charliesmum (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
charliesmum) wrote2005-01-31 12:41 pm
charliesmum) wrote2005-01-31 12:41 pm
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Harry Potter movies are fan fiction. Discuss
We recently acquired the 3rd Harry Potter DVD, which every time I watch annoys me more for the liberties it takes with the story line. However, Charlie enjoys the movies. Bits of the movies. He never sits through the whole thing, but parts of the movies have caught his imagination, so this weekend we spent some time watching bits of all three movies. Watching the movies brought me to the conclusion I mentioned in my previous post that the movies are just really expensive fan fiction. Actually, to clarify, I should say bad fan fiction.
Let's break it down. What are the criteria of bad fan fiction?
1. Taking an already created universe and making up new stories that warp canon.
Movie one probably did this less than the other two, being the most faithful interpretation, I think, but movie three just seemed to be a different story all together. I could go on for pages about the third movie, but better ranters than I already have, so I won't. You know what I mean.
2. Inserting an original character who takes over the plot
One could argue that the special effects are kind of an original character. I think all three movies sacrificed nuanced character development in favor of special effects. For example, at the end of the first movie, Quirrell doesn't get blistered and burned by touching Harry, but dries up and crumples to dust. Lovely effect to be sure, but it detracted very much from Harry's struggle. In the book Harry is nearly killed, not because a CGI Voldemort goes through him, but because he held on to Quirrell despite the considerable pain it gave him because it was the only way he knew of to keep Quirrell away from the stone. There is no reason that part needed to be changed, other than the fact they wanted to show off the uber kwel special effect.
3. Warping an existing character.
One word. Hermione!Sue. Hermione in canon is sort of 'Exposition Girl' but in the movies she is constantly taking other people's lines. And by other people, I mean Ron. In the 2nd book, it is Ron who tells Harry and Hermione what mud-blood means. In the movie, he's reduced to comically throwing up slugs and Hermione is the one who spouts the explanation. Not only that, she steals Dumbledore's line from the first book about the fear of a name increasing the fear of the thing itself. That's just annoying. By book three, forget it. Hermione is a total pink-hoodie wearing, gosh look at my hair, taking all the best lines Mary Sue.
4. Changing the rules set forth in canon.
Wandless magic abounds in the movies, it really does, especially in movie three.
The robes, or lack thereof. I tried not to let this bother me, but boy, does it bother me. Why is it so hard to have wizards and witches in robes? That's what they wear. It's important. They might wear muggle clothes when they have to, but they aren't very good at it. Look at the wizard in book 4 who was wearing a dress. And the school uniforms were robes. Black robes.
5. Ignoring logic for the sake of the plot
Harry's birthday is July 31st. School term starts September 1st. Harry meets Hagrid for the first time on his birthday, both in the book and in the movie. So far, so good. However, in the movie, Hagrid comes in, takes Harry to buy his stuff and then dumps him at Kings Cross all in the same day. I appreciate the time constraints of the movie, but maybe they could have cut Neville's humourous fall from his broom (which was needlessly long and just an excuse to show off the oh so nifty special effects) in favor of having Harry being taken to London a few weeks later. Because Harry's birth date is important. Why JKR didn't argue about this I will never know.
6. Too much Draco
Again, I appreciate the main actors need to get the screen time, but in the movies Slytherin has every single class with Gryffindor. In the books I don't think Gryffindor and Slytherin have ever shared a Defence Against the Dark Arts class, yet in the movies, there's Draco, looking smug. Grr.
So there you go. HP movies = Bad fan fiction. The theroy which is mine.
Charlie however, quite enjoys the movies. He has yet to sit through one all in one go, but he likes watching them. This weekend he was pretending to go by floo powder. He would stand up next to a big pile of stuffed toys, mis-pronounce Diagon Ally, just as Harry did in the movie, pretend to drop the powder, and then say 'woosshhssswusshh' and fall on the pile of stuff. He has also been going around saying 'Riddikulus' all weekend. The funniest thing though, was his reaction to Aunt Marge being blown up. It freaked him out a bit, but he did seem to understand that it happened because she upset Harry, because not long after we watched that, I told Charlie something he didn't want to hear and he pointed a finger at me and said "I'm going to blow you up!" Which made me just laugh.
He also liked the Knight Bus. All weekend our couch was the Knight Train.
Let's break it down. What are the criteria of bad fan fiction?
1. Taking an already created universe and making up new stories that warp canon.
Movie one probably did this less than the other two, being the most faithful interpretation, I think, but movie three just seemed to be a different story all together. I could go on for pages about the third movie, but better ranters than I already have, so I won't. You know what I mean.
2. Inserting an original character who takes over the plot
One could argue that the special effects are kind of an original character. I think all three movies sacrificed nuanced character development in favor of special effects. For example, at the end of the first movie, Quirrell doesn't get blistered and burned by touching Harry, but dries up and crumples to dust. Lovely effect to be sure, but it detracted very much from Harry's struggle. In the book Harry is nearly killed, not because a CGI Voldemort goes through him, but because he held on to Quirrell despite the considerable pain it gave him because it was the only way he knew of to keep Quirrell away from the stone. There is no reason that part needed to be changed, other than the fact they wanted to show off the uber kwel special effect.
3. Warping an existing character.
One word. Hermione!Sue. Hermione in canon is sort of 'Exposition Girl' but in the movies she is constantly taking other people's lines. And by other people, I mean Ron. In the 2nd book, it is Ron who tells Harry and Hermione what mud-blood means. In the movie, he's reduced to comically throwing up slugs and Hermione is the one who spouts the explanation. Not only that, she steals Dumbledore's line from the first book about the fear of a name increasing the fear of the thing itself. That's just annoying. By book three, forget it. Hermione is a total pink-hoodie wearing, gosh look at my hair, taking all the best lines Mary Sue.
4. Changing the rules set forth in canon.
Wandless magic abounds in the movies, it really does, especially in movie three.
The robes, or lack thereof. I tried not to let this bother me, but boy, does it bother me. Why is it so hard to have wizards and witches in robes? That's what they wear. It's important. They might wear muggle clothes when they have to, but they aren't very good at it. Look at the wizard in book 4 who was wearing a dress. And the school uniforms were robes. Black robes.
5. Ignoring logic for the sake of the plot
Harry's birthday is July 31st. School term starts September 1st. Harry meets Hagrid for the first time on his birthday, both in the book and in the movie. So far, so good. However, in the movie, Hagrid comes in, takes Harry to buy his stuff and then dumps him at Kings Cross all in the same day. I appreciate the time constraints of the movie, but maybe they could have cut Neville's humourous fall from his broom (which was needlessly long and just an excuse to show off the oh so nifty special effects) in favor of having Harry being taken to London a few weeks later. Because Harry's birth date is important. Why JKR didn't argue about this I will never know.
6. Too much Draco
Again, I appreciate the main actors need to get the screen time, but in the movies Slytherin has every single class with Gryffindor. In the books I don't think Gryffindor and Slytherin have ever shared a Defence Against the Dark Arts class, yet in the movies, there's Draco, looking smug. Grr.
So there you go. HP movies = Bad fan fiction. The theroy which is mine.
Charlie however, quite enjoys the movies. He has yet to sit through one all in one go, but he likes watching them. This weekend he was pretending to go by floo powder. He would stand up next to a big pile of stuffed toys, mis-pronounce Diagon Ally, just as Harry did in the movie, pretend to drop the powder, and then say 'woosshhssswusshh' and fall on the pile of stuff. He has also been going around saying 'Riddikulus' all weekend. The funniest thing though, was his reaction to Aunt Marge being blown up. It freaked him out a bit, but he did seem to understand that it happened because she upset Harry, because not long after we watched that, I told Charlie something he didn't want to hear and he pointed a finger at me and said "I'm going to blow you up!" Which made me just laugh.
He also liked the Knight Bus. All weekend our couch was the Knight Train.