tl;dr thoughts on OOTP again.

[nigeltde]

satrun92103 has some interesting thoughts on OOTP (movie) and, in particular, about the character of Snape.


She articulated why I felt vaguely disappointed with the scene in Umbridge's office, how because the movies have kind of failed with Snape Harry's plea looses all its drama and tension and desperation. In the movies, Snape is basically a mean teacher. I can't think of any instance where he is mentioned to be a spy, except for a moment in GOF where it is vaguely implied in the overheard conversation with Karkaroff. His involvement with the Order is similarly signalled in a chaotic moment of overheard conversation and Weasley hijinks (we never see him). So all he is is this teacher that Harry kind of dislikes and, as saturn92103 points out, Rickman plays to his better side so all his viciousness and ambiguity is lost.

Anyway, C&P'd from my comment: ITA about Snape. It doesn't bother me too much cause I figure it'll be addressed in HBP but I don't know if, in the movies, it's mentioned or implied that he's a spy at all, which, I dunno, seems like a plot point they'll have to tackle eventually. If the movies are supposed to be a little more abstracted from Harry's POV, I would have thought that'd come through even more strongly, but WE. The thing I regret losing is the increased understanding of Snape's character over the course of the story. In the books, he starts off in the periphery as a mean teacher and slowly turns into one of the most pivotal characters, and some of the major thematic battles take place over him. The movies have nothing of that.

The other character who has a similar journey of increasing importance in the books is Neville (and he's so totally adorable in the films, everyone in my cinema clapped when he managed the stupefy spell, it was awesome!), although he seems to be less important to the plot than Snape. But the decision to exclude his part in the prophecy in OOPT makes me think that it's not significant to the plot at all. I wonder how hard it would have been to include? I reckon it's important thematically at least, and it's such a nice addition to Neville's character.

Also, a bit of bitching, because I watched it again on Thursday: I hate the sequence where Harry is rescued from Privet Drive. I hatehatehate that they fly through London at eye level, whooping it up when Harry's just been expelled for using magic in the presence of a muggle. BORING! I hate the seemingly arbitrary decision to leave Lupin out of the rescue party--MOAR LUPIN!!!* They don't allow Moody's awesome joke about dying proper room to breathe. The "don't call me Nymphadora" bit is lame and forced, although I like the job the actress does at other times.

/bitching.

*Which might have allowed for a Lupin/Tonks moment to set it up for HBP, so at least the movies wouldn't have dropped the ball as 1000000000% as JKR did. IMO shoving that down our throats has been the biggest misstep of the entire series. Arrgh.

okay, /bitching for reals.



Don't get me wrong, I am firmly of the opinion that books and movies are their own beasts and need to be judged by their own merits and failings within the constraints of the medium. I really liked OOtP, it has some lovely moments. It just sucks that some of my favourite stuff has to be cut out.

ETA: pir8fancier makes some pertinent and insightful points here re: Snape.