padding is in the eye of the beholder
Jul. 21st, 2009 11:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nigeltdeHaven't seen much buzz about HPB, what's up you guys? Didn't like?
While it's convenient to have a book you can blaze through in a few hours to reinvigorate the love I kind of regret re-reading Half Blood Prince last night because having it so fresh in the mind really emphasised all the elisions and changes in the movie, which made it hard to watch it as a separate entity, if that's even possible.
If that's even possible mostly because of the sheer pace of the thing which tumbles in free-fall from scene to scene with no intro, outro, montage of place or passing time or pause for breath besides the odd establishing shot of dubious context-less atmosphere. This thing is cut to within an inch of its life and despite such an expostition-heavy plot it wastes nothing on previouslies. I was surprised by its take-no-first-timers attitude and am glad for it except that what is cut is not substituted by the kind of moments that reward a long-time and/or engaged fan but is cut just to (understandably) keep the time as close to 2.30 as possible.
In fact the only place the story really breathes are in those Draco moments extrapolated from those expositionary retrospective speeches in the book, which really helps to build his isolation and support the events of the climax. Was discussing this with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lainy122: these really felt like POV scenes equivalent to Harry's; are they the only scenes in the whole (movie) series so far from another character's perspective, outside of more omniscient "DEs wreak destruction and do vows and such" scenes and the opener to Philosopher's Stone? I really liked them.
I also really liked the whole climax, the convergence on Hogwarts, the empty birdcage, Bellatrix striding through the halls, the silhouette shot of Snape in (his?) rooms. The choice to keep Harry unstunned, to have him choose in that pivotal moment to trust Snape and stay quiet and out of the way only to watch Snape kill Dumbledore was a stroke of genius. I didn't miss the battle; Bellatrix as an agent of chaos was eloquent and beautiful.
The Felix sequence was wonderfully done and it was nice to see Harry try on a personality for a change.
Luna is such a scene-stealer.
For some reason always envisioned Slughorn as fat (this is how he is described in the book) and rather jolly in a kind of fake way, but Broadbent's shrunken, sagging, slightly hollow and desperate version is superb. I loved the Lily-fish anecdote.
Frank Dillane was the perfect teenage Riddle. I thought along with Grint and Lynch he was the best of the young bunch and I hope to see a lot more from him.
What's with Harry + Hermione - Ron all the time? I liked their bonding but it really bugged in the final scene.
The Burrow qua generalised DE attacks didn't work for me at all. All of those douches standing around know how to put out a fucking fire for Pete's sake.
The actress did a good enough job but Lavender Brown was a thankless fucking role and just reminded me of everything I hate about the way Rowling writes her women.
I didn't like the choppy editing of the cave sequence. It must have been hell to do and short of re-scripting I can't imagine how to not make it drag but it cut the guts out of all the emotion.
The amount of stuff they didn't even bother with is pretty funny. How can we deal with how Harry is protected by having a home over the summer? Ah, fuck it! Why is Riddle a messed-up muggle-hating orphan? Who cares! Doesn't Ron have like a few brothers? Jesus it's a lion get in the car!
Still; Rowling's biggest strengths are the intricacies of her plotting and the imagination and invention of the incidentals in her world-building so to lose these either completely or to refigure them as (even more) exposition is is a bit of a blow to coherency and quality. Snape being my favourite character* the irony and dare I say tragedy of Harry's reliance on the Half-Blood Prince is my favourite part of the book and it just couldn't be in the film. Snape's IT WAS I, SNAPE, YOUR HUMBLE POTIONS TEACHER, WHO IS SOYLENT GREEN moment subsequently fell flat, although I really appreciate that it was much quieter than in the book and it was beautifully shot.
What's the bet the 7.1 will begin with a funeral? What's the bet 7.2 ends with "My Way" playing over an epic soft-focus long-shot of a Dumbledore/Grindlewald sixty-nine on a blanket of Puffskein pelt? Contact your local bookie.
--
*Which is to say a Snape that never quite exists in the book or the movie but is a personal-preference-influenced amalgam of both and neither and is very much in ignorance of certain book 7 elements.
ETA: there is a great analysis of the difference between the movie and book history of Snape-and-Harry and what that means for the HPB showdown and the DH showdown in the comments of this Pajiba review. No direct link but a Ctrl-F for "Linda" should take you straight to her comment.
While it's convenient to have a book you can blaze through in a few hours to reinvigorate the love I kind of regret re-reading Half Blood Prince last night because having it so fresh in the mind really emphasised all the elisions and changes in the movie, which made it hard to watch it as a separate entity, if that's even possible.
If that's even possible mostly because of the sheer pace of the thing which tumbles in free-fall from scene to scene with no intro, outro, montage of place or passing time or pause for breath besides the odd establishing shot of dubious context-less atmosphere. This thing is cut to within an inch of its life and despite such an expostition-heavy plot it wastes nothing on previouslies. I was surprised by its take-no-first-timers attitude and am glad for it except that what is cut is not substituted by the kind of moments that reward a long-time and/or engaged fan but is cut just to (understandably) keep the time as close to 2.30 as possible.
In fact the only place the story really breathes are in those Draco moments extrapolated from those expositionary retrospective speeches in the book, which really helps to build his isolation and support the events of the climax. Was discussing this with
lainy122: these really felt like POV scenes equivalent to Harry's; are they the only scenes in the whole (movie) series so far from another character's perspective, outside of more omniscient "DEs wreak destruction and do vows and such" scenes and the opener to Philosopher's Stone? I really liked them.I also really liked the whole climax, the convergence on Hogwarts, the empty birdcage, Bellatrix striding through the halls, the silhouette shot of Snape in (his?) rooms. The choice to keep Harry unstunned, to have him choose in that pivotal moment to trust Snape and stay quiet and out of the way only to watch Snape kill Dumbledore was a stroke of genius. I didn't miss the battle; Bellatrix as an agent of chaos was eloquent and beautiful.
The Felix sequence was wonderfully done and it was nice to see Harry try on a personality for a change.
Luna is such a scene-stealer.
For some reason always envisioned Slughorn as fat (this is how he is described in the book) and rather jolly in a kind of fake way, but Broadbent's shrunken, sagging, slightly hollow and desperate version is superb. I loved the Lily-fish anecdote.
Frank Dillane was the perfect teenage Riddle. I thought along with Grint and Lynch he was the best of the young bunch and I hope to see a lot more from him.
What's with Harry + Hermione - Ron all the time? I liked their bonding but it really bugged in the final scene.
The Burrow qua generalised DE attacks didn't work for me at all. All of those douches standing around know how to put out a fucking fire for Pete's sake.
The actress did a good enough job but Lavender Brown was a thankless fucking role and just reminded me of everything I hate about the way Rowling writes her women.
I didn't like the choppy editing of the cave sequence. It must have been hell to do and short of re-scripting I can't imagine how to not make it drag but it cut the guts out of all the emotion.
The amount of stuff they didn't even bother with is pretty funny. How can we deal with how Harry is protected by having a home over the summer? Ah, fuck it! Why is Riddle a messed-up muggle-hating orphan? Who cares! Doesn't Ron have like a few brothers? Jesus it's a lion get in the car!
Still; Rowling's biggest strengths are the intricacies of her plotting and the imagination and invention of the incidentals in her world-building so to lose these either completely or to refigure them as (even more) exposition is is a bit of a blow to coherency and quality. Snape being my favourite character* the irony and dare I say tragedy of Harry's reliance on the Half-Blood Prince is my favourite part of the book and it just couldn't be in the film. Snape's IT WAS I, SNAPE, YOUR HUMBLE POTIONS TEACHER, WHO IS SOYLENT GREEN moment subsequently fell flat, although I really appreciate that it was much quieter than in the book and it was beautifully shot.
What's the bet the 7.1 will begin with a funeral? What's the bet 7.2 ends with "My Way" playing over an epic soft-focus long-shot of a Dumbledore/Grindlewald sixty-nine on a blanket of Puffskein pelt? Contact your local bookie.
--
*Which is to say a Snape that never quite exists in the book or the movie but is a personal-preference-influenced amalgam of both and neither and is very much in ignorance of certain book 7 elements.
ETA: there is a great analysis of the difference between the movie and book history of Snape-and-Harry and what that means for the HPB showdown and the DH showdown in the comments of this Pajiba review. No direct link but a Ctrl-F for "Linda" should take you straight to her comment.
no subject
Date: 2009-07-26 10:45 am (UTC)I agree with everything said here, although I must say that the jump-cuts from scene to scene didn't bother me as much as they did in GoF, I didn't get that same 'bag of scenes' feeling, which I think is because of the score (awesome!) or the really lovely cinematography. Lots of wide shots, yay!
no subject
Date: 2009-07-26 12:07 pm (UTC)The cinematography was so lovely! Colour grading is such a blessing for this kind of story.
Actually I don't remember getting the bag of scenes feeling from GOF, maybe because it had a much stronger structure than HBP? With the guts cut out of the horcrux lessons and the emphasis on romance there's no real goal for most of it so it's just like and then, and then, and theeeeeen. And then. And then! No and then! NO AND THEN!
no subject
Date: 2009-07-26 12:18 pm (UTC)That is interesting! 'Cause GoF was exactly like that for me. Rescue! Quidditch! Wait, it's over! School! Tournament! First Task! Christmas! Second Task! THIRD TASK! VOLDEMORT! End. Whereas this one had the birds and the establishing shots to pull me back the way the newspapers did in OotP (which is still the best film so far, afaik).
no subject
Date: 2009-07-26 12:36 pm (UTC)I totally see what you mean about GOF but the difference is like the difference between someone guiding you home by hitting you repeatedly over the head with a stick and a fish flopping about randomly on a beach. They both get somewhere in the end but one of them has structure and purpose!
Nice pick on the birds! I did like that thread of continuity. Draco's story arc was the strongest, narratively, and really tied the film together. Considering the narrative and thematic significance of the Half-Blood Prince was completely dumped it the thing should have been named after Draco.
no subject
Date: 2009-07-26 10:22 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2009-07-27 07:07 am (UTC)