Last Thursday, Mr. Clean called on his way home from work and suggested we all go see the newest Harry Potter movie, which had just come out the day before. Of course, I Squee'd and bought tickets online and skipped through the house to tell the spawnlings. See... I'd been waiting for this one with less than hidden excitement. I'd even re-read Books 5 & 6 in anticipation of both the movie and Book 7 (this Saturday! SQUEE!).
To digress for just a moment... I have a love-hate relationship with books made into movies. Some of them are done well and some, well they fall really, really short. The Lord of the Rings? Awesome. Bridge to Terabithia... meh, not so much (though the movie was cute as long as you weren't expecting the book).
One of my all-time favorite series to read - Outlander, by Diana Gabaldon - has been optioned a few times and there are countless websites out there suggesting casting ideas (many of which I simply can't figure out for the life of me). For a movie, though? Please, please don't do it. There's no way to accurately capture the breadth of those books without it being some sort of high-budget BBC series. And I do hold out some measure of hope there.
The Devil Wears Prada - I actually enjoyed that one, though I felt they didn't quite capture the intensity of Miranda's evil nature in a few areas.
So then we get to Harry Potter. I have been thoroughly enchanted with the first four movies made from the books. Thus, I was bouncing on the balls of my feet to see this latest one but slightly nervous as I'd heard they'd cut some of it due to time issues after hearing people grumble about Spider Man 3 being "too long". Oh Geez people... pee before you sit down and don't go drinking 48 oz of sugared up carbonation; you'll be fine! Really!
We bought popcorn (before dinner!) and water and settled down in the darkened theater, the buzz of excitement palpable. And then it started....
I must have raised my hands and muttered "WTF?!" under my breath at least half a dozen times throughout. I feel like such a traitor but folks... this movie Did Not Cut The Mustard. It was beyond choppy with "fade to black" sequences that were so obvious you could tell where the last minute editing had to come in. I hope. If that was the real editing.. they need to FIRE that guy and find someone else to do the job.
Beyond the choppiness, they cut out pieces that were intricate to the PLOT for dog's sake! Especially to the plot of the next book / movie! Seriously? The Snape/James memory, for one, was just so poorly done, it didn't even communicate the great ball of emotion that fuels some of Snapes actions -- intrinsic to Book 6. Then, the screenwriter decided to completely CHANGE the plot in some areas. And I can't, for the life of me, figure out what he was intending by doing so!
I just... *sigh* It was just not good and I'm sorely disappointed. I have small hopes that the DVD version will be un-cut and will make say, "Yes, THERE IT IS," and then be happy but my cynical nature is poking me in the back of the brain and saying, "Don't count on it."
The next movie is utilizing the same director but the screenplay is done by the same person who did the rest of the movies.... and therein, I think, lies the problem. The guy who did the screenplay? He fell asleep on the job. And snored. After he took hallucinogenics.
My advice? Don't waste your money at the theater... wait for the DVD and PRAY it's better than what I saw. (and I can't tell you how badly it disappoints me to say that)
Writing news: If anyone has an idea of how to disable a microchip implanted in a human (much like you'd put one in a dog), please let me know. The most I've been able to find is that an MRI would do it. I don't have time for my MC to go looking around for an MRI machine, much less for her to break in and use it (without having a clue how to do so - cuz that would be plausible, yes?). I'm starting to think one of my characters will need to be like Magneto from the X-Men, but I'd hoped to shy away from a Magne/Magno-kinetic. Argh!
To digress for just a moment... I have a love-hate relationship with books made into movies. Some of them are done well and some, well they fall really, really short. The Lord of the Rings? Awesome. Bridge to Terabithia... meh, not so much (though the movie was cute as long as you weren't expecting the book).
One of my all-time favorite series to read - Outlander, by Diana Gabaldon - has been optioned a few times and there are countless websites out there suggesting casting ideas (many of which I simply can't figure out for the life of me). For a movie, though? Please, please don't do it. There's no way to accurately capture the breadth of those books without it being some sort of high-budget BBC series. And I do hold out some measure of hope there.
The Devil Wears Prada - I actually enjoyed that one, though I felt they didn't quite capture the intensity of Miranda's evil nature in a few areas.
So then we get to Harry Potter. I have been thoroughly enchanted with the first four movies made from the books. Thus, I was bouncing on the balls of my feet to see this latest one but slightly nervous as I'd heard they'd cut some of it due to time issues after hearing people grumble about Spider Man 3 being "too long". Oh Geez people... pee before you sit down and don't go drinking 48 oz of sugared up carbonation; you'll be fine! Really!
We bought popcorn (before dinner!) and water and settled down in the darkened theater, the buzz of excitement palpable. And then it started....
I must have raised my hands and muttered "WTF?!" under my breath at least half a dozen times throughout. I feel like such a traitor but folks... this movie Did Not Cut The Mustard. It was beyond choppy with "fade to black" sequences that were so obvious you could tell where the last minute editing had to come in. I hope. If that was the real editing.. they need to FIRE that guy and find someone else to do the job.
Beyond the choppiness, they cut out pieces that were intricate to the PLOT for dog's sake! Especially to the plot of the next book / movie! Seriously? The Snape/James memory, for one, was just so poorly done, it didn't even communicate the great ball of emotion that fuels some of Snapes actions -- intrinsic to Book 6. Then, the screenwriter decided to completely CHANGE the plot in some areas. And I can't, for the life of me, figure out what he was intending by doing so!
I just... *sigh* It was just not good and I'm sorely disappointed. I have small hopes that the DVD version will be un-cut and will make say, "Yes, THERE IT IS," and then be happy but my cynical nature is poking me in the back of the brain and saying, "Don't count on it."
The next movie is utilizing the same director but the screenplay is done by the same person who did the rest of the movies.... and therein, I think, lies the problem. The guy who did the screenplay? He fell asleep on the job. And snored. After he took hallucinogenics.
My advice? Don't waste your money at the theater... wait for the DVD and PRAY it's better than what I saw. (and I can't tell you how badly it disappoints me to say that)
Writing news: If anyone has an idea of how to disable a microchip implanted in a human (much like you'd put one in a dog), please let me know. The most I've been able to find is that an MRI would do it. I don't have time for my MC to go looking around for an MRI machine, much less for her to break in and use it (without having a clue how to do so - cuz that would be plausible, yes?). I'm starting to think one of my characters will need to be like Magneto from the X-Men, but I'd hoped to shy away from a Magne/Magno-kinetic. Argh!
Our University here has a HUGE magnetic imaging facility for research in Physics or something. You can't go anywhere near it with credit cards or anything like that. It strips the coding. Don't know if you can work something out with that, but there it is. :)
Katkin - That sounds interesting. Can you tell me what university it is? I'd love to find out what they're doing there to produce that much magnetic energy... and then possibly re-create the scenario elsewhere. That could be cool. Thank you!
It's called the NMR facility, a part of the Chemistry Dept at Oklahoma State University. The manager, Dr. Eastman, can be contacted at meastman@chem.okstate.edu, though she won't be back until closer to the start of the semester.
Katkin, you Rock. Thank you so much.. I'm definitely going to check into this angle. :)