As a kid I had a bit of a weird time with Harry Potter. I was engrossed with the movies and it even pushed me to get into reading for a while, however for some reason I just picked up Goblet of Fire and feel like at some other, later stage I read Philosopher's Stone too. When it got to the time of the theatrical version of Goblet of Fire though, I sort of fell away from the series and didn't feel like coming back to it (maybe part of being an awkward and weird teenager).
Fast forward to now and I had a slight interest in Fantastic Beasts (although only really because of one trailer and I like Eddie Redmayne) but may have passed it over as I hadn't been into Potter for a while. I ended up spending the weekend at my girlfriend's house and for some random reason her and her brother said they wanted to watch Harry Potter.
I wanted to start with 5 since I hadn't seen it and they wanted to watch later ones but we decided on 6 as we didn't think we had enough time to catch 5-7/7.5. I did enjoy it but at the same time I felt like the majority of it was more of a set up to the finale rather than being something in its own right, and I was asking questions throughout to get caught up (mainly about 5) so perhaps more of that was on me. One of the things I disliked about these later movies was a lot of the directional choices, especially some of the really awkward camera angles and lenses in places (Harry chasing Death Eaters in the cornfields, for example) and the way a lot of scenes were cut as it felt like I was watching more of an action flick in places, but I can't remember if the older movies were the same and don't know if this is still pretty true to the books so I don't know if I ought to judge.
Eventually we decided to go back to 5 which confused me even more but I did probably enjoy this one a little more as it felt a bit more cohesive. I was surprised Ron/Hermione and Harry/Ginny was set out so early, I thought when Deathly Hallows came out people said these romances were only set up from then so I'm glad it was from earlier in a way. I did think Ron seemed to distance himself from Harry a bit from 5 onwards and found it odd how at various times they'd embrace when they hadn't seen each other for a while and others they'd barely even look at each other (was that in the books?), although maybe that was partly to do with Hermione and him feeling insignificant compared to Harry or even feeling like Harry should be with her.
Anywho, we made on towards 7 Part One. My girlfriend and her brother both were telling me it was quite boring as it's mostly just Harry and co. searching for horcruxes and I did think it stalled a bit in places, but at the same time I also enjoyed the slower scenes which allowed you to see how far all 3 had come together (or just Harry and Hermione if talking about when Ron left and they were in the tent together). I did find the horcrux thing confusing especially when they seemed to say they were further along with destroying them and then seemed to take a step back and say they had more to get afterwards. I thought it ended OK though as a set up towards the ending.
As for DH Part 2, I have mixed feelings. I thought in general 5-7 did deaths really poorly and seemed to rush past those scenes at times, and Part 2 was no different especially at the very end. A few parts of it felt rushed in general and the addition of things like the iron soldiers defending Hogwarts or the orc-like creatures with the Death Eaters / Voldemort, while a small addition, made me feel like some of these were just added in late to give an image of larger scale (I think I read that Rowling seemed a little unsure at times just how many wizards there were about). I won't go into the epilogue (although I have been rereading that thread about it which was made a few months ago - here: http://m.neogaf.com/showthread.php?t=1246197 ).
I guess perhaps my main issue with these movies is that I am looking at them without the attachment I used to have and nostalgia tells me 1-4 were different. I think I need to watch the series again and for once without bouncing back and forth through it instead of on a linear path like I should. I'm not hating on 5-7 at all by the way, I guess mostly my negative thoughts are what are coming clearest to me now, but honestly it was nice for me to see how it ended. Now I think I'll get a better view of this series by watching the whole lot and also I might give the books a go too since my girlfriend has all of those that I don't. It does feel weird finishing up with something I felt quite attached to as a child / young teen which I just ignored for what must be 7-10 years and I think the fact that I can think more about what I disliked than what I liked might be because I'm sad that I didn't follow along with and finish the series with everyone else like I should have.
Fast forward to now and I had a slight interest in Fantastic Beasts (although only really because of one trailer and I like Eddie Redmayne) but may have passed it over as I hadn't been into Potter for a while. I ended up spending the weekend at my girlfriend's house and for some random reason her and her brother said they wanted to watch Harry Potter.
I wanted to start with 5 since I hadn't seen it and they wanted to watch later ones but we decided on 6 as we didn't think we had enough time to catch 5-7/7.5. I did enjoy it but at the same time I felt like the majority of it was more of a set up to the finale rather than being something in its own right, and I was asking questions throughout to get caught up (mainly about 5) so perhaps more of that was on me. One of the things I disliked about these later movies was a lot of the directional choices, especially some of the really awkward camera angles and lenses in places (Harry chasing Death Eaters in the cornfields, for example) and the way a lot of scenes were cut as it felt like I was watching more of an action flick in places, but I can't remember if the older movies were the same and don't know if this is still pretty true to the books so I don't know if I ought to judge.
Eventually we decided to go back to 5 which confused me even more but I did probably enjoy this one a little more as it felt a bit more cohesive. I was surprised Ron/Hermione and Harry/Ginny was set out so early, I thought when Deathly Hallows came out people said these romances were only set up from then so I'm glad it was from earlier in a way. I did think Ron seemed to distance himself from Harry a bit from 5 onwards and found it odd how at various times they'd embrace when they hadn't seen each other for a while and others they'd barely even look at each other (was that in the books?), although maybe that was partly to do with Hermione and him feeling insignificant compared to Harry or even feeling like Harry should be with her.
Anywho, we made on towards 7 Part One. My girlfriend and her brother both were telling me it was quite boring as it's mostly just Harry and co. searching for horcruxes and I did think it stalled a bit in places, but at the same time I also enjoyed the slower scenes which allowed you to see how far all 3 had come together (or just Harry and Hermione if talking about when Ron left and they were in the tent together). I did find the horcrux thing confusing especially when they seemed to say they were further along with destroying them and then seemed to take a step back and say they had more to get afterwards. I thought it ended OK though as a set up towards the ending.
As for DH Part 2, I have mixed feelings. I thought in general 5-7 did deaths really poorly and seemed to rush past those scenes at times, and Part 2 was no different especially at the very end. A few parts of it felt rushed in general and the addition of things like the iron soldiers defending Hogwarts or the orc-like creatures with the Death Eaters / Voldemort, while a small addition, made me feel like some of these were just added in late to give an image of larger scale (I think I read that Rowling seemed a little unsure at times just how many wizards there were about). I won't go into the epilogue (although I have been rereading that thread about it which was made a few months ago - here: http://m.neogaf.com/showthread.php?t=1246197 ).
I guess perhaps my main issue with these movies is that I am looking at them without the attachment I used to have and nostalgia tells me 1-4 were different. I think I need to watch the series again and for once without bouncing back and forth through it instead of on a linear path like I should. I'm not hating on 5-7 at all by the way, I guess mostly my negative thoughts are what are coming clearest to me now, but honestly it was nice for me to see how it ended. Now I think I'll get a better view of this series by watching the whole lot and also I might give the books a go too since my girlfriend has all of those that I don't. It does feel weird finishing up with something I felt quite attached to as a child / young teen which I just ignored for what must be 7-10 years and I think the fact that I can think more about what I disliked than what I liked might be because I'm sad that I didn't follow along with and finish the series with everyone else like I should have.