26.8.07

Total Waste

I meant this to be an actual review, but I also meant it to come out days ago, and now it's late, I'm sleepy, and I'm trying to finish up so I can close my computer with a clean conscience. So I will confine myself to an observation, rather than a real review.

With installment number five, Harry Potter has so very much become the new Star Wars.

Which is really sad, you know? Lots of potential, very mediocre execution. Oh, it hasn't hit Jar Jar Binks level, or the hideousness that was Padme and Anakin's romance. And you know, it wasn't unexpected. The first installment was pretty sucky. But they'd been getting better! Three! Three was good! Four... well, you could make excuses for four. But five has landed us squarely back in the realm of shiny pictures / wretched dialogue.

And I mean it. Just wretched. That snort you heard on Sunday night, three counties away? That was me, when Harry comes out of the elevator at the Department of Mysteries and explains solemnly to his friends, "This is it." Thank you, Explainy McExpositionpants. I think there were a couple of newborn babies in the audience who were just a little unsure of the implications of the crashing music and the fact that the plot has been leading up to this for the past hour and forty-five minutes.

There's a lot to like -- the acting, for example, has dramatically improved (pun intended); Luna and Umbridge are both excellently cast. The condensations of the plot make sense and aren't too jarring. And the visuals are VERY shiny. (Although the wizard fight at the end borders on ridiculous.)

I just wish, for once, that the different elements of the movie industry -- the people who do script, music, acting, camera work, could trust in each other -- and in the non-brain-damaged audience -- and inject their work with some subtlety and power, rather than beating us over the head with everything. If the music is going to crash dramatically, you ... don't actually need the line of dialogue that explains what's going on. If you're going to have a line in the script that explains interrogations, you don't really need a visual of them happening. Reinforcement, not redundancy, people! Not that difficult!

Oh, wait! I was mixing my mediums. That's what you get when you have theater!

3 comments:

Andy Cantor said...

Lol, couldn't agree more. I don't know if I should bother seeing the next two movies.

By the way, OH MY GOD, YOU HAVE A BLOG! WHY DID I NOT KNOW ABOUT THIS??? THIS IS COMPLETELY AWESOME! YAY!!!

Peter said...

I plan to see the last two just for the sake of completion, but if they continue in this way my hopes aren't high. Give us Mr. Cuaron as the director again!

Arcadian said...

No kidding. Somehow he had a way of glossing over the stupid dialogue and highlighting the good stuff. I miss that.