Harry Potter By The Numbers

Why couldn't PJ have picked me instead of those freaking Hobbits!?


Ok, let's talk film. Well the new Harry Potter trailer is up and running. Its now the Half Blood Prince. I guess they are trying to finish this series before they all get married and have kids of their own. You have to wonder if the biggest thorn in the side of this Project is JK Rowling herself. I mean she stopped writing Harry Potter books. I am certian Warner Bros. would keep this going forever if it wasn't for Rowling stopping the series. Well execs wish they had the talent to come up with idea like this. They would write them forever. If a Warner exec wrote Harry Potter the books would go in indefinitely. Why not? Well that would be an example of the huge difference between creative people and Hollywood execs. Creative people know when the well is run dry. Execs don't know when to say when. That's why we have too many superhero movies now. They don't know when to quit.


Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince Trailer. On this site and every site in the world.

Well let's talk about these films. They are the most inconsistent film series ever. You can't do a marathon of these films without seeing that each one is a completely different film. I like these films. I know I am super critical about film. That's my job in my head. But I really do enjoy them. Yet I am going to tear a few things about them apart. First, yes, is the inconsistency of all the films. Well that one is easy to guess why. Different directors for almost each one. Chris Columbus brought us the first two. They were labors of length. They had a formula to them. Watching them was fun, yet it felt like an entire school year had gone by with the length of 2 and 1/2 hours for each. Wow that was tough at times. And still people complained that too much was left out of the book. How long do you want these films to be people! Goodness!

The third film was wonderful. It was directed by a super talented Alfonso Cuaron and it was the best one. It was the only Harry Potter film that had magic in it. None of the other films felt magical. The whole time travel thing felt very spirited and in the fashion of true wizardry. It was refreshing. I loved it. The whole time travel sequence was clever. I think that is the problem with the whole series. There is a lack of cleverness in every film execept the 3rd one. That is what is missing so that we as an audience can go WOW! That was clever.

Alfonso Cuaron, The only one with talent

The whole series wants to be so plot heavy that it doesn't allow itself clever moments. Every scene one after the other is laden with the contrived wizard sequences of the wand and a magic spell talk. That can get only quick. In the third one with the memory conjoration, I think (patronus spell) was clever. It was something that was unique. That idea carried itself over to the other films. But one clever moment does not make up for all the standard ones.

The director changed yet again as Alfonso Cuaron was still working on post production when The Goblet of Fire was ready for lensing. This prevented our talented directed to move on with that one. So they got a Britsh TV director David Yates to helm. Now, this is not a bad idea. If you can't find a visionary or don't want to roll the dice on one, like one studio rolled with Spike Jonze on Where the Wild Things are, then get someone who paints by numbers. Why not. There are directors out there that do everything textbook. They are usually TV directors like Mimi Leder, an ER director who went on to do features and Jeannot Szwarc who has done TV forever and stepped in to do Jaws 2 when Steven moved on. These directors are highly talented and efficent. They don't get stalled in creativity, they are professional and on time.

I prefer a creative director of course like Alfonso or Gulliermo, but these efficent directors like the one they hired, David Yates work beautifully cause they will get the job done. And this is what Yates did. The fifth Harry Potter was good. It wasn't wonderful and clever, but it was serviceable. And I am pretty sure Warner Bros liked him for the job. He gets the film done on time and doesn't exhaust too many creative juices. In fact he is slated to do the rest of the series.

The final film will be split into parts one and two, but don't expect that decision to be based on creativity. Its Warner doing a two for the price of one for sure. Why make one, when you can make two and double your money. Well, The Lord of the Rings has large fantasy ideas and it managed to get nominated will all its films. So why hasn't Harry gotten nominatied at all? Well the ingenuity is not there. The third film is the only one Oscar nominated for visual effects. The set decorators get Noms often for their work. But the only director that had potential for an Oscar was Cuaron. He could have or someone as creative could have propelled the films to Oscar status. But instead of searching for another visionary, they put their tail between their legs and opted for a paint by numbers director. Now there is no chance for a nomination for this direction. Not that its bad, it's just standard. It ordinary. And it may never be truly magical again.

Until Tomorrow. Let's talk film!