Feast of Fools

Saw the new Harry Potter today. ^_^

So: (as spoiler-free as possible)

Infinitely darker and more gothic than the first two, this is the first one that's felt like an actual story as opposed to magical-CG eye candy to me. The direction's in a whole different league. I totally agree with Lizzu about that - the more obtrusive artifice of the directing was lovely. I especially like Cuaron's obsession with going through things with the camera - windows, clocks, eyes, you name it, we get to go through it, and sometimes they ripple as we do or CG things splat on the camera lens. Makes you feel like it's a tactile experience, which is really weird in a visual-sensory thing like a film.

Daniel Radcliffe's acting is waaaaaay improved, which is great, but unfortunately it only shows up the fact that Emma Watson and Rupert Grint are as wooden as lollipop sticks - I swear they're actually getting worse. Tom Felton's accent appears to have randomly shifted from Malfoy-posh to Essex-mockney between the last two films (WHY?). I adored the Whomping Willow (who didn't? :D). And if anyone can tell me why the Hogwarts bell sound is Big Ben, lemme know. Every time it sounded I expected the six o'clock news. ^_^;;

But the important issue, of course: Lupin and Sirius. I thought Sirius was OK - he was probably a lot more like the Sirius in Rowling's head than the one in mine. I loved the little touches with him (if you look carefully you'll notice that he has the wizardly-script equivalent of LOVE and HATE tattooed on his knuckles :D), but I felt he was a bit lacking in terms of the charisma-field he's supposed to exude. But then it's probably unfair to judge from this film, because Gary Oldman got about ten seconds screen time and in nine of them he was shrieking exposition as fast as he could and at the top of his voice.

But Lupin. Ahhhhh, Lupin. ^_________________^ I loved him. He's a million miles from fandom Lupin (that's a GOOD thing in my book, don't even get me started on their wet sissy childish *American* Lupin), he's a fair old way from the Lupin in my head, but I thought he was one of the best-played and most rounded character portrayals I've ever seen. It's so rare to see any character in any film who you honestly believe could be a real person. I could've watched him all day. His onscreen relationship with Harry was sweet to the point of rendering Sirius' pseudo-paternal role irrelevant, and I loved the gramophone and his scratchy jazz soundtrack. Would've liked to see more Lupin-interaction with anyone else, especially Sirius.

And they truncated the plot a good old bit, as you might expect. Was mostly pretty well done I thought, though there were some glaring omissions (like Lizzu says, I was also wondering when they were going to explain the whole Marauders thing, but then they just didn't. O.o) A bit of the modern touches, such as Lupin's werewolfness being very obviously equated with AIDS or similar, but I didn't mind that. And a near-total cute-ectomy compared to the first two films, which I definitely preferred, although a *little* more comic relief might have been nice. And when I say comic relief, I mean relief that's comic, not Draco-attempts-to-be-mean-gets-his-and-runs-off-crying-again, which kept happening in little twenty-second bursts. >.< I remember people saying about Y Tu Mama Tambien that Cuaron can't do humour to save his life, and now I believe it.

But on the whole I liked it, yes I did. Now they just have to keep it up in the next one, rescue Draco from the Pit of Character Hell and bring back Lucius Malfoy, and I shall be a happy bunny. ^_^