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I know this is heresy and I may get severely castigated for it by the True Believers, but I've got to say what I think:
J. K. Rowling is not a Great Writer.
Now, put down the torches and pitchforks, I'm not saying she's bad. She's got some very creative ideas, her style is satisfactory, and she's certainly competent, although she writes like someone who started her literary efforts later in life in a desperate effort to make ends meet. I enjoy her work. She's just lacks the superlative skill with structure, style, narrative and dialog that makes a writer "Great."
With that said, I think the two things I enjoy most about the movie versions of her work are:
- ) The Art Direction has been fabulous. The movies look just how a school for wizardry should look. There's something delicious about seeing the images from the books so well depicted.
- ) They're edited! Although not under two hours, the film version loses a lot of the padding that should have been cut from the book. Can't anyone tell her "No"? As in, when she says, "Hey, I think my next book should be 870 pages!" someone says "Jo, sweetie, NO!" I mean, hasn't she heard the Two-To-One guide for writers (Two copies of your book shouldn't weigh as much as one of your readers)?
If you've read the books or seen the first two movies, you'll probably enjoy this film as much as the others. If you haven't, well, why would you see this one first? If you fell asleep watching "Sorcerer's Stone," there a slight chance you'll find this one more interesting, but I doubt it.
If you liked the movies below, you'll probably like this one (and visa versa):
- The Princess Bride
- Labyrinth
- Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
- Harry Potter and the Naughty Nannies
Overall Rating: 8 (where 1=Worthless, 10=Fabulous)
Eight-Facet Info Rating, rated on a scale of 0 (None) to 4 (Lots!)):
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