Haunted Fire Studio :: Marlena Hall

Ashley and I saw it yesterday - we really liked it, but I literally had to put pieces of napkin in my ears - it was as loud as a concert, distractingly so.

After I saw the movie I went back and read some of the reviews - I guess people either really liked it or hated it. To me it just seemed like a logical reflection of the book. The people that hated it seemed to fall into 2 camps: they left too much out of the book, or the book sucked in the first place. I gathered from Christopher Kelly's scathing review from the Ft Worth Star Telegram that he's of the latter camp. Although "Presto Lame-O" is a pretty funny headline.

For me, I hated the book the first time I read it, but it grew on me. The movie, to me, had the exact same tone I felt the first time I read Order of the Phoenix, which amazed me. That said, every time I see a movie made from a book it seems rushed - as did this one - but I think it's inevitable.

I think the producers did a really good job getting the tone right and it looked like they put in as much as they could without making it a 3 hour movie, which I know a lot of people would have preferred. I'm cool with a shorter movie, but it would be great if they included more for the DVD.

The only criticism I'm really curious about though is that if you've never seen or read a Harry Potter movie or book, would this movie make any sense at all? But still, I would say the Harry Potter movies have done a better job than Star Wars on that one (I'm still not entirely sure what the plots of the new Star Wars movies are!)

Oh well, we had fun, and when it comes out on DVD I'll buy it for sure.

- Robert O.
 

Wow! What theatre did you go to? Ours wasn't that loud. That's too bad.

Yeah, I feel that the movies do seem rushed, except for the first one, but I think it is to be expected, because they are having to get through as much of the book as possible. The problem with the books (well, it's not really a problem, but it's an issue as far as the movies go) is that they always start the same: with Harry at his house right before the start of the school year. So it seems like the movies try to rush past that part to get to the meat of the story.

So far I've been happy with the things they've cut out. Mostly happy with the things they've changed and really happy with the moods of the stories. Even though they've had three different directors (I think, I haven't done my interwebs research on this) the movies do all seem to connect.

And I will say that I was MAD when I read this book, and I was MAD in the theatre with some of the characters, but it was good that it kept me being mad and involved with what was happening.

Ben hasn't read ANY of the books and he follows them ok. If he has any questions he usually asks me, but usually he gets them pretty easily. I would say if someone hadn't seen ANY of the previous movies and hadn't read the books they would be lost, but who sees the 5th movie of a franchise without seeing any of the others?
 

My main complaint was with 2 special effects that I have disliked in ALL the movies. The giants / ogres when they do them look too cheesy, and I hatehatehate the way they do the centaurs. I've seen centaurs on cable TV shows that look more real to me, for some reason. Other than that, I only wish there'd been a little exposition about why Sirius was gone after falling into the arch. If you hadn't read the book, I don't think you'd have had the instant "Oh no!" reaction to that.

-CP
 

Um, I have to wait to go see it since Skippy hasn't read or seen any of them.

Yeah, I'm dating THAT guy.

Rumor has it Chris is going to lend me the DVD's since I didn't buy them. (I lived with Erin, I didn't have to.)

Once we're done with that, I'll let you know how I like it. After I have to go see Transformers again. That, THAT he knows.
 

Chris - Yeah, I agree, I liked the Centaurs in the first movie better than these, and they weren't all that great.

I also agree that if they had at least talked a little bit about the veil and what it was it might have made more sense. I asked Ben about it and he said that scene was more realistic like what would have happened in real life. And they did change it from him just falling into it to being killed first and THEN falling in so that either way the audience knew he was dead.

It was really sudden.

Lori - Wow... he needs to get crackin' on that! You're stronger than I am, I would have told Ben that if he hadn't seen all those movies by the time the movie came out, that I'd be seeing it alone! HAHA

You'll love it though, hopefully. :D
 

Josh and I saw it last night and he said." I didn't like it, I LOVED IT!"
I actually liked it too.
 

HAHA. Aweseome! I'm glad you guys liked it!

Are we going to all be in line on Friday night to get the book at midnight? :D
 

Josh is going to the one on Copeland, Elyse is going to be there too. It depends on London if I go, but I want too!
 

I actually went to see it at 12:01 am Tuesday/Wednesday, I really enjoyed it, I can see how non-readers of the books might not get the whole experience, but as a huge fan, I love these things.