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.

[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!

[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.

[spwebdesign.livejournal.com]

the city forced it

Why?

[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!"

[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.