Harry Potter is one of those series' that I would have been completely content with just remaining a book series and never becoming movies. Of course, this is slightly unrealistic considering it's the most popular children's series in the world. But when they made the first book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone into a movie, I was pleasantly surprised. Chris Columbus made a great effort in sticking to the book, casting was decent, and the computer graphics were awesome. This was the shortest book in the series, and very much the most 'child-like' of all of the books, which I am sure made it more adaptable to a movie, but yes, it did succeed in making me like the movie having already read the book, even though this book wasn't the strongest in the series. He did much of the same for the second book, once again, a great movie.
Then there was the third film, based on my favourite book in the series, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. I was ANGRY after leaving the theatre. I could not believe what they had done to my favourite book. They wasted time having Harry fly around the freakin' world on a damn Hippogriff and then neglected several key points in the story. The book had lots of very important information for the sequels afterward. For example who Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs are. In the movie, they NEVER tell you. And directors in the future movies didn't either because it wasn't part of their story and should have been done already! Thus you never know where the marauder's map comes from. People who have read the books would know, but everyone else won't. And it would only take about 2 minutes to explain!
The fourth movie did a lot of time wasting too (instead of a Hippogriff, this time Harry fought a dragon for an insane amount of time instead of completing it impressively quickly like he did in the book), but at least it wasn't rediculous. The fifth movie got back on track, I liked it again and was hopeful for the last two books, only to be disappointed by the sixth. But the seventh book, split into two movies, worked well. The four last books are pretty long, so having two movies for one book gave them more time to wrap up the story. It worked well, I enjoyed them both (especially the telling of the Story of the Three Brothers in part 1, I watched it on YouTube before bed for quite a while).
When Roland and I started dating he hadn't read any of the books, but had seen the first four movies. He said that he had no interest in reading them, but because we were in a new relationship, and I think he was still slightly interested in impressing me, when I asked if he would read them if I bought them for him, he said yes. I bought him the third book first for several reasons. 1) The first two movies were good adaptations and he had gotten the info he needed from them 2) the first book isn't as strong as the third, and I wanted him to want to read them all, not just the first book and then stop 3) It was my favourite 4) the movie was SO BRUTAL that I wanted him to understand why I was so angry about it... still... to this day. After I had given it to him, I asked him every day if he had started it, and he said that he hadn't had time. I think it was about a week later, I got a text from him at about 10pm saying something like "I've read 40 pages and none of this happened in the movie!" Once he finished the book, he conceded that the book was better, and proceeded to read the rest of them (up to the sixth book, the seventh wasn't out at that point yet.)
We went to the fifth movie in the theatre together, and he thought it was ok, but was annoyed by several things they didn't include. He also ranted that he probably would have liked the movie a lot more had he not read the book. Ignorance is bliss, but I sorta felt like I had won. He now understood. When we went to the sixth movie, he basically stomped out of the theatre (the sixth was his favourite book), and after walking in silence to the car, we got in and I said "So.." and he snapped at me "I don't want to talk about it!!" I smiled and again felt like I had won. Before we went to the second part of the seventh movie, he said "if they don't have the Gringotts Dragon in it, and they don't do it right, I'll be mad" They did it properly and he was happy. *win* :)
~*~
I never did write a review for Harry Potter because it already was popular before I read it (I did resist for quite a while, then caved, and ended up loving them from the second book on, and came to love the first in time), so it seemed unnecessary, and I enjoy talking about them as a whole, rather than book by book. So the following is not a book review, but has many of my opinions within it...
When I was working at McNally, and Nicole had become the Events Coordinator, she had planned a Harry Potter vs. Twilight Debate, where people encouraged to take a stance and apply to be on the debating team for either book. Unfortunately, she did not get the response she wanted. Only one person from each side applied, and both of them were elementary aged girls. She didn't think this would make for a sufficient debate, so she asked people from around the store to be on their teams. I initially had no interest, I didn't even respond to her pleading mass email. But the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to and felt I had good arguments. I had read both books and thus could refute the Twiligher's points. I figured I had it in the bag. So I told her I would do it.
The following is the "script" from the opening statement I was supposed to make. She gave us a time limit of 3 minutes. This is about 8 minutes long, but she never cut me off :) Please note that this was a script, meant to be spoken, and I didn't worry too much about punctuation or run on sentences or anything. I just read it out loud to myself, figured it sounded good and went with it.
Hope you enjoy!
"Ladies
and Gentlemen, fellow debaters, and esteemed Judges, I am Annie ******* and I am here today to attempt to convince you that Harry Potter
is the superior Series when contending with the Twilight Series. I
have decided to first address the 4 questions mentioned on the flyer
for this debate, and then I will move on to other issues I believe
are important in determining which series is better.
"Question
1: Which series has better relationships? In my opinion, Harry Potter
wins this hands down. The Harry Potter series provides us with
realistic relationships in the forms of Couples as well as Parents,
siblings, and friends. Ron and Hermione have a long standing
attraction that both are concerned will ruin their friendship, but
also neither wants to tell the other how they feel. How often does
that happen in a teenage relationship? Comparatively in Twilight, the
romantic relationships are based heavily on infatuation either by
appearance or by scent. The idea that a plain looking shy girl can
catch the very good looking god like creature creates unrealistic
expectations among the intended audience of the novels, which is
primarily Teenage Girls. I'm not saying 'don't set high
expectations', but seriously?
"Question
2: Which series has the better werewolves? This question is almost
unfair because Harry Potter wins it so easily. The werewolves in
Twilight are not even werewolves! It states in the book that they are
merely shape shifters, this is proven by the aspects that describe
the werewolves in Harry Potter. In Harry Potter, Werewolves are only
in the form of wolves during full moons, and these are people that
are infected by being bitten by another werewolf. None of these
classic descriptions are fulfilled by the Twilight series.
"Question
3: Which series has the best action? No Contest. Harry Potter by a
mile. Not only does each book have some level of action within it,
but the last book is almost entirely action that is concluded by an
epic battle between good and evil where many people are killed, and
good perseveres. The Twilight series ends in a Cold War like
scenario. The good and evil sides meet in a field and talk out their
issues. All it needed was some tea and cookies and it would have been
like a trip to my grandmother's house.
"Question
4: Which series leaves you wanting more? This one is slightly
tougher, but I think Harry Potter still takes the cake. Like any
story with an evil villain, this story concludes with his defeat, but
no matter how many times the world is saved it seems to get itself
into trouble again. Who knows how many more adventures Harry could
have.
"There
are also other aspects in Harry Potter that has contributed to it
being a better series. J.K. Rowling excelled in many areas that
Stephenie Meyer could learn a lot from her.
"J.K
Rowling is a very smart writer in many ways.
"The
first is her style of writing. Ms. Rowling uses many literary devices
in Harry Potter that makes it an interesting read. Ms. Meyer is a
story-teller at best, which may be the most important aspect in being
a writer, but it certainly can not make a great author by itself.
"Harry
Potter incorporates many aspects of world folklore into the series,
including Fluffy the 3 headed dog, a possible descendant of Cerberus
from Greek Myth, to the Veela who bear a striking resemblance to
Slavic fairies of the same name. Twilight has 2 types of creatures
from folklore and Ms. Meyer has twisted their characteristics until
they are only vampires because they drink blood, and only werewolves
because they are wolves sometimes and people others.
"Harry
Potter touches on many issues that are relevant and close to the
hearts of many people today. They deal with terrorism, prejudice,
bullying, animal rights, and women's rights to name a few. The
Twilight series is not completely void of messages to it's audience.
It's a story of unconditional love... and that's about it. That's 5
to 1 for Harry Potter!
"One
of my favourite things about the Harry Potter series is the
progression the writing style and plot take as Harry grows up. The
first book starts with a 12 year old Harry in a book that is really
meant for 12 year olds. By the last book we have a 17 year old Harry
and a book that is larger and has more intense reading in a book that
is meant for older teens. Twilight begins as a teen novel, but
drastically changes by the last book and has really become an adult
novel. There are issues dealt within Breaking Dawn that has exceeded
it's original intended audience and has become somewhat
inappropriate. If Breaking Dawn was made into a movie exactly how the
book is, I believe it would be pushing an 18A rating.
"The
last point I will make is in regards to the cultural effect the
novels have had on the world. As of June 2008, the Harry Potter
series has sold more than 400 million copies and has been translated
into 67 languages compared to Twilights' 42 million copies worldwide
with translations into 37 different languages as of March 2009.
Granted, Harry Potter has been around for 7 years longer than the
Twilight Series, and Granted it has 3 more books in the series, but I
don't think that can entirely account for the 358 million copy
difference. I believe Twilight to be a passing fad, and in a few
years, when all of the movies have been made, the sales will slip and
eventually be forgotten by the public and will not be the powerhouse
Teen novel it is today. Stephenie Meyer didn't create anything new
and spectacular when she wrote the Twilight series, she fed off of
what has been done often before with the human/vampire love story,
and made it desirable for teens. Harry Potter on the other hand
changed the face of children's literature, there had been NOTHING at
all like Harry Potter before Harry Potter. The New York Times created
a Children's Bestseller list in 2000 after the success of the Harry
Potter series, and as a recent Education student, I noticed the
question was often asked in class 'what do I say to a young reader
that just finished harry potter and asks “what do I read next?”'
Harry Potter has set a standard for Children's literature and I
believe that it will persevere to become a children's classic in the
future.
"Thank
You."
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