Film Fanatics - Chat Thread II

Snape gave his memories to Harry? I've never heard anyone react like that though. Alan Rickman is a wonderful actor, and his performance in DH part II was brilliant. He's on the BAFTA longlist for his role as Snape in the last Harry Potter film, and I think he definitely deserves something. Will he win an Oscar? Probably not.

That scene is completely incoherent unless you know what is supposed to be happening. I heard someone next to me in the cinema whisper "So is Snape his father?". Now, while this person was most likely an idiot, it is important to bear in mind that the chapter in the book is written with absolutely no hint of complex thoughts (as opposed to something which could have been interpreted in many ways). If you take something as straightforward as that and people somehow derive such mental theories off it from first glance, you have failed as a storyteller.

And that pretty much stands true for the entire film. If you knew what was going on then it was a wonderful tale of nostalgia as they hit on every point of note in the books, but if you didn't then it was a huge cluster**** of references without any story. It failed miserably as a film.

Alan Rickman is an extraordinary actor, I'm not trying to say otherwise. But I think it would be a real shame if he won his only awards for a performance that was written so poorly.

I think Deathly Hallows was the film that was most geared towards the readers of the books. But the fact that people who have viewed all the films can draw conclusions like "so is Snape his father?".Well that's rather hard to understand.

The Prince's Tale is my favourite chapter in Deathly Hallows. It was butchered in the film, but that has happened to all the memory scenes. Snape's Worst Memory is a very important chapter in Order of the Phoenix, but it was about 20 seconds long in the film. WB shares some of the blame there though (they wanted a shorter film).

Snape and Lily's relationship is more complicated and has a lot more depth than what we saw in the film. But they weren't going to include it to begin with. No, it wasn't brilliant. But I'm grateful for it anyway. I don't think the film failed and I don't think the scene was poorly written.

I'm failing to see your logic here. You acknowledge that something was butchered, yet you don't mind that and are even grateful to them for it? I couldn't disagree more. The Prince's Tale is probably my favourite chapter in all of Harry Potter, and I certainly don't want someone serving up a sub-standard replica with none of the substance but the arrogance to assume it can push the same emotional buttons.

The Harry Potter films are a prime example of movies that want to appeal to an existing fanbase and target an outside audience, and they're caught slap bang in the middle of the road. They reference everything but never expand on it, which only serves to frustrate fans when they see their favourite scene removed from all significance and alienate people who don't know what any of it is supposed to mean. The one shining beacon is Prisoner of Azkaban, and that's because Cuaron is a talented filmmaker who didn't want to make a book tie-in but a film, and had the confidence in himself to tell his own story.

Just watched a film called Cube, its one of the those random films that no one speaks about. Anyone seen it? Its surprisingly horrific but nonetheless entertaining, in ways perhaps not intended.. XD

It's mostly butchered when it comes to time. It was too rushed. They weren't even going to include The Prince's Tale to begin with (but then they decided to split the book in two).
My expectations were low because I know what happens with memory scenes in Yates' films. Just look at Half Blood Prince and the Voldemort memories. Voldemort's past was a big theme in the book, but 90% of it wasn't included. And I wasn't a fan of the memory scenes that they did include either. Though it's hard to work long memories into a film.

I hope Chronicle doesn't play on the 'This is a found footage film, remember?' thing too much, using too many cliches of the genre through it, could be pretty good if it's been made well

I've seen it. Watched it with the fam, it was really peculiar. I have a really overactive imagination and I spent the next three days worrying about that the same thing would happen to me

That's the overall impression I have of Yates' direction, not just for specific scenes. Everything was just too rushed, there was no room for emotions or reflections.



What cliches of that genre do you think there are?

Never watched too many Westerns and I want to try and watch more to plug that area of weakness. Started today with A Fistful of Dollars.

That whole trilogy is great.

I recommend 3:10 to Yuma, both versions. People have been raving about True Grit as well.

Once you've watched enough, watch Blazing Saddles and realise how stupid everything is.

Currently queued up I have the dollars trilogy, Butch Cassidy, Unforgiven, Once upon a time in the west and the Treasure of Sierra Madre.

Once Upon a Time in the West - my god, the best Western to have graced cinema.

In addition to Dollars and 3:10, and if you're not burnt out at that point, The Searchers and High Plains Drifter are good shouts.

Was forced by my friends to endure a TV movie biopic called Magic Beyond Words: The JK Rowling Story on Friday. Wow. Such factually inaccurate films should be illegal.

Avoid The Social Network.

Watch Deadwood as well.