Shakespeare and Potter

[plumtreeblossom]

Because of Commonwealth Shakespeare's very abridged season this year (not their fault; the city forced it), I'm not going to be organizing my traditional big Shakespeare picnic where I go down very early to secure front and center blanket space. The only night I can go is July 29, and I will probably be toast from the T@F run ending the night before. So if I do manage to go, I'll just be sneaking down with any stragglers I can find and squeezing into the crowd.

What I do want to do is see The Publick Theatre's Romeo and Juliet, which runs from July 26 through mid-September. Tickets are $32, but it's well worth it for spending the evening in their beautiful outdoor theatre. I've missed them for the last few seasons and I'd love to see what they do with R&J.

*****

Last night I didn't have any plans, so on the spur of the moment I went after work to see Order of The Phoenix...

A problem with all Potter movies is how much has to be left out. While Goblet of Fire is my so-far favorite of the books, it is my so-far least favorite of the movies because of its total lack of character development of the very important Cedric, Fleur, and Viktor. So I knew going in to OotP that things would be missing. Still, I found it to be the best of the series to date.

It is wonderfully dark and edgy. Certain points are genuinely frightening, for the first time in the series. Daniel Radcliffe is shaping into an excellent young adult actor. Imelda Staunton as Dolores Umbridge deserves a Best Supporting Actress nod. Someone(s) deserves every award in the world for the set design of Umbridge's office.

There was nothing stopping them from making this a 3 hour movie, and I would have happily sat through it. OotP was Percy Weasley's big book, and I'd hoped to see this authoritarian black sheep of the free-spirited Weasley family get some screen development. A viewer would definitely need to have read the book to recognize that the red-haired, lineless young man showing up as Fudge's toady is Percy Weasley, now working for The Man. But at this point it's pretty safe to assume that most viewers have read the book.

Over all though, I enjoyed it very much, and I want to see it again (maybe in IMAX) since I was stuck in a bad seat way up front this time. I give it best-of-series-so far, with my only wish being for more. And that's not a bad thing.

Comments

[weegoddess.livejournal.com]

I, too, enjoyed it immensely. And not just because it was full of eye-candy. (Lucius Malfoy? OMGSWOOOOOOON). The movie went by way too fast for me; I would have happily sat through another hour.

I wish that I believed that there would be a full-scale version on the DVD release, a la LOTR. But I doubt it strongly.

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

Jason Issacs as Lucius in indeed hot beyond all measure. Interestingly, the character in the book is neither hot nor not. My theory of the film choice to style him as dead sexy was so that all the moms who had to bring their kids umpteen times to see the movies whould have something to drool over. It works for me, even without kids!

I wanted more of the Young Snape/Young James Potter scene. It zipped by in the blink of an eye and I was all "Wait! Slow down!" I wanted a better look at the characters. I wish they had made that longer.

Surprisingly, I loved the shorter, more grown up haircuts on all the boys. Normally I'm a long hair fan, but it was fun to see how much more mature they look with the tidy short cuts. Now they can grow it down to their butts, and I'll be a happy Dirty Old Lady. :-)

[weegoddess.livejournal.com]

Surprisingly, I loved the shorter, more grown up haircuts on all the boys. Normally I'm a long hair fan, but it was fun to see how much more mature they look with the tidy short cuts. Now they can grow it down to their butts, and I'll be a happy Dirty Old Lady. :-)

I hear ya, hon. I feel that way too. Verbatim. I totally didn't expect to enjoy the short hair as much as I did. Then again, I think that they'd have been plenty hot with long hair too if done right.

Let's start a Dirty Old Ladies' Club.

[tcb.livejournal.com]

Ooo! Thanks for the pointers! I'd been meaning to look up what the Publick Theatre was doing this season. I hope we can do both that and Shakespeare on the Common!

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

I love the Publick's theatre. I wish T@F could use it and do another Shakespeare play. :-)

[warlord-mit.livejournal.com]

I saw Ootp last night, having just finished the book yesterday morning. Note to self: Make sure to finish the half-blood prince WELL before the next movie. Why? Well I was quite disappointed by how much they DID leave out, and by what they changed in the movie for no particular reason.

I realize that the HP Books are packed with content and it would probably take 4-5 hours to do a decent job of really converting the book to the screen. As a result you have to expect some level of cuts. For example in the book harry gets four letters, not just one. I'm trying hard not to give any spoilers, which makes it hard to give any particular examples.

I CAN say that it was still a fun movie to watch, but having JUST read the book over the last week I was very disappointed which what and how much they left. But I'd certainly be interested in seeing the IMAX 3D and sitting not in the second-row.

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

Yeah, maybe I'll try to pull together an IMAX outing. The play will take up most of next week for me, but after that, hopefully HP will still be playing in IMAX.

[deceptiverose.livejournal.com]

About the letters... yes but they convey the information in the next scene through dialogue so it's not like they really leave that information out. Personally I thought that they did a pretty good job choosing what needed to be put in. It can't be expected that they could produce a marketable movie if they make it too long. And most of what they changed I think was for a reason, a good reason. In order to make the movie flow and to allow people who haven't read the book to understand it, some of the details had to be changed so it made sense.

[spwebdesign.livejournal.com]

the city forced it

Why?

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

They're doing big rennovation to that section of Boston Common. CSC was in their was, so they gave them the boot this year with the exception of the one week run.

I expect the performances will be packed to the point of being unenjoyable. I may go down on that last night, but I'm not definitely certain.

[joyeous.livejournal.com]

I saw it last night too!

Besides the fact that the Weasley twins now look like they're about 30 years old, the casting was just great. Young Neville is certainly growing up cute as anything. :-) And I love emo, angsty Harry. Poor Ron's had about 3 lines in the whole movie! Luna had a pretty deceht role though. Love her. :-)

And was anyone else upset when all those prophecies came crashing down? I was like, "No! Now those other people will never know their prophecies! you're not the only one who would like to know things about their future, Harry!"

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

I had that same reaction to all the broken prophesies! Each one of those was a life. I'm also anal enough to wonder about the ones stored 50 feet up on the shelving. How was someone supposed to find theirs or get to it if it was up there? Maybe they had to use their broomstick.

By the time they make the 7th movie, most of the kids are going to be in their 20s. But 20-somethings play teens all the time, so I don't think it's going to matter much. (as long as they stay on the shooting schedule!)

[joyeous.livejournal.com]

Yes, overall, I think it was a terrible way of storing prophesies. They were so close to the edge and not secure at all. Anyone could knock one over, even accidentally. I would have put them in some sort of safe deposit box system, like they have at the bank.

Okay, now it's pretty clear that we think about these things too much. :-)

[deceptiverose.livejournal.com]

I agree with your Harry Potter assessment. I don't know that Goblet is my favorite book, but this is definitely an excellent movie in the series. I think they made really good choices about how to put it all together but you're right, they could have made it a bit longer.

I was just watching a TV Guide Channel video about it and the woman on there said that the movie was good, but it was almost all plot because you know the characters already in theory. Of course, reading the book makes everything come together more concretely. My dad hasn't read it yet so I'll have to see what he thinks from the non-reader perspective.