JOURNAL: iserlohn

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  • so f'ing stupid... 2001-11-17 18:08:24 forgot to mention QUIDDITCH!

    quidditch rocked. very, very cool and extremely well done. it may make the movie worth seeing at matinee prices simply by itself. 
  • Still not having received enough sleep.... *SPOILERS* 2001-11-17 18:07:06 I'm gonna comment about stuff from the last day or so's entertainment. Sadly I've got to skip rocky horror so I can get some sleep in and some homework done.

    So anyways, let's start with Harry Potter.

    I had such high hopes for this movie. Damn I need to learn not to be optimistic.

    I liked most of the cast. Harry was good, Hermione was good, Hagrid was good, Snape was fucking awesome, as was Ollivander. Most of the rest of the supporting cast was OK...

    BUT

    Fred and George were waaaay too young. They looked the part and acted right (all 1 minute they were on screen) but the actors' voices hadn't broken yet...and the characters are supposed to be what, 14-15? Ditto w/ Lee Jordan (the dude calling the Quidditch match.)

    Richard Harris also proved once again that he can't act. The lady playing McGonagall was just kinda reading lines off a role. Whoever played Oliver Wood surprised me - there's no real hint of that kind of heavy accent in the book.

    The sets were really cool and breathtaking. Unfortunately, they used the D&D approach of constantly panning over them for every shot.

    Which brings me to the cinematography. Actually, it's something I'd rather not discuss...

    As far as the plot is concerned (yes I'm jumping quite a bit in this), other reviews have compared the movie to a highlight reel. All I'm going to say is YES. The movie doesn't really have any sort of flow to it, and it just kinda is a selection of scenes. I'd rather have had an extra half hour added on to serve as event bridging, as well as to expand a bit of Harry with the Dursleys (and mebbe had a more serious look at how he got his wand.)

    The soundtrack. There are two people who need to die from this: John Williams for composing the most repetitive and annoying soundtrack in recent memory (pity 'cuz it sounded cool on its own...) and whoever the hell did the audio mixing in the movie. It's called BGM for a reason, but the music was waaaaay in the foreground far too much. The mix was just excessive. Also, the sound effects for the flying key sequence were just grating - not at all like i imagined in the book.

    And the invisibility cloak is paisley? WTF?! Not to mention that Harry kills Quirrel in the movie, which he does NOT do in the book at all - Rowling even makes it a point to show harry does NOT want to kill people in books 3 and 4.

    Oyeah, the cg centaur sucks. they could have just written this bit out completely and I'd have been much happier (it's also my least favorite scene in the book.)

    Overall, as I said in my prior post, save your money and just buy the book.

    Now then, I just got home from seeing the new non-equity tour of RENT. Three of us went, I won the rush ticket lotto and so me and my friend Anne sat in row AA 105-106 (front row center orchestra) and my roommate eric was in the back row of balcony (he bought tix off someone who won lotto.)

    Sitting in front of a speaker sucks. Next time I see RENT, i'm bringing earplugs.

    That being said, the actors for Mark and Collins sucked. They just didn't get the characters down well, nor could they sing well enough for their roles. Roger was better, but it's clear that he's not doing something right because he's started to lose his voice and it affected his performance. This was also probably my LEAST favorite soloist #1 so far as well.

    However, good things were there. There were 5 understudies on, including for Joanne and Angel, and all of them were very good. The Maureen was pretty funny, and I mooed as soon as she said "moo with me" and she was like "YEAH! LIKE THAT!" and the theatre erupted in moos +)

    Also, this performance has the most ass-kicking mimi I have ever seen live, and is probably my new second favorite. She didn't do much on the bars, but she could sing amazingly well. I kinda wish I'd brought my tape recorder with me just to bootleg her doing Out Tonight. Alas, so it goes.

    The only other thing to really note about this cast is that their actions and movements are a little....robotic. It just kinda lacks the human element at a few moments. Overall, well worth my $20. 
  • I came, I saw, I was massively disappointed. *SPOILERS* 2001-11-17 08:50:11 My official stance on the Harry Potter movie: Spend your $8.25 at the bookstore and buy the novel in softback form.

    I had so many hopes for this movie. The trailers looked cool, the scenes I found online looked cool, the early reviews were amazingly positive, and I love the books and was really pumped to see it.

    I've got to head out the door in 10 minutes to see RENT, so you won't get the detailed "what i liked/didn't like" list here, but the shortest rundown:

    good:
    quidditch
    most of the actors, especially snape and ollivander

    bad:
    felt like a highlight reel
    the soundtrack - repetitive and mixed horridly with the actual dialogue.
    certain actors who were supposed to be older hadn't had their voices crack yet like they should've

    and so on. if i find time soon i'll post details. 
  • Potter, Potter, Potter... 2001-11-15 14:19:51 32 hours until the screening I'm going to.

    TnAdct1: you really liked chamber of secrets best? i've read through the first four books three times now, and it's quickly becoming the one that i like the least....i thought azkaban was a much better read - but i'm a bit biased, 'cuz sirius and lupin are 2 of my favorite characters in the books.

    and if anyone related to casting on the movies is reading this (yeah right) please cast Peter Davison (the 5th doctor who) as lupin in the PoA movie. 
  • my roommate needs a seditive. 2001-11-14 23:23:40 and a hearing aid. i'm amazed the man isn't totally deaf by now with how loud his tv (always set to sports or law and order or whose line) or radio (set to the news station and he lets it play for 20 min in the morning *grumble*). he also laughs like a hyena over his IRC channel.

    2.66 pages done on the bosnia paper, stuff prepped for english class tomorrow, need to start working on the next section of clausewitz.

    liz is coming by tomorrow to watch anime, dunno what it'll be yet...mebbe i'll start showing her gravitation tv or DNA^2. she's usually got something fun to bring as well.

    yes, it's procrastination.

    also, in only 47 hours i'll be at the uptown theatre watching Harry Potter! w00h00! 
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