FilmJoy: The Story of Harry Potter (Part 1/3)

UnpopularBlargh · Oct 31, 2018

This is a great overview of how the films got made and how each added on and differentiated from the previous entry. Eight films. All of them good to great.

Mikey also did a whole video a while back on Prisoner of Azkaban that I'd recommend you give a watch:

ZiggyPalffyLA · Oct 31, 2018

I'll have to watch these later!

OP, have you listened to the Binge Mode Harry Potter podcast? Such great insight into the books, I've been enjoying it all summer/autumn.

Indy in the Fridge · Oct 31, 2018

Goblet of Fire was not good. It is by far the weakest in the series by a significant margin. The other 7 are good to great though (with 3 being the highlight)

INST · Oct 31, 2018

Man this is a great watch so far. Thx OP!

UnpopularBlargh · Oct 31, 2018

Indy in the Fridge said:
Goblet of Fire was not good. It is by far the weakest in the series by a significant margin. The other 7 are good to great though (with 3 being the highlight)

Nah. It's pretty good. I liked seeing Harry act like total goofball teenager going through puberty. Also that whole last act is great with Harry meeting Voldemort face to face for the first time.

Seesaw15 · Oct 31, 2018

Goblet of Fire, Half Blood Prince and Deathly Hallows pt 2 are all pretty terrible films.

Deleted member 4367 · Oct 31, 2018

I like all the movies. So there.

Waffles · Oct 31, 2018

I have no trouble watching all of these films while recognizing that there were some baffling changes and omissions from the books that really hurt the films.

Can't wait to watch the video though. Mikey's stuff is fantastic.

Playco Armboy · Oct 31, 2018

Goblet of Fire, Order of the Phoenix, and Deathly Hallows Part 1 aren't good. I don't like Fantastic Beasts, actually.

Vashetti · Oct 31, 2018

5 > 7.1 > 3 > 6 > 7.2 > 1 > 2 > 4

Jiggy · Oct 31, 2018

Seesaw15 said:
Half Blood Prince and Deathly Hallows pt 2 are all pretty terrible films.

Nah

Seesaw15 · Oct 31, 2018

Jiggy said:
Nah

Yah

Aaron · Oct 31, 2018

Indy in the Fridge said:
Goblet of Fire was not good. It is by far the weakest in the series by a significant margin. The other 7 are good to great though (with 3 being the highlight)

UnpopularBlargh said:
Nah. It's pretty good. I liked seeing Harry act like total goofball teenager going through puberty. Also that whole last act is great with Harry meeting Voldemort face to face for the first time.

It's my favorite book and I still find a lot of the decisions they made with the film questionable, but it's grown on me every time I watched it. The last hour or so is great, the pacing just feels very off in the first half of the movie in a way that I don't think affects any of the other movies (even though they're working with source material of a similar length).

Mcfrank · Oct 31, 2018

Will watch this if I finish work early. I also would like to suggest Binge Mode Harry Potter. If you have any interest in the series and listen to podcasts, you should be listening to Binge Mode.

UnpopularBlargh · Oct 31, 2018

Aaron said:
It's my favorite book and I still find a lot of the decisions they made with the film questionable, but it's grown on me every time I watched it. The last hour or so is great, the pacing just feels very off in the first half of the movie in a way that I don't think affects any of the other movies (even though they're working with source material of a similar length).

Yeah. It's my favourite book of the series too. I think the changes to the plot/script didn't bother me as much because Prisoner of Azkaban already broke much of that ground (which Mikey goes a bit into in the video). Also Brendan Gleeson as Moody was ace casting.

Jiggy · Oct 31, 2018

Seesaw15 said:
Yah

I find it hilarious how you single out the two good Yates films as the terrible ones

Vashetti · Oct 31, 2018

Hallows 2 falls apart when they carry Harry's 'body' back to the school. It's a mad rush to end the movie at that point, robbing the series of the fitting conclusion it deserves. There's no celebration of Voldemort's demise, no 'goodbyes' for the audience, the movie (and by extension the series) just ends on a whimper. It's baffling.

Sub Boss · Oct 31, 2018

Jiggy said:
I find it hilarious how you single out the two good Yates films as the terrible ones

Order of the Phoenix is the best/good Yates movie , maybe only that and some parts of DH2

Indy in the Fridge · Oct 31, 2018

Half Blood Prince is achshually Yates's best HP film. Tons of emotional weight. The only bad part is the Ginny and Harry relationship

UnpopularBlargh · Oct 31, 2018

Sub Boss said:
Order of the Phoenix is the best/good Yates movie , maybe only that and some parts of DH2

Order has maybe the best opening of the series:

BorkBork · Oct 31, 2018

Now I have to rewatch Prisoner. Only movie of the series I loved.

Glasgow Mega-Snake · Oct 31, 2018

Vashetti said:
Hallows 2 falls apart when they carry Harry's 'body' back to the school. It's a mad rush to end the movie at that point, robbing the series of the fitting conclusion it deserves. There's no celebration of Voldemort's demise, no 'goodbyes' for the audience, the movie (and by extension the series) just ends on a whimper. It's baffling.

That's true for the book as well though.

Vashetti · Oct 31, 2018

Glasgow Mega-Snake said:
That's true for the book as well though.

There's still some closure in the book though. Characters actually get to speak and get some send-off before we fade to Epilogue.

DrForester · Oct 31, 2018

The movies just went downhill for me. While I didn't think any of them were terrible (other than Goblet of Fire), I really think Yates at his best only did things well, never great.

Scrobbles · Oct 31, 2018

Definitely gonna watch this later.

Someone posted this in another Potter thread, but this article on the cinematography in Half-Blood Prince really changed how I saw the movie.
https://www.diyphotography.net/harry-potter-half-blood-prince-cinematography-bruno-delbonnel/

Wamb0wneD · Oct 31, 2018

Seesaw15 said:
Goblet of Fire, Half Blood Prince and Deathly Hallows pt 2 are all pretty terrible films.

Goblet wasn't that bad. Order was bound to be shit with how much they had to cut though. Should've gone 5/1 and 5/2 there already. Agreed on the other 2. How you can go from Deathly Hollows 1 to 2 I'll never get. The first had such a great tone to it. Still watch that one from time to time.

Jiggy · Oct 31, 2018

Vashetti said:
Hallows 2 falls apart when they carry Harry's 'body' back to the school. It's a mad rush to end the movie at that point, robbing the series of the fitting conclusion it deserves. There's no celebration of Voldemort's demise, no 'goodbyes' for the audience, the movie (and by extension the series) just ends on a whimper. It's baffling.

Harry getting a big cheering crowd in the book during his final fight with Voldemort was always silly. In the movie, it's just Harry and Voldemort, alone. The way it should be.

UnpopularBlargh said:
Order has maybe the best opening of the series:

It certainly has the best montages

Yates is really good at montages

Anyways,

PoA > DH2 > CoS > HBP > DH1 > SS > OoTP > GoF > FB

Wamb0wneD · Oct 31, 2018

Scrobbles said:
Definitely gonna watch this later.

Someone posted this in another Potter thread, but this article on the cinematography in Half-Blood Prince really changed how I saw the movie.
https://www.diyphotography.net/harry-potter-half-blood-prince-cinematography-bruno-delbonnel/

Woah...Maybe I should do a rewatch soon.

Glasgow Mega-Snake · Oct 31, 2018

DrForester said:
The movies just went downhill for me. While I didn't think any of them were terrible (other than Goblet of Fire), I really think Yates at his best only did things well, never great.

Yeah, the Yates films all felt very by the books. They adapted most stuff well enough, but it felt like they lacked their own creative identity.

That's why Azkaban is still my favourite HP film. At first I didn't like it because of the changes and how details like Hogwarts' geography got completely reshuffled mid-series, but the atmosphere and tone are just really great

Still, after seeing Fantastic Beasts I have to say, for me that's the first film where the wizarding world really felt alive

DrForester · Oct 31, 2018

My problems with the Yates films is partly adaptation issues.

With the exception of Order of the Phoenix. Phoenix is my least favorite book because it's pretty much Harry sulking around for nearly the entire thing. Kickass climax in the Ministry though. I think the movie sped things along well.

With the 6th film, my issue was that they went all in with the teen romance angst and ditched nearly all the Voldemort backstory. It also has one of the few Rickman moments I don't like. That being when Harry confronts him as he's fleeing.

You know how everyone complains about Gambon being completely out of character for screaming at Harry when he's supposed to be calm? Well I feel the same way about Rickman in this scene. How he calmly tells Harry he's the Half Blood Prince.

In the book, Snape is screaming at Harry, he is pissed that this little shit he's been protecting is trying to fight him. He loses it. And none of that is conveyed in the scene in the film.

For the final two, I think they're mostly fine. I had a few issues with the final battle.

1. For Snapes memories, they leave out the scene of him calling Lilly a mudblood, which really fails to set up the whole thing.
2. I absolutely hate that the final confrontation between Harry and Voldemort was a CGI battle. The more subdued confrontation in the book where Harry taunts him for a few minutes, and then his spell rebounds, was so much more satisfying. Because Harry can not fight Voldemort. He found a way to outsmart him, and that was far better for me.

My other issue with Yates is just the aesthetics. I know the films and books age with the core audience, but it's just so... dull. It has that muted DC film look to it. I feel like, even though it's a serious story, it sucked the magic out of the fantasy world it's supposed to be set in. Dull, grey, nearly everyone is now in normal clothes rather than robes. It just doesn't feel like a fantasy world.

Scrobbles said:
Definitely gonna watch this later.

Someone posted this in another Potter thread, but this article on the cinematography in Half-Blood Prince really changed how I saw the movie.
https://www.diyphotography.net/harry-potter-half-blood-prince-cinematography-bruno-delbonnel/

But it also has this...

Watch Slughorn's arm at about the 30 second mark...

Sub Boss · Oct 31, 2018

Yates was dull but at least an improvment over the GoF director, PoA is unique , the first two set up the rest of the series really well but they are more like typical 'children' movies

UnpopularBlargh · Nov 24, 2018

Part 2 is up:

B-Dubs · Nov 24, 2018

Aaron said:
It's my favorite book and I still find a lot of the decisions they made with the film questionable, but it's grown on me every time I watched it. The last hour or so is great, the pacing just feels very off in the first half of the movie in a way that I don't think affects any of the other movies (even though they're working with source material of a similar length).

The other books have more things you can skim over or just reference in passing without losing too much. Goblet of Fire, not so much.

Aaron · Nov 24, 2018

B-Dubs said:
The other books have more things you can skim over or just reference in passing without losing too much. Goblet of Fire, not so much.

Yeah there's way too much plot-central stuff that was excised from the movie due to time. It's weird because they left some plot threads dangling like Hermione's vendetta against Rita Skeeter, though I suppose that's fine. More egregious is probably how oddly they handle Mr. Crouch being murdered. I don't think they ever even say what happened or who did it.

They were talking about splitting Goblet of Fire into two films, but I can see why they didn't - HP set the trend of film adaptations doing that in the first place with the seventh book being split into two, but by that point since it was the last film they didn't really have much to lose. Doing it halfway into the series and having it backfire could have killed the franchise. Even if it did well it'd set a really weird precedent where people would expect OOTP and HBP to be split up as well.

B-Dubs · Nov 24, 2018

Aaron said:
Yeah there's way too much plot-central stuff that was excised from the movie due to time. It's weird because they left some plot threads dangling like Hermione's vendetta against Rita Skeeter, though I suppose that's fine. More egregious is probably how oddly they handle Mr. Crouch being murdered. I don't think they ever even say what happened or who did it.

They were talking about splitting Goblet of Fire into two films, but I can see why they didn't - HP set the trend of film adaptations doing that in the first place with the seventh book being split into two, but by that point since it was the last film they didn't really have much to lose. Doing it halfway into the series and having it backfire could have killed the franchise. Even if it did well it'd set a really weird precedent where people would expect OOTP and HBP to be split up as well.

Pretty much everything that happens in the book is almost mandatory for the whole thing to work and there's no real way to cut any of it down satisfactorily. I feel like the third movie also may have suffered from this a bit, but to a far lesser extent.

I do think Goblet of Fire needed to be a pair of films, like Deathly Hallows, but at the same time there's no good place to make that cut. So I get why they didn't do it.

Ryuelli · Nov 24, 2018

2 > 1 > > > > 3 = 4 > 5 = 6 > 7

I think they're all watchable, some are quite clearly better than others, but overall I like Chris Columbus' vision of hogwarts and the wizarding world a lot more than the directors that came after.

halcali · Nov 24, 2018

Indy in the Fridge said:
Goblet of Fire was not good. It is by far the weakest in the series by a significant margin. The other 7 are good to great though (with 3 being the highlight)

Thank you! I agree 100%.
Harry Potter films are collectively my favourite films of all time, but there is a lot of awkward and mundane moments throughout.
Meanwhile, Azkaban took some creative liberties to make it an enjoyable film for non-Potter fans!

My favourites are the first 2 films and probably Order of the Phoenix.

Linkura · Nov 24, 2018

Indy in the Fridge said:
Goblet of Fire was not good. It is by far the weakest in the series by a significant margin. The other 7 are good to great though (with 3 being the highlight)

Absolutely agree about GoF. Fucking garbage.

I didn't like Half Blood Prince much either. But GoF took the damn cake.

Indy in the Fridge · Nov 24, 2018

UnpopularBlargh said:
Order has maybe the best opening of the series:

Speaking of Dudley, have you guys seen him in The Ballad of Buster Scruggs? He's in a short with Liam Neeson and it is so fucking good. I was impressed with him given his character's "limitations."

SegFault · Nov 24, 2018

Goblet of fire has some of the worst editing of the series. It's so fucking bad.

Deleted member 19782 · Nov 25, 2018

I thought the general consensus was that Order of the Phoenix was the worst one out of all the movies.

TAJ · Nov 25, 2018

Jiggy said:
Harry getting a big cheering crowd in the book during his final fight with Voldemort was always silly. In the movie, it's just Harry and Voldemort, alone. The way it should be.

I loved the Kill Bill moment in the book.
The same part in the movie was just silly, nonsensical spectacle.

Aaron · Nov 25, 2018

B-Dubs said:
Pretty much everything that happens in the book is almost mandatory for the whole thing to work and there's no real way to cut any of it down satisfactorily. I feel like the third movie also may have suffered from this a bit, but to a far lesser extent.

I do think Goblet of Fire needed to be a pair of films, like Deathly Hallows, but at the same time there's no good place to make that cut. So I get why they didn't do it.

Yeah, what I appreciate about Deathly Hallows is that even though it's obviously a Part 1, the first film still feels like it has a satisfactory climax with the battle at Malfoy Manor and Dobby's death. The ending of the film gives more of a "well shit, now what?" vibe rather than going for an obnoxious cliffhanger.

A draft of DH pt 1 leaked online and ended right when Harry is brought to the manor and it's like... god, I'm so glad they didn't go for that. It was pretty close to what ended up being in the final movie, so I'm guessing it was legit.

B-Dubs · Nov 25, 2018

Feltrol said:
I thought the general consensus was that Order of the Phoenix was the worst one out of all the movies.

Nah, that was one of the better ones. My only real complaint was cutting out the Weasley twins trolling the hell out of everyone

DrEvil · Nov 25, 2018

Movies with Mikey is my absolute favourite film series on youtube, I highly suggest starting from the beginning and watching them all.

Fat4all · Nov 25, 2018

im sad we never got to see Cuarón's take on Goblet of Fire

Masterz1337 · Nov 25, 2018

I was a huge harry potter fan who thought each movie got worse and worse. Going to watch these later, but I think those movies were all pretty much trash.

Bring on the Harry Potter TV series on HBO or Netflix already!

Deleted member 2802 · Nov 25, 2018

https://www.theringer.com/binge-mode
is doing it long form/deeeeeeeeeeeep dive in podcast style with all books/movies/cursed child/conventions over dozens of podcasts if you want a real timesink like 50+ hours
2-5 chapters/podcast
1 movie/podcast
~60-120 min/podcast

Top 10 Time Magazine Podcasts of the Year 2 years running (for whatever that's worth, I think they used to be a part of HBO a subsidiary of TimeWarner so . . . . )
http://time.com/5455070/best-podcasts-2018-2/

sphagnum · Nov 25, 2018

Masterz1337 said:
I was a huge harry potter fan who thought each movie got worse and worse. Going to watch these later, but I think those movies were all pretty much trash.

Bring on the Harry Potter TV series on HBO or Netflix already!

Still need that Harry Potter anime.

FilmJoy: The Story of Harry Potter (Part 1/3)

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