The best book...the worst movie...

Rating: 6/10 (18 September 2005)

I am almost 27 years old. A lawyer. A pianist. A computer freak. But above all, a Harry Potter maniac. And I feel proud to admit that, because, for me, the HP universe is something extremely exceptional, powerful, full of substance and every true value we hold. A whole new complicated, parallel to ours, world with a lot to teach every kid or adult, capable of making each and every one of us think and think again. The character analysis is awesome and the plot childly enjoyable but brilliantly mature. So, I'm a HP fan. And, naturally, I've read all the books (10 times each) and I've watched all the movies (20 times each!!).I loved the first movie, I had some objections about but still I enjoyed much the second one. But the third book was destined to give the best motion picture. Because it has everything in it, all the very fine ingredients to provide a great total!! Because of the Olympic Games, the movie came out in Athens in September 2004 and after a lot of irritating waiting we rushed to the cinema the very first day, full of excitement and predisposed absolutely positively. The result: THE BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT OF MY LIFE.THE HARDEST ONE TOO... Is that movie an "adult" movie as they baptized it?Why? Because it has nothing to do with Potter?Because it was deprived of everything that matters in the Potter universe? Because "magic" is a "childish" thing and we have to eliminate it to make a mature movie?Or the kids wearing cloaks and uniforms of Hogwarts would humiliate Cuaron's creation?And I ask all of those who have read the sixth book, how in the name of God is this little "sissy" of Cuaron's Draco going to be the person he is supposed to be in the 6th movie??? The atmosphere is changed dramatically and not because of the Dementor's presence. The Hogwarts is changed substantially too, and not because of the different location. Of all the classical British super-actors, only few remain decent and even fewer do something more than that. From all the new characters only Trelawney makes a statement-but that's because she is Ema Thompson-and Thewlis' Lupin is also something relatively memorable, while Gary Oldman's Black is not acting but absolutely overreacting, making you think whether Black was in Azkaban or in St Mungus' Hospital!!And that's definitely not Odlman's fault.Further more, the unavoidable replacement of the late Harris' Dubbledore with the Gambon's one has seemed to have a deteriorating effect on the Headmaster!He simply is...less magical, less proud, less grave, less "aristocratic", less important and less.....clean.And that's not Gambon's fault either..... The only really decent element of the movie is the artistic creation of the beasts. Hippogriff is a piece of art and Dementors exactly as anybody would picture them reading Rowling's description.Some elements of the plot - things that could not be anyway altered - also remain thrilling or sentimental or terrorizing but the question is whether all these are enough to save the movie... When, in the beginning of the movie, the Knight bus is running on the streets of London and it is IT that gets out of the way of things and not THE THINGS getting out of ITS way (like in the book), we overpass it without difficulty.But, in the end, it's all about the same thing: GET THE MAGIC OUT OF THE WAY. Deminisize it. Reduce it. Eliminate it...Or even humiliate it (see shrieking heads, the most ridiculous idea in the history of ridiculous ideas...). Cuaron is no fan of HP. He knows it. We know it.I doubt whether he has ever read any other HP book except from the 3rd one//If we accept that he has really read that too!And he has the right too hate HP and magic in general.What he is not allowed to do is force us to witness the desecration of our beloved world!!!THAT HE CANNOT DO!! 6/10 only because it is theoretically based on the third HP book, a triumph of J.Rowling...