrendously they'd messed him up.
It was a much more carefully constructed movie than the others, I think, and much more maturely artistic. However, they could really use an extended edition (or at least cut scenes on the DVD!) to fill out the story - the number of excisions were shocking, and occasionally damaging to the plot (as in the now-infamous fact that no one ever explained who Moony, Padfoot, Wormtail, and Prongs were, and why Remus could use the map!) Also, I was a bit pissed off that they felt the need to change the Patronus - I've always thought that was a very visually interesting aspect of the books, and I was disappointed that they changed it to something as boring as a shield. There were shades of the stag in the last one that Harry casts, but it just wasn't the same as seeing "Prongs" bound across the lake and chase off the Dementors. Oh, and the Dementors? *Yawns* After the Nazgul, just as I'd expected, they weren't hardly scary. Oh, except the mouth. The mouth was frigging terrifying.
Favorite lines?
Ron (re: Hermione knowing Lupin's name on the train): "You know everything!" Hermione, in exasperated tone: "It's on his briefcase, Ronald."
Snape: "Lupin. Out for a little walk... in the moonlight?"
Sirius: "Go back to your chemistry set, Snape."
Ron and Harry: "The spiders... they want me to tap-dance. I don't want to tap-dance!" "You tell those spiders, Ron." "I will..." *Ron goes back to sleep, Harry looks bemused*
Long story short, a very good movie and one that I very much recommend. They could have done more, and better, but what they did was quite acceptable.
narsilion. It was really very good - much better than the previous two - and what problems I had with it were mostly easily forgiven. All of the acting in this movie was quite good - Daniel Radcliffe has actually made some progress in his acting, which is a wonderful thing, and the others were their usual, wonderful selves. Rupert Grint's expressiveness never fails to astonish me, and the twins are as hilariously mischievous as always. Emma Thompson completely delighted me as Trelawney - every vapid little expression and tottering, blind-eyed movement was just perfect, and her interpretation of the "trance" in which Sibyll delivers one of her few 'true' prophecies was terrific - I was so afraid they would cut that!
Alan Rickman's part suffered greatly from editing (some of which I thought were a detraction to the movie as a whole, such as the wolfsbane scenes and his tantrum at the end, when Black escapes), but what little he was left with was, of course, brilliant. I shall spare you all my rhapsodies about his voice and movement, and suffice it to say that I adored the subtle terror in his eyes when faced with the transformed Lupin - that was truly a man facing his childhood nightmare - and was bouncing with delight during the interplay between him, Sirius, and Remus. *Happily absorbs all sorts of subtext*
Also, his slide projector delighted me. My job has warped my mind - I see a slide projector and get excited over what a cool one it is. Of course, it doesn't hurt that it's Snape running it... I'd probably get excited over a vacuum, if Snape was running it.
Actually, Snape running a vacuum would be even more fascinating, just because that's such a bizarre mental image.
In any case, pay close attention to the slides he shows - they're actually quite amusing. The "Werewolf totalus" take-off is quite nicely done, and the Greek vase... is indecent. I was much amused by that, and it actually made me check the real thing, later, to see if they continued that pattern. Sadly (or perhaps thankfully) they didn't. I strongly remember during the making of the Fellowship of the Ring, they showed initial CG work-ups of the cave-troll... which did not have a loin cloth. And which were anatomically correct. It was a bit disturbing, but I highly appreciated their attention to detail and accuracy. At the very least, I bless the PoA CG people for not being stupid and leaving Moony a convenient loincloth or torn remainder of his trousers - that sort of thing weirdly pisses me off.
Speaking of Sirius and Remus, both were portrayed beautifully. Are they fandom!Remus and Sirius? Hell no. Are they just as real and probably better for that? Gods yes. I loved Gary Oldman's tired, gritty, slightly disgusting Sirius, and more so adored David Thewlis' slightly timid, mild, delightfully sweet and shabby Remus. The chocolate, the victrola, the cane for when he's not well... it was all perfect.
Buckbeak was fabulous - I was so completely astonished by how beautiful he was. And, as poor
narsilion can vouch, just couldn't get over squeeing over the fact that I have *met*, had dinner with, personally spoke with, and been hugged by the man who, from what I've heard/seen but cannot seem to corroborate just now, helped to design that. *Delighted* Larry Dixon is a genius when it comes to raptors. Additionally, the CG Padfoot was very good - creepy, but realistic. Which brings me to my one major gripe. Among all these beautiful and highly appropriate CG characters, Lupin's werewolf form stood out like an eyesore. I nearly cried thinking that this deformed, half-human, totally un-wolf-like thing was meant to be Moony. Werewolves (as the name very clearly indicates) are people who transform into WOLVES. Not things with too many joints in their fore-limbs, and most certainly not hairless monstrosities with bowed backs and half-bipedal posture. This isn't just folklore I'm talking about - this is canon from the books. JKR, for some reason, has allowed these movies to directly contravene her word - for that, shame on her. And in any case, I was disgusted by that choice on the director's and art department's part. It was sensationalist and unnecessary. Also, why on earth would a werewolf not have fur?
To be fair, the emotion in Remus' transformation worked perfectly, and I very much liked both Sirius holding him and trying to talk him through it (although surely he should have known by now that it would do no good, having grown up with Remus), and also Hermione's attempt to talk to her transformed professor - that showed very well the empathy for which I love her character. In that moment, with his eyes glowing the amber they're described in the book, I was *almost* able to forget how horrendously they'd messed him up.
It was a much more carefully constructed movie than the others, I think, and much more maturely artistic. However, they could really use an extended edition (or at least cut scenes on the DVD!) to fill out the story - the number of excisions were shocking, and occasionally damaging to the plot (as in the now-infamous fact that no one ever explained who Moony, Padfoot, Wormtail, and Prongs were, and why Remus could use the map!) Also, I was a bit pissed off that they felt the need to change the Patronus - I've always thought that was a very visually interesting aspect of the books, and I was disappointed that they changed it to something as boring as a shield. There were shades of the stag in the last one that Harry casts, but it just wasn't the same as seeing "Prongs" bound across the lake and chase off the Dementors. Oh, and the Dementors? *Yawns* After the Nazgul, just as I'd expected, they weren't hardly scary. Oh, except the mouth. The mouth was frigging terrifying.
Favorite lines?
Ron (re: Hermione knowing Lupin's name on the train): "You know everything!" Hermione, in exasperated tone: "It's on his briefcase, Ronald."
Snape: "Lupin. Out for a little walk... in the moonlight?"
Sirius: "Go back to your chemistry set, Snape."
Ron and Harry: "The spiders... they want me to tap-dance. I don't want to tap-dance!" "You tell those spiders, Ron." "I will..." *Ron goes back to sleep, Harry looks bemused*
Long story short, a very good movie and one that I very much recommend. They could have done more, and better, but what they did was quite acceptable.
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Spoilers within the gripes
Date: 2004-06-06 12:20 am (UTC)I did like the repeated comments about Hermione suddenly appearing. "wehn did you get here?" that was well done. And the dementors were well done. Overall, i'd place it just behind the first two for sheer gaping holes in the expos. And hte fact that although they were at Hogwarts, you hardly ever saw students in uniform (that was wierd). As sablebadger pointed out tho, they did do a better job with showing hte passage of time...it wasn't just halloween - then christmas.
Oh, and I LOVED the whomping willow!!
Re: Spoilers within the gripes
Date: 2004-06-06 09:07 am (UTC)As
no subject
Date: 2004-06-06 09:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-06-06 12:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-06-06 01:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-06-06 04:41 pm (UTC)