Potter movies improve as books decline in plot
>>Print ViewPublication Date: 07/13/2009
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The turn of the century was a good time to be a Harry Potter fan. “Goblet of Fire” hit the shelves – and promptly flew off them – in 2000, and the highly anticipated movie adaptation was expected in 2001.
I got into the Harry Potter craze late. I let books one, two and three pass me by, dead sure that anything so popular had to be horrible.
It wasn’t until I finally, gingerly, accepted a copy of “Sorcerer’s Stone” from the Potter-pushing junior high librarian that I discovered the upside of reading something everyone else has read: Other people have read it.
As a bookish sixth-grader more likely to be mocked than befriended for reading at school, I was surprised when I brought a Harry Potter book to class and one of the preppy kids said, “Hey, I love that series!” Never before had I had so many opportunities to geek out about a book and have someone geek back.
But after “Goblet,” which was ambitious without losing its pacing, my geeking out over J.K. Rowlings’ product waned. It’s harder to write endings than beginnings, I’ll give her that. But when Rowlings upped the angst and started churning out more pages than plot with each successive book, I began to doubt her early claims that she knew where the series was headed from the beginning.
On the other hand, the movies have only been getting better. The 11-year-old amateurs in the lead roles have become bearable actors, if still unworthy to share the screen with the likes of Alan Rickman – who is another tick in the “plus” column. And while the wonders of CGI can often be abused – the ridiculously drawn-out dragon chase scene in “Goblet” comes to mind – the Potter adapters have largely proved themselves circumspect in that department.
Finally, each successive director gradually learns from his predecessors’ mistakes, making each film more its own entity and less a few flat hours of the book’s most film-able moments.
That’s why I’m planning to see this week’s new Potter flick, despite a patchy ability to remember the name of the book it’s based on, let alone the plot.
And at least it’ll be something to talk about at work the next day.