I didn’t see a thread about the movie in the first 6 pages of Cafe Society, so I guess I missed all the discussion.
I finally saw it tonight – was in a bad mood and thought it would cheer me up, so I caught the late movie. I was the only one in the theater. I hadn’t bothered to see it because it’s my least favorite of the books so far, and I haven’t cared much about the movies one way or the other. I’d heard that the movie was good, but not much more than “it was better than the first two.”
I was really surprised! Parts of it were excellent; other parts not so much (and I blame the silly climax of the book for that), but overall I thought it was very, very good. Did it get a lot of attention and I just missed it, or were people just generally unimpressed with it?
Definitely a lot more Roald Dahl than “The Goonies,” which is exactly what these movies should be. Not just darker but more interesting overall. The plot wasn’t really the focus, and neither were the characters except maybe for Professor Lupin. But the mood of the whole thing was outstanding. This is the way Hogwarts should look and feel. This is the way the movies should be – different and magical, but with a sense of menace and unpleasantness underlying everything. Everything just “felt” right to me.
And Hermione rocked. I was really glad to see her take over and be a strong character again.
