# Harry Potter reactions **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 16, 2001, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-reactions/93733 "2001-11-16T14:46:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2001, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-reactions/93733/81 "2001-11-25T22:40:17Z")
There may well have been some problems with the directing; being familiar with the story, I tended to fill in the blanks myself, and didn’t really notice them. But the acting! If Snape doesn’t win Best Supporting, then someone at the Academy is going to have some serious explaining to do. Dumbledore could have stood to be a bit more goofy, but they did, at least, include the earwax bean… And that’s not really the actor’s fault, anyway. And for those nitpicking the owls’ flight: Can a real owl, flying according to the Muggle laws of owl physics, carry a broom singlehandedly (er, singletalonedly)? No? Well, then, they obviously weren’t flying according to the Muggle laws of owl physics. ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2001, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-reactions/93733/82 "2001-11-26T04:53:33Z")
I’m posting this without reading any of the other reactions in the thread, because I wanna make sure it’s really me. And I didn’t read any reactions here before I went to see it (yes, I read the books), because I wanted to go into it fresh. I thought it was a workmanlike rendition of the high points of what was in the book, geared towards the “6 to 14” age group. The Better Half has not read the books, and had only the vaguest idea of what the story was about, and I was able to tell him afterwards, “Yes, you had a decent overview of the book.” I see movie critics with a lot of quibbles about this and that, here and there (“they didn’t explain why Snape hated Harry…”, etc.), and really, they’re just quibbles. Overall the movie was very nice. I _adored_ the Dursleys’ house. As soon as I saw that set, I immediately thought, “But of _course_ the inside of their house would be Seventies Tacky, how could I not have known that?” I had always pictured it as somehow vaguely “1940s British cozy”, but the Seventies Tacky, with the earth tones and the bumpy yellow glass in the kitchen cabinet doors, was so absolutely perfect, I was filled with admiration. “You are in good hands,” I told myself with satisfaction, and settled down deeper in my seat. I do agree that the CG centaur sucked, but I thought the Quidditch match was fine. People who wanted a “pod race” type of thing should just have gone out and rented _Phantom Menace_ again. La Principessa was rather more critical, mainly that they changed things around a bit (“but in the book…”). And yes, she _knows_ that they sometimes have to change things to accommodate a movie’s needs. It was already 2 hours and 20 minutes long–there wasn’t room for the final “potions” test in the dungeon at the end. But overall I didn’t think the changes made that much of a difference. One really nice thing was that the theater was half-empty, and this was a Sunday afternoon matinee. We tried to get in last Sunday, for the same show, and when we got there, in plenty of time we thought, we were told, “There are only 50 seats left, and they’re probably right down in front.” So we went home again, came back today, and like I said, the place was half-empty. I think everybody who was gonna see it, _has_ seen it, and we’ll see a sharp dropoff in box office receipts on subsequent weekends. At the end, where Dumbledore is announcing the “surprise” extra points for the houses, the mom behind me whispered, “Sixty!” just before Dumbledore said, “Sixty!” on-screen. Now _there’s_ a fan. 😃 [sub]p.s. imo alan rickman was SADLY under-used. kind of a walk-through for him. oh well. and i want a dress just like his for next halloween. really.[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2001, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-reactions/93733/83 "2001-11-26T05:10:53Z")
And they gave us a “Anakin and What’s-her-name fall in love” Star Wars trailer with one minute’s worth of snippets of **THE** absolutely worst, **MOST** hackneyed love scene dialogue I have **EVER** heard, including on soap operas. I was moved to poke La Principessa on the arm and direct her attention to where I was making “poke my finger down my throat” vomiting motions, it was that bad. That’s not going to be “The Movie”, is it? “Anakin and What’s-her-name fall in love and agonize over it endlessly, in soft focus”? No way am I paying good money to see bad soap opera. “But you’re a Jedi, and the Jedi aren’t supposed to fall in love…” George? Helloooooo? Been there, done that–“But you’re a Vulcan, and Vulcans aren’t supposed to fall in love…” “But you’re a cop, and cops aren’t supposed to fall in love…” “But you’re a psychiatrist, and psychiatrists aren’t supposed to fall in love…” “But you’re a rock star, and rock stars aren’t supposed to fall in love…” “But you’re a predator, and predators aren’t supposed to fall in love…” "But you’re a chicken, and chickens aren’t supposed to fall in love… ---
**Author:** ![Bad\_News\_Baboon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/5fc32e/32.png) [@Bad\_News\_Baboon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bad_News_Baboon)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2001, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-reactions/93733/84 "2001-11-26T19:17:59Z")
I thought his name was Snake. or that’s what I heard anyway! 😉 I think the next HP movie should be: Snape and more Snape and then Snape some more. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2001, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-reactions/93733/85 "2001-11-26T19:29:24Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by screech-owl \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > \*Originally posted by Zebra \* > > **…Another is a scene of Harrys owl flying that does not obey any sort of flight rules for owls…** > > Admittedly, I have not yet seen the movie (still having problems after surgery, but my attention span is getting better), but could you explain this observation? How so, in terms of the way the wings flapping, mid-air turns, braking, landing? > > And by the way, is Hedwig a snowy owl (as depicted in the coffee mug on my desk) or a great howned owl (that I see on all the tv advertisements)? \*\* I ment the scene where Harry just walks out in the snow and lets Hedwig just fly about for a bit. The rather large owl does a 180 degree turn on a dime shortly after leaving Harrys arm and climbing the entire time. That was pretty messed up dude. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2001, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-reactions/93733/86 "2001-11-26T19:35:21Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Duck Duck Goose \* > \*\*“But you’re a Jedi, and the Jedi aren’t supposed to fall in love…” \*\* So that’s why Luke Skywalker couldn’t get a date! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-reactions/93733.md?page=4)