The HP Reading Challenge… continued
(including my thoughts on the longest book being adapted into the shortest movie)
Two days plus to go, and I’m cruising along on my goal to re-reading entire Harry Potter series. Went through Goblet of Fire and Order of the Phoenix last week, and I am now about half-way through Half-Blood Prince, which puts me perfectly on track to finish Book 6 just in time to dig into Book 7.
So, how is the series shaping up on yet another reading? Quite well. I had not read Goblet since the movie came out, and I managed to get a little into Phoenix before I saw the movie, so it was a nice way to keep a fresh perspective. J.K. Rowling gets a bit of a bad rap for her verbosity in the series starting with Year 4, but I love it when she delves further into the world than purely for the sake of plot. After all, you could say the same thing about Tolkien, and the Quiddich World Cup is far more fun than Tom Bombadil and Old Man Willow (but don’t get me wrong; some of my favorite passages in The Lord of the Rings concern Tom Bombadil).
So, if Prisoner of Azkaban is the early high water mark for me in the series, it’s too easy to say Goblet is even better. It is almost twice as long, so it has a distinct advantage in being able to deepen the characterization that I so love. So, where does that leave Phoenix, the longest of the books? That is up there as well, in no small part because of how seriously the situation worsens for Harry and company, whereas Goblet was still the ol’ fun and games until the climax when someone truly got hurt. Also, as whiny and, well, hormonal Harry is throughout his 5th year at Hogwarts, I’d have to say, that’s correct. That’s how 15-old-boys are! And that’s without having to fight of Dementors, do detention with an Orwellian school principal, and keep the Dark Lord Who Must Not Be Named from invading their minds.
Finally, that brings us to the movie. As I said before, Prisoner of Azkaban is the early high water mark for me with the books, and incidentally it is as well for the movies not the least because of Alfonso Cuaron’s visual inventiveness. So, needless to say, I have been anxiously waiting the filmed version of Order of the Phoenix because I hold the book in such high regard as well. I won’t bother with a full review (after all, that’s what Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes are for), but I will say that the movie is up there as well. It will take at least one more viewing to decide, but it may be my favorite. With a running time of 138 minutes, the shortest of the series (and downright miniscule compared to the 161 minutes of Chamber of Secrets) I was worried that the longest of the books would suffer.
Yes, they did cut out many of my favorite passages (”Weasley is Our King!”), and I could do a treatise on the adaptation, but on the whole I can’t really complain. Screenwriter Michael Goldenberg certainly had an embarrassment of riches to adapt from. And having never heard of director David Yates before this movie (he has apparently done some fine work for the BBC), after seeing his work here, including that incredible wizard battle in the climax, I greatly look forward to his work on Half-Blood Prince.
Yes, we have come a long way since the days of Chris Columbus. (Ah, so many puns, so little time.)
Song of the Week:
“Carnival of the Animals: Aquarium” by Saint-Saëns
P.S. I’m not up on the Harry Potter message boards, but what are the Vegas odds on Harry having to Apparate to Mustafar for the final battle with Voldemort and to throw the Horcruxes into Mount Doom while Hippogriffs fight the Dementors over Hogwarts?
This week… The Half-Blood Prince
Next week… The Deathly Hallows