Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: SPOILERS

[hypatia]

You mean "book time" not "screen time", right?

Well, if they don't cut anything he says when they make movie 7, he'll have the longest part ever in one of the recent movies. I mean Snape has been cut to almost nothing in really films 4 and 5. Given just the "book time" he gets in book 7 and his role would actually expand quite a bit.

More than 4 minutes dialoge and some distant, group shots at least.

 

[KoshFan]

Trouble is, it'll only be Alan Rickman for about half of that. And you know they'll cut it.

 

[hypatia]

Yea.

One big Harry Potter fan who really gets into the theorizing and debating (until the end) commented that in the next movie she'd heard they're cutting out Harry as being superfluous to the plot.



O.K. I admit it. For just one little second I thought it might be true.

My friend is a little stinker, I don't believe I mentioned that.

Mostly I think they'll find they have to use Snape a bit in the last movie. And obviously even if he's cut back a lot, there will be one scene in movie 6 (Half-Blood Prince) that you know will be a great moment. :devil:

That I want to see.

 

[Kribu]

He would have to get at least two scenes in HBP ... the Vow with Narcissa, and the scene on top of the Astronomy Tower.

Unless they cut them out and simply have Harry run to the infirmary towards the end, crying out that Snape just killed Dumbledore for no reason whatsoever apart from being a nasty bastard. Which could happen...

 

[hypatia]

God, you never know. I still wonder if they'll have a bit of trouble even finding a director for the last film. But that's another topic.

I think this book broke records on copies sold in a very short time.

 

[Elenopa]

OK, I've read it.

I said I wouldn't buy it, but my Mum got it for me.

So, my thoughts;

Boy does the woman waffle! You've got to keep reading just to get to any action. How much description and meandering conversations and exposition can you have without giving anything away? It could have been edited down to at least half the page count and still been a decent story.

At least they stayed away from Hogwarts for most of the book. I was afraid it was going to be OotP again, which started promisingly, but then ended up being much of the same old, same old again. We were spared the lessons, the quiddich, the outsmarting of Snape at least.

I didn't think she'd be brave enough to kill of any of the three main characters. I did feel regret over Hedwig, but most of the other deaths were secondary characters at best. I felt sorry for Lupin and Tonks, but after giving Remus a really good introduction in PoA, she didn't do anything more with the character.

I think part of the problem with the stories are that they never break away from Harry. I know it's his book, but he spent so much of it isolated from everyone else and everything else. Having scenes showing what Vordlemort was doing would have brought home the gravity of the situation better. Again this is what OotP failed at. During the whole book, it felt like the Order wasn't doing anything, and they might not have been there. I would like to see that side of the conflict written about, as there was so much more going on that we just didn't see. (Imagine B5 being written just from the point of view of one character. Boring and fustrating.)

I have one big question, which I haven't looked to see if there is an answer on the net, because I only finished the book this morning. How did Neville get the sword of Godric Gryffindor?

 

[Kribu]

How did Neville get the sword of Godric Gryffindor?

I haven't yet seen a "definitive answer" to that anywhere, but quite a bit of guesswork... my own guess is that perhaps Gryffindor had put some sort of enchantment/spell on it to make sure that whenever a "true Gryffindor" needed it, he could get it from the Hat (which was Gryffindor's as well), no matter where the sword was physically situated at the time.

So I am assuming there was some sort of a connection between the Hat and the sword, put there by Gryffindor.

In any case, I suspect there was one mightily pissed-off goblin there when the sword went missing...

Perhaps we'll get an answer to it eventually.

 

[Elenopa]

I haven't yet seen a "definitive answer" to that anywhere, but quite a bit of guesswork... my own guess is that perhaps Gryffindor had put some sort of enchantment/spell on it to make sure that whenever a "true Gryffindor" needed it, he could get it from the Hat (which was Gryffindor's as well), no matter where the sword was physically situated at the time.

So I am assuming there was some sort of a connection between the Hat and the sword, put there by Gryffindor.

If this is the case, which it might well be, why don't we get a two sentence explanation? Harry pulled the sword from the hat back in book two, which is a long time ago.

She spends hundreds of pages saying very little, then misses out on this.

Just thinking about the films, how are they going to explain the locket in film seven when it wasn't even mentioned in film five? It had been found when they had originally cleaned the house and thought it was rubbish. That's going to take some explaining.

 

[KoshFan]

They'll have Kreacher for that particular gloss: the "R.A.B." will be in film 6, and then Kreacher can explain it in film 7. I hear that they almost wrote Kreacher out of the last one, and Rowling said, "Well, you can do that, but you'll be in deep trouble when you try to make the last one."

 

[Jonny_Fever]

I finished the book this morning and I liked it. Of course with all the hype going on I was assuming one of the main 3 would die but it turned out to be Fred instead. Some parts were slow and kind of boring and I found myself wondering about the other characters, but half way through it got better for me.

As I read it, I also kept trying to picture how they would do this one as a film. They have left out so much from the previous films they are either going to have to cut more stuff out and explain it really quickly ( like the scene in OoTP when Neville is looking at the picture of the original order and mentions that Bellatrix had done something horrible to his parents, where in the book Harry discovers this as he is going through the hospital) or figure something else out.

Ok Ok I'll admit it, I'm a sap. I was saddened when Dobby died. He was finally a free house elf and he rescues everyone from the basement only to be stabbed in the chest.

The epilogue was cheesy and everyone hooked up that I figured would be together but I wanted to know more about the fall out of the war they had. All the old Death Eaters still running around, repairing their world and so on. But I suppose that could be an entirely different book.

Is the fanfic any good? I've never read any. JKR says she will never write any more HP but perhaps some day if publishers dangle more cash in her face she just might do it again.

 

[hypatia]

O.K. Johnny. Hi.

SPOILERS FROM [I/]THE BOOKS GOBLET OF FIRE [/I] AND DEATHLY HALLOWS:




Do you recall in GoF the movie how upset Nevilled got when Mad-Eye showed the class the torture curse? There is a very good reason for that.

His parents were order members tortured to permanant insanity by Bellatrix.

As far as the book leaving out important details...

I wonder who will get stuck with movie 7, asking himself "what the hell do I do to introduce needed elements this late"?

The book fans tend to watch, even enjoy, but take as horribly watered-down, "Hollywoodized" stuff. They make money hand over fist, but I don't see how anyone can follow the story anymore if you begin to ask ANY questions. I owe someone I know a great debt for encouraging me to read the books. You know who you are.

As far as the Fred thing: I must have been eposed to different literature than most people, because I see the "twin trick" as being the most predictable ploy of authors. They just love going into the "fate worse than death" thing that the surviving twin goes through losing someone who was more than a brother, almost an extension of himself. So I virtually guaranteed that one of the two twins, but likely not both, would die.

But the last book is well worth the read, no matter how much it is dragging in the middle. But man, so much of Percy Weaslye's story and Neville's story and Snape's story has just been blown off.

I get the movies on DVD, won't see this one in the theater though I might have liked to, but they are not to be "taken seriously" as representations of the books. The yare fun to watch, just myopic in terms of Harry, I think.

 

[darth_librarian]

Finished it on holiday. I was expecting one of the main three to croak it, and would have
given Rowling a lot more respect as an author if she had, (kids need to be shocked, although Hedwig was a bit sad!) but she still gave it a good ending, I felt happy and had I been 15 years younger would have loved it.

I agree with Elenopa, she really does waffle, and could benefit from some tighter editing. but she does write very good action sequences. Her writing has improved immensly over all seven books, I hope she takes it onwards with some fresh ideas and characters. meanwhile kids, there is a lot of other good stuff out there to read!

As for the films, I've not seen 5 but her plotting and description does not lend itself to cinema. Important information is often revealed in exposition. I think movie five will be a bit different, which is a shame, as there are some great set peices in this book that would do well on screen. Also, the good wizards fire red spells and the bad wizards use green spells. Bit like Star Wars!

 

[crazyhorse]

I must say I'm surprised with all this kill someone off stuff.Very few books actually kill off the main characters of the book.The Lord of the Rings managed one semi main character who lasted half one book.I don't see many saying Gandalf should have remained dead.

It is a kids book folks so stop trying to say it should be more adult.

I don't read kids books but the films are decent watching.

I mean how could there be so little sex in a story involving teenagers

 

[KoshFan]

I must say I'm surprised with all this kill someone off stuff.Very few books actually kill off the main characters of the book.The Lord of the Rings managed one semi main character who lasted half one book.I don't see many saying Gandalf should have remained dead.

Actually, Tolkien himself said he regretted bringing Gandalf back, and felt that he took the easy way out on that one.

I mean how could there be so little sex in a story involving teenagers

That thought has crossed my mind. Admittedly our "main three" are kind of outsiders and geeks, but come on, the Weasley twins should have drummed up some Extendable Eyes and run them into the girl's showers.

 

[hypatia]

Well, maybe she had a different goal in mind. They don't mention anyone going to the toilet, but I'm fairly sure they do that, too.

Not everything has to have sex to make it better.

 

[crazyhorse]

Or death

 

[hypatia]

But she planned for the deaths, and it was part of her theme.

There is plent of sex stuff on tv and in print. IT's just funny to hear someone complaining about it in a book like HP.

Look at how many Weasleys there are. There is sex going on, to be sure. Unless the magical world recently found a better way.

 

[crazyhorse]

They should of been gangbanged to death

 

[hypatia]

I just looked up a bit at the wedding of Lupin: Fred and George disappeared with two of Fleur's cousins.

It also occured to me that the vast majority of the books are written from Harry Potter's perspective, exclusively. Uh, for there to be sex in the writing, someone would have to invite Harry to watch...

Would you want that?

 

[crazyhorse]

Doh maybe Harry would have it