HP

[mrv3000]

I remembered I actually own some HP movies! (Boredom + Target = things I don't really need.)

• I started to write a list of which characters were better in the book and which were better in the movie and which were just plain different. But I got a bit bored, so let's just say that the default for a character is that their book version is better than their movie version. More often than not, this is the case. There are some exceptions.
  
  
  • Draco is more rounded in the movies. In the books he basically turns up whenever the scene calls for a douchebag and then leaves. On the screen we see a bit more.
    
    
  • Neville is an odd case. The movies seem to have made him more awesome than what he is the books. (e.g., being an amazing dancer or being the one to give Harry the gillyweed) Don't get me wrong, I like Neville and this isn't some kind of "THIS CHARACTER MUST STAY IN HIS PLACE" thing. Just pointing out differences.
    
    
  • Dumbledore is also a strange case. I like both versions, but the Dumbledore you see on screen really isn't the Dumbledore you see in the books. Until I read the books, I had the impression that Harry and Dumbledore hung out together practically all the time, while in the books Harry really doesn't see him very often.
    
    
  • I like Snape better in the movies probably because Alan Rickman gives Snape a slight badass vibe, where in the book I found Snape to be fairly pathetic. Not necessarily in a "he's such a wuss" way, but more in a "I'm going to torment children because I was picked on in school" way. Loads of people get tormented as kids, but they manage to LET IT GO.
  
  
• I can, with reluctance, understand why they made Cho the one to turn in the D.A.: it was an easy way to have the Harry/Cho relationship disappear, and you simply don't have the time to put everything into a movie. But still it was sucky for Cho to be the scapegoat on that one.
  
  
• Why in the world did they burn down the Burrow in the movies? That's...what? Why? It was this entire extra scene that wasn't in the books. Was there some kind of production note that said "NEEDS MORE FLAMES"? O_o
  
  
• Amazingly enough, the movie managed to point out even more than the book just how much the "Half Blood Prince" reveal didn't matter in the slightest. XD
  
  Snape: THAT'S RIGHT! I AM THE HALF BLOOD PRINCE!!
  
  Harry: NOO-- Hold on. Do...do I need to care about that? I mean, you just killed Dumbledore. I'm just saying. Perspective and all, since the textbook was more handy than evil.
  
  Snape: YES YOU NEED TO CARE. BECAUSE MY BOOK HAD SNAPE COOTIES.
  
  Harry: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

Comments

[janetmaca.livejournal.com]

Maybe they needed to build up Ginny's awesomeness? Or create an epic Christmas scene and didn't want to go "well, Percy had a fight with his parents long ago hence the blows they come to here"? Wait, was that the one where Percy was supposed to show up at the Burrow?

[http://users.livejournal.com/_thirty2flavors/]

I believe the official line was that they wanted to really "bring home" the danger of the climate in HBP -- things that JKR did with random people getting called out of class to be told their parents had been killed etc.

It was still weird. And they seemed to watse all their effort on that instead of doing the Epic Hogwarts Battle.

[mrv3000.livejournal.com]

I think it could have beem more effective to see devastated classmates.

[janetmaca.livejournal.com]

I heard they avoided the epic Hogwarts battle because of epic Hogwarts batter part deux in DH.