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Post by day dreamer on Jul 13, 2015 4:04:35 GMT
Any other HP fans here? I was just talking with someone today about how we used to stand in line at midnight for the new book releases. I'm not sure that I'd ever do something like that again for another book.
The Harry Potter series is just so important to me. I grew with it, loved it, still consistently talk about it with people. It's great.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 13, 2015 8:46:48 GMT
I rembember that I always had to keep my mouth shut for spoilers cause I read much faster than others.  And I spoiled myself for the several deaths in the endgame by reading a spoiler in the newspaper. |
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Post by Basil on Jul 13, 2015 8:49:26 GMT
I love Harry Potter with all my heart.  It's such a huge part of my life too, it's the book series I grew up with and when I'm feeling down nowadays, I just grab myself a Harry Potter book from my shelf, and I immediately feel better. It's really pure nostalgia. I've read all the books many, many times and I pretty much constantly listen to the audio books when I'm driving. The series is just so much fun. Hermione is the best, I love her. And I wanna be a wizard so bad.  Don't really have much to say about the novels. In my opinion, they're pretty much perfect. My favourite books in the series are "The Chamber of Secrets" and "The Order of the Phoenix", but I really love all of them. I have very mixed feelings towards the movies. On the one hand, all the adult actors are amazing, every one of them. I especially love Alan Rickman as Snape, Maggie Smith as McGonagall and Ralph Fiennes as Voldemort. The effects are awesome, Hogwarts looks beautiful and the soundtracks tend to be pretty amazing. But then there are the young actors, who are really ... not always all that great. Emma Watson works fine, she was good pretty much from the beginning, but Rupert Grint and Daniel Radcliffe were always kinda stiff in their performance and line delivery. All the other Hogwarts students are a mixed bag too. Luna was good, but Neville is horrible, I'm sorry, I don't like his character at all in the movies, it's the way he's written I guess, but also the guy who plays him is just not that good of an actor. Ginny in the movies was reduced to nothing. She is so freaking boring and she has almost no lines, she's not as fierce and passionate as she is in the books, she's just kinda there and doesn't do much. Why did Harry fall in love with her again? And I was very disappointed about how they did the last battle between Harry and You-Know-Who. In the books, this is such a quite, epic moment, the tension builds slowly, but the pay-off is fantastic. Every one is there, watching how Harry finally fulfills his destiny. In the movie he and Voldy are just ... kinda fighting and Harry wins. The End. Completely missing the point, that Harry wouldn't stand a chance against Voldemort in a normal duel, that the only reason he won was Voldemort's own stupidity and failure. Oh well, the movies have some great things about them, but overall, I really prefer the story as it is told in the books. |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 13, 2015 9:39:17 GMT
I'm probably sounding like a broken record, but I have to agree with (almost) everything Basil said. The books are such a huge part of my life. I grew up with them and they were my first real fan obsession, very similar to ASOIAF today. My favourite book is The Half-Blood Prince (with The Order of The Phoenix as a close second). Hermione and Luna are my favourite characters. The movies, however, are not very good, IMO. I liked 3 and 7.1, these two were good, the others... weren't. The child actors were ok, the adult actors were mostly fantastic (with the exception of Michael Gambon, who obviously didn't understand the role of Dumbledore). The real problem were the scripts, though. It's actually frightening how many missteps were made during the writing. For example, why the hell was the conversation/argument between Dumbledore and Harry cut at the end of the fifth movie? It was the big conclusion to the "Dumbledore avoids Harry"-arc and a huge, huge reveal in the overall story. I'm planning on writing my thesis on the books, by the way. Looking forward to rereading them for it, too. |
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Post by MarcusAntonius on Jul 13, 2015 9:56:47 GMT
I read the books like 5 times each in middle school. Tried picking them up again not thaaat long ago and just couldn't get back into it. Huge part of my childhood though and definitely what got me into reading as a hobby.
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Post by Enid on Jul 13, 2015 9:58:47 GMT
I grew up with Harry Potter, if there is a book series that has been a huge part of my life, is this one. I got to know Harry Potter thanks to my sister, all her friends were reading the books and she wanted to know what it was all about, so she pestered my mom until she relented. Meanwhile I thought Harry Potter was a lame name for a wizard (I was a little girl, don't judge me). Anyway, we went to the book store and they didn't have The Philosopher's stone, so my sister bought The Chamber of Secrets. I started reading the book because I was curious, but I didn't understand what it was going on and stopped before reaching the second chapter, thinking that the Harry Potter books were awful and my sister was silly for buying them. Then my sister decided that she needed to read the first book in order to understand everything, and once she got it, I decided to see it it was any better. And I got hooked. I devoured the book, couldn't stop reading it. It was the best thing ever, and once I finished the first book, I locked myself in my room and read The Chamber of Secrets in just one day. And then I was the one asking my parents to buy the third book, I went from "Harry Potter is lame" to Harry Potter fan-girl in less than a week. All my friends soon were as hooked as I was, we went to see all the films together, from the first one to the last one, we spend hours talking about the characters and the plots, we even had sleepovers to re-watch the films several times. I re-read The Prisoner of Azkaban and The Goblet of Fire so many times I had to buy new copies, because some the pages were falling off. When the sixth book came out I wanted to go to the book store the very same day to buy it, but my parents said that made no sense, that it was better to wait a few days to avoid any crowds. That same day my dad came back home with the book and I almost tackled him to the ground when I hugged him . And I did go to wait in line with my friends for the seventh book. So yeah, I guess you can say I'm a Harry Potter fan  The funniest thing is, my sister didn't like the first book and she doesn't care for Harry Potter. At all. Regarding the movies, my favorite is the third one. I loved the style and I think they did a great job with the dementors, which is why I was so disappointed when they changed them for the other films. Is also when the kid actors started improving IMO, although I think none of them did their best work in the Harry Potter movies, Daniel Radcliffe specially has improved a lot in the last few years. To be honest, I was upset when they announced David Yates was going to direct the last four movies, I didn't like much Order of the Phoenix, and even though the next movies were better, I still think he is not a very good director. And I agree with Basil about Harry and Voldemort's final battle. I understand they wanted to make it longer, but seeing Voldemort throwing punches was jarring, to say the least, and making Voldemort's corpse disappear like glitter was a terrible change. In the books Voldemort dies and nothing else happens, because, no matter how big his power, or his ego, or how many precautions he took to avoid death, he was just a man, and it was also important to let everyone know that Voldemort was actually dead, that he hadn't just disappeared to come back a few years later. |
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Post by Basil on Jul 13, 2015 10:17:40 GMT
I'm probably sounding like a broken record, but I have to agree with (almost) everything Basil said. The books are such a huge part of my life. I grew up with them and they were my first real fan obsession, very similar to ASOIAF today. My favourite book is The Half-Blood Prince (with The Order of The Phoenix as a close second). Hermione and Luna are my favourite characters. The movies, however, are not very good, IMO. I liked 3 and 7.1, these two were good, the others... weren't. The child actors were ok, the adult actors were mostly fantastic ( with the exception of Michael Gambon, who obviously didn't understand the role of Dumbledore). The real problem were the scripts, though. It's actually frightening how many missteps were made during the writing. For example, why the hell was the conversation/argument between Dumbledore and Harry cut at the end of the fifth movie? It was the big conclusion to the "Dumbledore avoids Harry"-arc and a huge, huge reveal in the overall story. I'm planning on writing my thesis on the books, by the way. Looking forward to rereading them for it, too.  I don't actually think he did a bad job, it was just that his interpretation of Dumbledore was so much different from how Dumbledore is described and how he acts in the books. Dude, I really think we're twins, separated at birth or something ... Hermione and Luna are by far my favourite characters. Another thing I kinda hate about the movies is that they didn't show all Tom Riddle related memories in the Half-Blood Prince. They really should have, in my opinion. I mean, Harry and Dumbledore didn't even talk about what objects Voldemort could have used to create his horcruxes, how did Harry even know, that the snake was one? Instead, they turned the sixth movie into a romantic comedy, which was really such a letdown. I definitely agree with you guys, the third movie was the best one. It wasn't extremely faithful to the source material, but it really worked on it's own. It told a coherent story you could follow even without having read the book and it had a fascinating art style and direction, unseen before or since in the movie series. |
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Post by MarcusAntonius on Jul 13, 2015 10:40:29 GMT
Anytime someone prefers Gambon over Harris I just can't understand it
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Post by Deleted on Jul 13, 2015 10:50:12 GMT
Anytime someone prefers Gambon over Harris I just can't understand it I haven't rewatched the movies or reread the books in ages nor do I think I ever will tbh but I prefer Harris, if only because I can do a Richard Harris-as-an-old-man-doing-an-English-accent impression and like to mix and match his dialogue from Gladiator and Unforgiven with his "alas earwax" scene in the first movie. |
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Post by Enid on Jul 13, 2015 10:50:10 GMT
Anytime someone prefers Gambon over Harris I just can't understand it Because that makes no sense. Harris was the perfect Dumbledore. |
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Post by kingeomer on Jul 13, 2015 10:59:38 GMT
I'll have to come back to this thread but I absolutely love the Harry Potter books. I am reading the first one to my kids now. I didn't start reading them until my friends were pestering me to watch the movies and read the books and I finally did.
I will say to the comments about Ginny, she is much more well developed character in the books and the movies marginalized her big time. It did not help that Dan Radcliffe and Bonnie Wright had zero chemistry. I will say that I wonder if the folks making the movies, early on, had any idea that JK would have Harry marry Ginny because I think if they knew, her part would have been similar to her role in the books. I know they knew about Ron and Hermione early on which is why the early movies had the weird tension between them.
I didn't think Gambon was bad as Dumbledore but Harris was the best one.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 13, 2015 11:53:16 GMT
Awwww yeah! Harry Potter!
My story is a little different as I think I might be a bit older than most of you. The books came to America when i was in my late teens and I started reading the first one when I was 19 (and I think the first three books were out by then). The moment I started reading them I absolutely loved them and I became obsessed with them. I had never really gotten into a series as much as I got into HP, it was the first time that I participated in internet forums for a book.
At the time I was going through a rough patch in life (my dad was dying) and they were the perfect escape. I went to the midnight release of books 4, 5 and 7 and I got 6 early in the morning. I just loved the excitement of getting a new book. It also helped that books were released on a timely manner, thanks JK!
I've read the series many times over, although, it's been years (at least 7, I think) that I've read the books. It's funny this thread was started because I was thinking of doing a re-read over the summer. Just to see how I like it.
My favorite books is The Prisoner of Azkaban and I was completely devastated when Harry couldn't go with Sirious. Sirious and Lupin are my two favorite characters although Harry holds a special place in my heart. A friend emailed me a Harry Potter quiz last week to see what character I was and it turns out I'm Albus Dumbledore. Hilarious! I loved it.
Regarding the movies, they're okay. They did improve mostly as they went along but I agree with most that the child actors were inconsistent at best. If they are on TV and I'm bored I might watch them but I wouldn't watch them because I want to see them again.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 13, 2015 12:47:10 GMT
Sooo much stuff I want to comment on, but quoting sucks mobile. The sixth movie was such a letdown for me. It's probably my favourite book and I was soo pissed after the movie, I remember being bitchy for days. I have to admit I don't even own the first four books, I borrowed them from my older sister's ex-boyfriend. I want to have the adult's version, maybe I'll get them for my birthday, because honestly I don't like the german cover illustration. @kairos That's so cool! I have a book with essays called Harry Potter and Philosophy that I read several times.  |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 13, 2015 14:39:36 GMT
Sooo much stuff I want to comment on, but quoting sucks mobile. The sixth movie was such a letdown for me. It's probably my favourite book and I was soo pissed after the movie, I remember being bitchy for days. I have to admit I don't even own the first four books, I borrowed them from my older sister's ex-boyfriend. I want to have the adult's version, maybe I'll get them for my birthday, because honestly I don't like the german cover illustration. @kairos That's so cool! I have a book with essays called Harry Potter and Philosophy that I read several times. Yeah, I was very, very disappointed with the sixth movie as well. Movies 5 and 6 were the two that showed just how much the writer(s) didn't understand the source material. I know "Harry Potter and Philosophy". It's a great collection of essays. |
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Post by day dreamer on Jul 14, 2015 2:23:04 GMT
Anytime someone prefers Gambon over Harris I just can't understand it I prefer Harris' looks, but Gambon's voice. It's weird. lol I loved the casting for the adults. There's not one that I didn't like. Alan Rickman was my absolute favorite. The kids, the only ones I really didn't like were Emma Watson and Bonnie Wright. Watson is weird. I hated her take on Hermione, Watson as an actress has grown on me over the years. Bonnie Wright is just not a good actress. The HP fandom was never boring. I remember one time someone created an entire website (on AngelFire or GeoCities, one of those) and sent it to me to "prove" that Harry and Hermione were meant to be instead of Hermione and Ron.  That sweet summer child. |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 14, 2015 7:20:47 GMT
Anytime someone prefers Gambon over Harris I just can't understand it I prefer Harris' looks, but Gambon's voice. It's weird. lol I loved the casting for the adults. There's not one that I didn't like. Alan Rickman was my absolute favorite. The kids, the only ones I really didn't like were Emma Watson and Bonnie Wright. Watson is weird. I hated her take on Hermione, Watson as an actress has grown on me over the years. Bonnie Wright is just not a good actress. The HP fandom was never boring. I remember one time someone created an entire website (on AngelFire or GeoCities, one of those) and sent it to me to "prove" that Harry and Hermione were meant to be instead of Hermione and Ron. That sweet summer child. These are the Jon/Dany shippers now. |
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Post by Basil on Jul 14, 2015 13:09:05 GMT
The kids, the only ones I really didn't like were Emma Watson and Bonnie Wright. Watson is weird. I hated her take on Hermione, Watson as an actress has grown on me over the years. Yeah, you're right, Watson's Hermione was a bit off. I still think she was one of the better child actors, maybe even the best, but her interpretation of Hermione was far too snappy, almost bitchy, and she seemed to be constantly annoyed with everyone. In the movies, I missed Book!Hermione's nerdy side, her constant desire to consult a book on every possible issue and her overall dorkiness, which is what makes her so loveable in the first place, imo. Another thing that I found extremely disappointing was the complete lack of reaction in the final movie, when the supposedly dead Harry is shown to the defenders of Hogwarts. I love how in the books, it's McGonagall, who screams in despair at the sight of the dead Harry. Ron and the others are openly rebelling against Voldemort, they're even taunting him and his spell fails to keep them under control. It's such a powerful scene overall. In the movie, we got nothing, only this extremely cheesy and bad-acted speech by Neville, Voldy hugging Draco (which made the whole theater laugh, by the way) - and almost no reaction from Harry's friends and teachers. And they should have made the duel between Mrs. Weasley and Bellatrix longer and a bit more exciting. In the books (I hate saying that over and over again xD), it's such an epic scene, that literally everyone in the Great Hall is watching these two women fight to the death. In the movie, the entire scene is 10 seconds long and all the other Weasleys are just kinda standing there, behind their mother, watching with this bland expression on their faces. It was really quite a letdown. |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 14, 2015 13:25:21 GMT
The kids, the only ones I really didn't like were Emma Watson and Bonnie Wright. Watson is weird. I hated her take on Hermione, Watson as an actress has grown on me over the years. Yeah, you're right, Watson's Hermione was a bit off. I still think she was one of the better child actors, maybe even the best, but her interpretation of Hermione was far too snappy, almost bitchy, and she seemed to be constantly annoyed with everyone. In the movies, I missed Book!Hermione's nerdy side, her constant desire to consult a book on every possible issue and her overall dorkiness, which is what makes her so loveable in the first place, imo. Another thing that I found extremely disappointing was the complete lack of reaction in the final movie, when the supposedly dead Harry is shown to the defenders of Hogwarts. I love how in the books, it's McGonagall, who screams in despair at the sight of the dead Harry. Ron and the others are openly rebelling against Voldemort, they're even taunting him and his spell fails to keep them under control. It's such a powerful scene overall. In the movie, we got nothing, only this extremely cheesy and bad-acted speech by Neville, Voldy hugging Draco (which made the whole theater laugh, by the way) - and almost no reaction from Harry's friends and teachers. And they should have made the duel between Mrs. Weasley and Bellatrix longer and a bit more exciting. In the books (I hate saying that over and over again xD), it's such an epic scene, that literally everyone in the Great Hall is watching these two women fight to the death. In the movie, the entire scene is 10 seconds long and all the other Weasleys are just kinda standing there, behind their mother, watching with this bland expression on their faces. It was really quite a letdown. These are some of the reasons why I'm dying for a well-made remake of the films. Maybe even in form of a TV show. |
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Post by Basil on Jul 14, 2015 13:35:03 GMT
These are some of the reasons why I'm dying for a well-made remake of the films. Maybe even in form of a TV show. Yes! A Harry Potter TV show made by HBO. They have to age up all the characters though. All students are accepted at Hogwarts at the age of 18, so that we can have steamy sex scenes in the prefects' bathroom.  But seriously, a well-made Harry Potter TV show with the same production value as something like Game of Thrones would be freaking incredible. Think of all the missing storylines they could adapt, all the character we never got to meet or explore in the movies because of time limitations. Maybe it's gonna happen in like ... 50 years. |
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Post by day dreamer on Jul 14, 2015 14:07:20 GMT
The kids, the only ones I really didn't like were Emma Watson and Bonnie Wright. Watson is weird. I hated her take on Hermione, Watson as an actress has grown on me over the years. Yeah, you're right, Watson's Hermione was a bit off. I still think she was one of the better child actors, maybe even the best, but her interpretation of Hermione was far too snappy, almost bitchy, and she seemed to be constantly annoyed with everyone. In the movies, I missed Book!Hermione's nerdy side, her constant desire to consult a book on every possible issue and her overall dorkiness, which is what makes her so loveable in the first place, imo. Another thing that I found extremely disappointing was the complete lack of reaction in the final movie, when the supposedly dead Harry is shown to the defenders of Hogwarts. I love how in the books, it's McGonagall, who screams in despair at the sight of the dead Harry. Ron and the others are openly rebelling against Voldemort, they're even taunting him and his spell fails to keep them under control. It's such a powerful scene overall. In the movie, we got nothing, only this extremely cheesy and bad-acted speech by Neville, Voldy hugging Draco (which made the whole theater laugh, by the way) - and almost no reaction from Harry's friends and teachers. And they should have made the duel between Mrs. Weasley and Bellatrix longer and a bit more exciting. In the books (I hate saying that over and over again xD), it's such an epic scene, that literally everyone in the Great Hall is watching these two women fight to the death. In the movie, the entire scene is 10 seconds long and all the other Weasleys are just kinda standing there, behind their mother, watching with this bland expression on their faces. It was really quite a letdown. That hug was SO awkward. Wtf were they thinking? I preferred the book way too. Neville's speech wasn't terrible, but Ginny running at Harry's dead body was. My problem with movie Hermione was she was Steven Kloves' (the terrible screen writer) favorite character and they gave a bunch of Ron's lines to her. It also bothered me how much she wore pink. Pink didn't really seem like a book Hermione thing and the entire theater I was in groaned when Hermione's Yule Ball dress was scene in full and it wasn't blue. I just don't think they embraced her bookish tomboy enough and wanted to turn her into the pink power ranger instead. |
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It's such a huge part of my life too, it's the book series I grew up with and when I'm feeling down nowadays, I just grab myself a Harry Potter book from my shelf, and I immediately feel better. It's really pure nostalgia. 
That sweet summer child.