The Official Harry Potter Thread (For Movie News) New Trailer

I think the kid who plays Neville is pretty good, actually.

 

Yeah, Matt Lewis is pretty good, but his role isn't as prominent as the trio's + Draco's.

 

The greatest Harry Potter movie moments:

20. The flying car

"As seen in Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets

Rupert Grint does some of his finest gurning in this set piece, which sees Harry and Ron chase after the Hogwarts Express by air in Arthur Weasley?s rickety Ford Anglia when they miss the train. Things get even worse for the duo as they then crash land into the Womping Willow."

Well, yeah, it is a good sequence--especially flying over the train.

 

19. The Knight Bus

"As seen in Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban

Here?s one way to beat the London traffic. After storming out of the Dursleys? in a huff, Harry is whisked off to the Leaky Cauldron in an invisible magic night bus. Another iconic CGI sequence, it?s marred only slightly by the annoying shrunken head voiced by Lenny Henry."

Cuaron takes off from the witty description in the book, and makes it cinematic. Should be much, much higher than 19.

 

Although you could feel the writing was on the wall with the way that Cuaron handled the earlier scene between Pam Ferris and Radcliffe, the Knight Bus sequence was the point where it was clear we were no longer in the realm of Chris Columbus blandness. And that Cuaron hadn't toned down his typically energetic camera, even if he wasn't working with Lubezki for once.

 

I love, love, LOVE the Knight Bus sequence! And I agree, it should be much higher - IMHO in the top 5, or top 10 at least. It's bizarre, it's crazy, it's pure Potter.

 

And what's wrong with the talking head? It's funny.

 

Four_Dot's point is 100% true - in the book, it's described that objects jump out of the bus' way as it drives along, and that the bus itself just BANGS! itself into different locations. Works on the page, but for the screen we instead have a completely different way of operation - the bus is invisible and has to randomly dodge out of the way of all objects itself whilst madly driving through London to get to its destination. The entire sequence is frenetic and exciting (culminating in the 'squeeze' between the 2 red London buses), and perfectly demonstrates why breaking away from being a literal adaptation (which is what seems to plague the Columbus films) was just what the film series needed.

 

18. The Destruction of the Millennium Bridge

As seen in Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince

"This scene was dreamt up by the filmmakers to give the action-lite sixth movie a shot of adrenaline in its opening 10 minutes, and it?s a cracker. An unholy trio of Death Eaters race through the sky to terrorise the streets of London, and end up destroying the Millennium Bridge."

 

That's only partially right. The first chapter contains a secondhand description of a fictious bridge being pulled down by Death Eaters. The decision to show a group of Death Eaters destroying a bridge was the correct one, but they should have used another bridge, as the Millennium Bridge hadn't been built yet the continuity of the Potterverse.

 

I think the Potter films are pretty much set in the 00s, rather than the 90s. I don't think it's all that important.

That being said, I'd like to see Yates' uncut version of this scene. Apparently it was originally a bit more graphic, and you actually see people die, but Warner Bros. thought it was a bit too much and instead... nobody dies. More impressive than the bridge attack itself though is that marvelous uninterrupted flying shot through the streets of London leading to Diagon Alley. Between that and the terrific, silent pre-title sequence (which basically gives you the thematic lynchpin for the entire flick), I immediately knew that Yates' style had progressed into something far more cinematic than the largely humdrum handling of Order of the Phoenix.

Bruno Delbonnel is a big help in both cases, of course.

 

Technically the bridge is not named so it could easily be hand-waved off as just a random bridge - I didn't even know it was the Millennium Bridge until reading it in an article after seeing the film.

 

The entire effect of the scene is ruined when everyone magically gets off the bridge in time. Never have bought the scene.

 

17. Dursley Nightmare

As seen in Harry Potter And The Philosopher?s Stone

"Harry gets his revenge on guardians/tormentors the Dursleys after they keep destroying his invitations to Hogwarts. Firstly a flock of sinister-looking post owls start loitering menacingly outside their house, then thousands of letters swarm through the chimney. Uncle Vernon isn?t happy."

It's magick!

 

The greatest Harry Potter movie moments
16. Terror at the Quidditch World Cup

As seen in Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire

"Sporting powerhouses Ireland and Bulgaria contest the final of the 422nd Quidditch World Cup in this stunning (though too short) opener to Goblet of Fire. Amazing spectacle makes way for some of the darkest horror in Potter so far when the Death Eaters attack fans after the match."

 

Newell's handling of it is kinda goofball in parts, but effective in others. Which pretty much sums up the film.

 

This section is pretty good; but Newell seems to waver thereafter between directing a bad musical and directing a bad action film (with the requisite bad CGI).

 

15. "Young Harry, Hermione and Ron test their action hero chops for the first time in this imaginative finale. Barring their way to the Philosopher?s Stone is this giant version of wizard chess (the pieces come alive). Cue theatrical heroics from Grint: ?I?ll be a knight!?

From the 1st movie.

 

Exciting scene, only let down by Ron inexplicably knocking himself out after falling off the knight (the horse itself was attacked, not him - and the fall wasn't that far). The book had all the chess pieces being physically tackled and knocked out instead, and thus made Ron being put out of action make a lot more sense.

 

It's a good scene. Chris Columbus makes it kinda mundane, though.

 

I didn't even like the death eaters outfits in that quidditch interruption scene. To be honest, the aftermath was more appealing. It was quiet, Harry just woke up, Barty JR fired up the sign.

So he who must not be named had followers destroy the bridge which must not be named. Awesome.

 

14. Dobby the House-Elf

As seen in Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets

"Potter?s second adventure begins in hilarious fashion with the introduction of everyone?s favourite house-elf. He jumps on Harry?s bed, flagellates himself with a lamp (?naughty Dobby!?) and finally drops a purple cake on a friend of the Dursleys. Think a comedy version of Gollum."

 

Hate him in Chamber of Secrets. Seriously, my favourite bit of the film is when Isaacs kicks him and then whacks him with a cane.

In Deathly Hallows: Part 1, he's surprisingly funny, though.

 

Yes, Isaacs speaks for all of us, I think.

Next: The Yule Ball

As seen in Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire

"The point when the series changes from kid?s adventure to teen romance. Hermione dons a dress and turns Ron?s head for the first time, while Harry is jealous when Cho chooses Robert Pattinson?s Cedric over him. As if that wasn?t eventful enough, Warwick Davis?s Professor Flitwick goes crowd-surfing when the Weird Sisters play."

Absolutely *hated* the Yule Ball, a good example of what was wrong with this movie.