“Who wears boxer briefs while emerging from a mysterious green fog?” –Becky, during Spider-Man 3, wishing that James Franco (the actor who plays Harry Osborn) was instead naked.
Heh.
(Mild spoilers below, as well as a discussion of the Harry Potter 5 trailer.)
* * * * *
Alas, that line was funnier than most of the movie’s attempts at humor, and several of the trailers that preceded the movie had more coherent plots. (Incidentally, the other really funny moment came maybe 30 seconds into the trailer for The Bourne Ultimatum, when Matt Damon’s face finally appeared, and someone in the theater yelled, Team America-style, “Matt Damon!!” … Um, yeah, you have to have seen Team America to understand why it’s funny.)
Anyway, yeah, Spider-Man 3 wasn’t very good, IMHO. The plot was all over the map (if you asked me, “what was that movie about?,” I don’t think I’d be able to answer); the suspension-of-disbelief level was off the charts, and carried over from the action scenes into the character interactions as well; the number of overly convenient plot devices was pretty ridiculous (I mean, really, two lines of dialogue from some random old dude resolve three movies’ worth of angst? C’mon, screenwriters, you can do better than that!); and frankly, the movie just never made me care very much about anything that was happening on screen. It had its moments, but they were few and far between in a too-long, not-entertaining-enough flick. Moreover, the action sequences were hard to follow at times, and even at their best, weren’t good enough to overcome the movie’s other flaws. (And I’m not the sort of person who routinely bashes brainless summer blockbusters. I usually like ‘em. But this one just didn’t do it for me.)
Just one man’s opinion. The Spider-Man junkies will probably love it. But I didn’t. (Nor did Becky, who calls it “monkey bung.”)
I did, however, love the new trailer for the fifth Harry Potter movie. It’s even better than the international version, which I blogged about previously. I realize trailers can be deceiving, but I now officially have really high hopes for this movie, and specifically for director David Yates (who recently announced he’s coming back for movie 6, by the way). I sense that it has the potential to be a hell of a lot better than its predecessor.
Every time I watch Goblet of Fire on DVD (as Becky and I did recently), I — in Voldemort’s words — “confess myself disappointed” to a greater and greater degree. There’s a point where the movie’s version of the plot completely falls apart logically (hint: it happens in Dumbledore’s office), and from that point on, it’s almost like director Mike Newell forgot to try. The remainder of the film, which arguably is the most important sequence of events in the entire series thus far, feels rushed and even perfunctory, like they were trying to squeeze in a bunch of obligatory scenes without a clear idea of how best to tie everything together.
More broadly, Goblet of Fire is my favorite of the Potter books, and I really feel that there were just so many squandered opportunities in the adaptation: scenes that could have and should have been acted better, written better, visualized better. Now, it’s impossible to tell from a trailer whether the adaptation of Order of the Phoenix will be better on the first two counts, but on the last one, it definitely looks like David Yates has done a bang-up job of making sure the things that should look really cool, do in fact look really cool. That gives me hope that he’s a better fit for the Potter universe than Newell (who I will never forgive for, among other things, not giving Voldemort red eyes).
Now, if only Yates can coax a real acting performance out of Daniel Radcliffe, he should win an Oscar for Best Director! :)
|
Categories: Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Harry Potter
|
May 5th, 2007 at 11:46:01 pm
“if only Yates can coax a real acting performance out of Daniel Radcliffe”
Are you suggesting that Radcliffe is a poor actor? Really?
“a point where the movie’s version of the plot completely falls apart logically (hint: it happens in Dumbledore’s office),”
Been a while since I saw the movie — can you be more explicit? (Why spoiler-protect on a three-year old film?)
“Goblet of Fire is my favorite of the Potter books”
Not that this should affect your opinion, but I believe I’ve read that it’s JKR’s least favorite, because she rushed it to meet an editor/publisher deadline and did not have time to make the final edits/changes that she wanted. FWIW.
I still think Azkaban is the best individual book in the series.
May 6th, 2007 at 12:12:46 am
Yes. I think Radcliffe’s performance in Goblet of Fire was pathetic. Harry is supposed to experiencing this incredible range of emotions at the end of the movie, from the utterly excruciating pain of having Voldemort touch him on the forehead (Radcliffe’s reaction was more like he’d stubbed his toe really badly), to the grief and horror of Cedric’s death (Radcliffe seemed about as upset as I do when my server crashes), to the complex mixture of emotions he’s supposed to experience upon returning (which he conveyed by grabbing Cedric’s body with a weird jerky motion that wasn’t remotely believable, and then just sort of going blank and not emoting much at all).
But maybe it was the directing and screenwriting that was bad, more than the acting. I.e., maybe Radcliffe didn’t have enough to work with. That’s my hope, because if so, it creates more hope for improvement in the last three movies. (Radcliffe didn’t seem nearly so bad in the first three movies… but then, he didn’t have as much real acting to do.)
Anyway, I wasn’t spoiler-protecting Goblet of Fire, I was spoiler-protecting Spider-Man 3… the Potter stuff just naturally followed after I was done talking about Spider-Man 3. To answer your question, once Harry revealed to Dumbledore that he had seen Barty Crouch Jr. in his dream, the plot falls apart, because at that point Dumbledore has enough information that he unquestionably would have put the pieces together. This bugs the hell out of me. The book’s version of the plot makes a lot of sense and is really quite clever. The movie’s version is just dumb. And it creates a situation where Dumbledore’s failure to connect obvious dots is directly responsible for the Dark Lord’s return, which would naturally create the question of what’s so great about Dumbledore anyway… especially considering that he actually does make mistakes that worsen Harry’s predicament and lead to Sirius’s death in Book 5 (and presumably Movie 5)! How many times can Dumbledore majorly screw up and still be considered the greatest wizard of his time? What is this, the Bush Administration?
May 6th, 2007 at 12:43:14 am
Just returned from seeing Spidey 3 as well. We agreed that the film leaves a lot to be desired, but probably liked it more than you. Still, much more discussion after the movie of the Order of the Phoenix trailer.
Funniest moment in our movie, also audience-created: At the climactic moment of the fight in the jazz club, with silence on the screen, someone blurted out, “Dude, you just hit a *girl*.” The theater erupted.
May 6th, 2007 at 5:22:14 am
Everyone I’ve heard from that’s seen Spidey 3 said that it wasn’t really great. I was kind of excited about it but just haven’t been able to see it this weekend yet now I’m not so sure I will as immediately at least as I’d planned. I’m sooo looking forward to Order of the Phoenix. It’s actually my favorite HP book and I’ve seen a few trailers and it looks like it’s going to be pretty good. Yeah I hate to say it but everytime I watch Goblet of Fire it disapoints me too. I thought that the book really got lost in the movie. There was just too much to try to fit in and it seemed rushed to me also. Oh well. Just can’t WAIT for the next movie though and of course the last book. *SIGH*
May 6th, 2007 at 10:40:59 am
You wear boxers so you don’t have to wipe down the machine after use.
May 6th, 2007 at 1:51:56 pm
I saw Spidey 3 last night as well, and I rather liked it, but maybe that was because I had already heard that people weren’t liking it as much, so I guess I wasn’t expecting as much. Yeah, the ending was forced, but I think by that point I had suspended reality so much that My Little Ponies could have come galloping across the screen and I would have accepted it.
I actually really liked the humor. I laughed at Tobey Maguire walking down the street doing the pelvic thrusts and the finger points, and my favorite part was the little kid yelling, “Don’t do it Spiderman!”
I have to agree with Becky about James Franco though. Naked would have been nice…I mean, um….yeah, wearing boxer briefs after coming out of green fog just doesn’t make sense.