to think that the Harry Potter are timeless literature and the films are woefully miscast?

[LRDtheFeministDragon]

Inflammatory title to draw you in. I hope. I just fancied some HP chat.

I'm re-watching the films at the moment. Is it me or is there something old-ladyish about Alan Rickman's mouth? I realize I am thinking about this far too hard, and I know it's practically forbidden to speak ill of him on MN. But every time I see those films, I'm disappointed again that he just isn't as sexy as his voice.

I also think the Burrow looks all wrong to me. I love what they do with the reeds in the scene where Bellatrix taunts Harry and he and Ginny run after her. But I imagined the Burrow being rural and farmland-ish, with an overgrown garden around it - not plonked down in the middle of a marsh. Am I right?

What's your favourite bit of the films/books?

snapeandlily I've got a lump in my throat, especially the Fred and George ones. Feel bad about criticizing their acting now. Is the filming the death scene one real? :(

Love that Buzzfeed post.

Oh God that Buzzfeed has me in floods especially the message from Lily to Molly :(

And this Buzzfeed post is one of my all time favourite Buzzfeeds

I know, they're tearjerkers, aren't they? Harry's first and last words about Snape always tip me over the edge Agree about the Lily to Molly message too. I've got a feeling that Fred and George filming one was an urban myth though.

Yeah, the Fred and George/filming the death scene does sound like a bunch of shit. I liked the other ones though.

"curious-yes that's another Hermione anomaly- she's not supposed to be beautiful. And that's all EW is. Beautiful and posh. "

At age 10 EW was a plain schoolgirl type though. And Hermione is supposed to be a catch for an international Quidditch player..

Yy to Fred and George - so very wooden for two characters who, in the book, jump off the page. Maybe the casting people should have sacked off the identical twin concept for two similar looking boys who could act? Sacrilege, I know!

HBC does an amazing turn playing Bellatrix as totally unhinged - love her!

Always think it's a shame they don't make more of Neville's back story with the parents as Aurors, he has gone grouch similar tragedy to Harry but just gets written off in the films as geeky plant boy. Oh I guess until the final scene with sword of griffyndor.

Final issue - the ages! A) if lily and James were such amazing students and leading the fight against the death eaters were they married and with child so young (at 21 they would barely have left Uni, let alone saving the wizarding world) and b) as others have said, this would make Snape et al well under 40 when the books first began. I do think AR had the perfect greasy curtain of limp blank hair.

And is Fenir Greyback dead in real life?! Did I misread that post? He is my HP crush crossing into Twilight territory

I can believe number 29 actually. Acting thst your twin has died, when they are really your twin. Not easy, and probably very very emotional.

Had me in floods anyway!

I adore Philip Glennister as Ted Tonks. That would be perfect, because for me he'd still be slightly Gene Hunt and it'd make perfect sense he'd not be remotely bothered by his wife's scary family.

ABF - hello! I wondered how long it'd take you. I agree - Lavender was perfect and that's actually such a hard role to do and not make incredibly annoying. I love the scene in the Hospital Wing where she and Hermione are squaring up, and Hermione's kind of embarrassed to do this in front of her headmaster, but Lavender just does not give a fuck.

Also liked Alan Rickman momentarily closing his eyes against teenage girldom.

I had greyback confused with scabior

www.fanpop.com/clubs/harry-potter/picks/results/624585/favourite-snatcher-known

I think I read somewhere that JK Rowling put the epilogue in to try and stop any unofficial sequels being published - Harry Potter and the Crippling Meth Addiction, or Harry Potter and Oops Voldemort Isn't Actually Dead (although I suppose they could squeeze these things into the 19 years.)
I think Emma Thompson is shocking as Trelawney. Really, truly terrible. I know Trelawney isn't the most subtle character but there was absolutely no nuance in the performance, just shrieking and wild gesticulating.
I loved book Lupin but didn't like film Lupin. Mostly down to, er, his moustache.

slithy ah yes, me too. I always think Nick Moran is Fenir and forget about Scabior.

Although, JKR notoriously doesn't mind fanfic, so it seems odd that she would bother with an epilogue for that reason.

I think she just honestly did write it in the very early stages, then really wanted to keep it in. I think she has a pretty strong sense of how to create a good 'how I wrote Harry Potter' story and that's part of it.

As far as I understand it re Harry & Voldemort at the end - since Harry was one of the horcruxes when Voldy curses him he destroys the horcrux part of Harry. I don't know if it would have worked before then, because I think Harry needed to know that's what was going to happen and accept it (isn't that part of Dumbedore's piece in 9 & 3/4s limbo?).

His scar disappears in the epilogue doesn't it? Representing that the horcrux in him was destroyed - because he accepted that was what he had coming and took the spell like a big tough guy.

Truffle - no, the epilogue says Harry's scar hadn't troubled him for 19 years - I think it's still there.

LRD, fanfic is one thing but a Sally Beaumont "Rebecca" style extension is ruled out by the epilogue...

YY, true.

Though I do so wish she hadn't done it. It is awful. Though, I do think Tom Felton did a good job of looking 19 years older in the film version.

Yes the actor who played Fenir Greyback died recently in California. Death Valley I think. Post mortem said heat exhaustion.
Very very sad.

I do wonder how much of the "wooden" acting is down to the director(s).

DR was anything but wooden as David Copperfield, for example, and I thought he was good in the Woman in Black.
I thought the Weasley twins got better in the later films and a lot of the child actors seemed to change between films (apart from Seamus, who was consistently dire).

Oh, and just because no-one has mentioned him yet, I thought Rhys Ifans was great as Mr. Lovegrove.

Fred's death scene upset me in the film just because I could imagine how poor Oliver felt acting it :(

I liked the Woman in Black a lot, too.

I read somewhere that the twins actually talked like that - the speaking together/finishing sentences. Which seems odd to me, because it was the most fake-sounding bit, and I really struggled. But I suppose if they actually do it, it'd be so tempting for the director to use it.

I am still gutted Bill Weasley was so wet-looking. Perfectly decent actor, but isn't he meant to be a bit glam and edgy?

PfftTheMagicDraco don't get me started on the Weasley's financial management, in the films or the books. If you are so embarrassingly poor:
a) Don't have so many children in the first place, particularly if you make it so obvious you are just trying desperately for a girl and aren't really bothered about the middle 4.
b) If all your children are in boarding school 10 months out of the year, perhaps Mrs Weasley should consider getting a job to add to the family finances. She's a witch FFS how much housework (for 2 people) does she have to do!
c) Ask for money from your rich relatives. No matter how proud you are, I would think this was still preferable to sending your son off to MAGIC school with a faulty wand! It's like doing Maths at Uni, everyone else has a laptop and scientific calculator, poor Ron has an abacus.
d) If you win the lottery perhaps consider saving/investing the money, not spending it all on a one off luxury trip to Egypt!

and breathe.

So many children do some form of acting, I don't see how the HP casting directors could have managed to cast so many terrible, awful actors. It's not impossible to cast young actors and then see how they turn out -all the Stark kids in GOT were very young when they were cast (and mostly unknown/no experience) and they're really good imho. The other things GOT has done is cast slightly older actors who can pass for much younger (Joffrey/Jojen Reed).

And yes to Harry's eyes. While it is annoying, it is SUCH a big deal in the books, and a huge part of Snape's character development. If DR couldn't handle contacts, they could have done it in post production (can't be harder to change blue-green than to special effect a huge dragon!). Or just stick contacts in weirdly old looking for a 21 year old Lily so at least they match!

Oh, I loved the thread a while ago about the Weasley's not being poor, just crap with money.

I admit, I don't really get the Snape thing with Harry's eyes. I know 'you have your mother's eyes' is something people say, but I have never looked at someone, even someone with an unusual eye colour, and thought their eyes were literally like someone else's.

I never understood that weirdy scene with Dumbledore and the foetus looking thingy under the bench.

No matter how many times I watch it.

And I agree that Neville's story merited more involvement- especially after in the book Harry gets told that no-one even knew if the prophecy was about him or Neville. I looked forward to so many twists that never came.....

And yes, the ages, I've never thought about it before...so Petunia was supposed to be in her early 30s when Harry is 11? Because there were only about 2-3 yrs between her and Lily?

Bill Weasley was an abomination.

"And yes, the ages, I've never thought about it before...so Petunia was supposed to be in her early 30s when Harry is 11? "

YY. Hated that too. Think that whole character was badly misplayed/misdirected in the film.